New from Gryphon Audio: The Pantheon

by The Audio Beat | April 11, 2014

ryphon Audio's new Pantheon loudspeaker (€35,000/pair) is currently the company's most compact floorstanding model, but it incorporates many of the design fine points of Gryphon's much larger speakers. These include the use of an Air Motion Transformer driver for the highest frequencies and custom-designed cone midrange and bass drivers, along with a Constant Phase crossover "for perfect phase at all frequencies at all times," A 28V battery "pre-biases" the fourth-order crossover for constant charge to the electrolytic capacitors, ensuring, in Gryphon's words, "a smoother, more richly detailed three-dimensional presentation." The crossover uses passive parts from Duelund, Jensen, Holm and Mundorf.

The Pantheon's cabinet features a baffle consisting of independent panels for each driver. According to Gryphon, the panels break up the pathways through which vibration would otherwise be transmitted in a single, shared baffle. The five panels also allow precise time alignment of the individual drivers based on Gryphon's standard slight curvature. Internally, the Pantheon has extensive bracing and uses wool and synthetic damping materials. There are separate tuned reflex chambers for the twin bass drivers and an isolated, sealed chamber for the pair of midrange drivers. Because the cabinet's external shell is modular, side panels can be easily replaced.

Gryphon describes the Pantheon's finish options as "virtually unlimited."