High End 2018 • Hot Product

Danish iconoclasts Gryphon Audio showed a new one-box preamp, the Zena (€12,800). Using the company’s familiar (and excellent) touch-sensitive front-panel switching, the new unit also features the "galleria" styling, with its central rotunda, found on Gryphon power amps, making for seamless aesthetic continuity.

With full balanced and single-ended input options, as well as the option to install internal DAC (S/PDIF, AES/EBU and USB inputs; PCM and DSD processing) and MC/MM phono boards, this is a compact, versatile and -- being a Gryphon, one anticipates -- a powerful performer, at what is, in today’s high-end, an extremely attractive price.