"Anyone Up For A Fight?"
The Danes were conquerors.
And that trait has flowed all the way down to Gryphon products. Pit them against anything out there and frankly, they usually win.
About the EOS 2
In a way the EOS 2 represents the latest stage of Gryphon's development as a brand pushing its own boundaries. The recent releases of the Essence amplifiers, and Commander and Apex Amplifiers have shown massive leaps forward in amplifier performance. And the EOS 2 shows that Gryphon is also making equal efforts in the pursuit of speakers that have a sublime synergy with their electronics – making Gryphon a world leader in one-brand solutions.
The EOS 2 is described by Gryphon as a compact two-way floor-stander with one of it's main design features being linear phase (read more in Tech Insight below). Drivers are a beryllium dome tweeter and an unusual carbon fibre mid/bass driver with what Gryphon call an impulse optimiser ring – a device that also contributes to that linear phase response.
The EOS 2 is a 40 litre reflex loaded enclosure with the facility to use either a front or rear port for much greater flexibility in room positioning and better room integration. Gryphon describe the bass loading in this speaker as Tunnel Dampened which is a method of applying a moderate amount of 'transmission line' structure and damping to absorb mid band energy before it arrives at the port for the reflex loading to take place. This significantly reduces unwanted midband energy exiting the port.
Tech Insight
Gryphon's claim to the EOS 2's linear phase response warrents more explanation. This is achieved by the casework with its sloping baffle, the position and mounting of the two drivers, the phase response of those drivers (particularly the mid/bass with it's impulse optimiser ring), and the crossover response. These are all designed to ensure that as you rise up through the audio band in frequency there is no sudden unwanted advancement or retardation of the sound's phase angle. This improves the listeneing experience in three ways: first, imaging position in the sound stage remains more stable, second, intermodulation distortion is reduced (particularly through the crossover band) and third, strong percussive 'impulse' shaped signals such as drum impacts stay much truer to the recording, avoiding a phase lag on the lower frequency components of the sound.
Specifications
Type: 2-way, Linear phase, floor stander
Drivers: 1 x 7½” (190mm) Thin-Ply Carbon Fiber Diaphragm (TPCD™) with impulse optimizer ring. Manufactured to our specifications by one of the world’s leading fabricators of Formula 1 carbon fiber components.
1×1.34” (34 mm) Beryllium dome tweeter. Step-damped, resonance-free rear enclosure.
Principle: Line-dampened, Front or Rear firing port for optimum room integration.
Frequency response: 26 – 40.000 Hz (-3dB).
Sensitivity: 89dB 1m 2.83V @1KHz.
Impedance: 6Ω nom. / 3.8Ω min. @128Hz
Crossover: 2.2 KHz / 1st – 4th Order, progressive rising slope technology
Feet: Adjustable spikes with integrated dampers (Removable)
Enclosure volume: 1.4 cubic feet / 40 liters
Dimensions (H x W x D): 102cm x 40.2cm (at base) x 48cm (at base)
Weight: 67.4 lbs. / 30,6 Kg Each.
Matching & Setup
Fundamentally, the EOS 2 offers much better setup flexibility than a lot of the competition. It's modest size is the first benefit that allows good positioning for imagry and focus, but that is multiplied by the ability to use either the front or rear firing port. Placement for room constraints can be near to the rear wall say in a smaller room, and the front port used, or the rear port can be used (for more rear re-enforcement) in a larger room where the speaker is better placed further away from the rear wall. With such good position optimisation, the linear phase properies of the design then really come to the fore with tremendous realism and stability of imaging.
Sensitivity of the EOS 2 is average but impedance is a little low at 6Ω, with a dip down to 3.8Ω. This is no problem with any of the Gryphon amplification and either the Diablo 120 or Diablo 333 are a superb partner for these speakers. Other solid state amplification of 100W plus should also be a good match, as too would similarly large valve amplifiers.