“ Class A
True Class A operation has always been a Gryphon benchmark, simply because nothing in our experience can match the sonic glories of pure Class A.
Unfortunately, true Class A is even rarer today than when we originally introduced the DM100. Rising consumer awareness has forced some manufacturers to stop making outrageous, unsubstantiated claims of Class A power ratings that only exist in the fevered imagination of some marketing "expert".
Still, there is a growing number of so-called “new” Class A topologies based on automatic biasing which somehow allows the amplifier to sense when the bias should increase to ensure constant Class A performance!
If such a thing were to work as claimed, it would be tantamount to a re-writing of the laws of physics. In order for an amplifier to be able to increase bias and stabilize thermally to instantaneously meet the dynamics of the input, it would have to be able to predict what is going to happen next on the recording. Auto-biasing can by nature only respond to something that has already happened and the bias will rush up and down in a desperate attempt to follow the last note.
Put bluntly, there is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to pure Class A, so we state with no apologies: True, pure CLASS A means heavy transformers, very large heatsinks, lots of heat, lots of electricity, expensive parts and costly assembly.”
Truer words were never spoken about Class A. Cutting through the BS. Gryphon gets it.
Ken