Gryphon Audio Designs, based out of Denmark, has just introduced a new flagship loudspeaker, claimed to be their greatest achievement.  The new Gryphon Pendragon is a semi-active, four-tower loudspeaker and the pinnacle of Gryphon’s product suite. 

The Pendragon was developed with Gryphon’s own Pandora preamplifier and Mephisto (stereo) or Mephisto Solo (monoblock) power amplifiers in mind.  The new three-way Pendragon system employs a bass tower (eight 8” bass drivers per channel driven by a custom-designed 1000 Watt Gryphon Class A/B power amp) and an open baffle mounted with a two meter long dipolar planar magnetic thin-film ribbon (covering the 200 Hz – 18 kHz with no crossover in its operating range) alongside a vertical array of four dipolar Air Motion Transformer super-tweeters, specified to beyond 32 kHz.

The Pendragon ribbon generates a continuous, perfectly coupled, cylindrical wavefront across its entire frequency range for a coherent, wide and deep soundfield. The system’s innate extremely wide and even horizontal dispersion with virtually nil vertical dispersion creates a large, stable sweet spot with none of the floor and ceiling reflections that muddy the sound of conventional multi-way systems.

Because of their large surface area and pleated diaphragm, the Air Motion Transformers move a large air volume with minimal motion for lightning fast transients with flat frequency response well beyond the audible range with negligible distortion and a total absence of compression.  The AMT array incorporates a +/-1 dB attenuator for ideal integration with the acoustics of the listening space.

The Pendragon’s low-frequency system is a further refinement of the innovative Poseidon bass tower with eight custom designed 8” drive units and a built-in, specially designed Gryphon Class A/B power amplifier weighing in at 80 kg per channel and capable of 1,000 Watts continuous output. For extended headroom, peak power is approximately 4,000 Watts.

Active bass allows the user to select a separate amplifier for the high frequency panels without having to worry about the power demands of the massive Pendragon bass system.

Key Features:
· Three-way four-piece loudspeaker system
· System response, up to 16 – 32,000 Hz, + 3 dB
· Separate active bass crossover network for each channel isolated in bass tower
· Four dipolar AMT super-tweeters per channel in vertical array
· Wideband, dipolar thin-film planar magnetic, line source ribbon driver
· Linear, push-pull ceramic magnet system
· Reinforced, low-diffraction open baffle
· Custom Gryphon Class A/B bass tower amplifiers, 1000W(continuous)/4000W(peak)
· Eight 8” bass drivers per channel, with triple-magnet bass driver motor system
· Sealed bass enclosures with extensive internal bracing
· Suspended, dampened passive x-over for midrange and tweeter towers
· Combination of pure wool and synthetic interior damping materials
· Remote control for Q setting, Bass Level and Low Cut
· Integrated Linkwitz-Greiner Q Controller with preset & custom Q settings
· Gryphon internal wiring
· L link remote start up circuitry and non-invasive protection system
· A virtually unlimited selection of custom finishes

The new Gryphon Pendragon loudspeake is currently available at a MSRP of 150,000 Euro, with North American pricing and availability, yet to be announced.  Look for more details on the Pendragon at: www.gryphon-audio.com.

 

About the Author: George de Sa

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