iFi audio xDSD Gryphon Portable Headphone Amp & DAC iFi audio

A hi-fi system in your pocket
Premium HD DAC + powerful balanced headamp.

Fantastic beasts. Here’s where you find them
Portable DAC/amps tend to be compromised because they focus on a great digital OR a great analogue section. But not both. The xDSD Gryphon is different. Just like its mythical namesake, it is two beasts in one. From the Ultra-Res digital stage using the Burr-Brown MultiBit at the core to the PureWave analogue power section pumping out 1,000mW and other things in-between, it takes serious headphones to tame the Gryphon.

Brilliant Bluetooth, Hi-Res Wireless
Using the latest QCC 5100 series Bluetooth 5.1 chip as the starting point, for wireless connectivity, the xDSD Gryphon is at the bleeding-edge when it comes to the latest formats. Not only this but the above is on the iFi digital platform where each section is distinct. So QC5100 for reception > Global Master Clock for jitter > Burr-Brown for DAC conversion. More effort but that’s why our wireless gives wired a run for its money.

USB & S/PDIF. Wired to the nines.
In terms of wired connectivity, the xDSD Gryphon handles all the formats using a hybrid Burr-Brown DAC chipset which is the same as used in our £3,000 flagship, the Pro iDSD Signature.

Balance of Power
The xDSD Gryphon uses our PureWave amplification circuitry. It has 1,000mW at 32 Ohms. With a whopping max 6.7v output, bring on the high impedance headphones because the Gryphon will not break a sweat driving them. This is plenty to drive all manner of headphones. The 4.4mm Pentaconn is the best for balanced playback. The 3.5mm S-Balanced will max SE headphones. And your premium high-sensitivity IEMs have not been forgotten either, iEMatch will cut out the hiss.

Tailored to your ears
XSpace adds back the cavernous sound stage of recordings. XBass II reinstates the missing bass from open-backed headphones or for recordings that you hanker for bass slam. 

LDAC
We use Qualcomm’s new QCC5100 Bluetooth processing IC in combination with proprietary circuits to create an audibly superior ‘Bluetooth engine’. All the current high-definition Bluetooth audio formats are supported – Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive and aptX HD, Sony’s LDAC and HWA’s LHDC, regular aptX and aptX Low Latency, AAC (Apple iOS devices) and SBC (the ‘plain vanilla’ Bluetooth codec). Of the 24-bit-capable codecs, aptX Adaptive and aptX HD support up to 48kHz, while LDAC and LHDC reach 96kHz. iFi’s ‘Bluetooth engine’ can also be updated over-the-air, so future codecs may be added.

Burr-Brown MultiBit
The Burr-Brown True Native® chipset means file formats remain unchanged or ‘bit-perfect’. This means you are listening to music as the artist intended in the format in which it was recorded. 

MQA (Master Quality Authenticated)
The xDSD Gryphon adopts MQA technology to receive and decode MQA audio and provide master-level sound.

S-Balanced Performance
The iFi exclusive S-Balanced technology delivers maximum performance from both single-ended and balanced headphones. The S-Balanced (single-ended compatible balanced) 3.5mm headphone output delivers the benefits of the balanced connection to single-ended headphones.

OptimaLoop
‘Negative feedback’ is used in amplifier circuits to compare the output signal with the input signal and correct errors, in order to control gain and reduce distortion. For sound quality, this is positive; BUT commonly applied, one-size-fits-all ‘global negative feedback’ can also highlight different problems at the same time as solving others, corruption of the error signal, phase shifts, group delay and so on can all have a negative impact on sound quality. We recognised that different parts of a circuit benefit from specifically optimised feedback loops and have developed a negative feedback system that is much more accurate than the usual approach. This incorporates multiple feedback paths instead of a global loop, each path optimised for a particular function and working synergistically with the others to deliver optimal overall performance.

PureWave
Balanced, differential analogue circuit design has long been championed for its ability to reduce noise and cross-talk within the signal path by fully separating the left and right channels. PureWave is a new, balanced, symmetrical dual-mono topology with short, direct signal paths. The name refers to the sonic purity it achieves thanks to exceptional linearity and infinitesimally low levels of noise and distortion.

Cyberdrive
This unit features the iFi Cyberdrive® headphone amplifier stage. 

SilentLine
The OLED in the Gryphon sports a SilentLine design. This ensures that there is no electrical noise to interfere with the audio signal. The way its switches between settings has been engineered to ensure sonic transparency, FET-based switching is handled by a microcontroller, which only ‘wakes up’ when the user changes a setting, thus eradicating any sonically deleterious interference.