Earlier in this thread, I was taking a defensive posture in favor of Accuphase, with regard to some negative comments about the E-800. I caught myself midstream, and began to muse why I was doing this, and what real experience did I have with other brands? Based on my system setup and sound preferences, I purchased a Gryphon Essence amp to put between my Mola Mola Tambaqui and older Focal Utopia L&R speakers. I'm very pleased. I'm experiencing a denser midrange, better imaging depth, tighter bass, and smoother highs. The palpability and timbre of the midrange are especially remarkable with the Essence. I had an Accuphase E550, so we are comparing an older $10K integrated with a new $20K amp, so likely not a fair comparison. I could probably lug in an E800 to compare, but that represents a lot of time and lugging of heavy pieces.
In the end though, I wonder if there is some valid comparision of voicing here, with the Accuphase having a more distant, gossamer sound, and the Gryphon having a more palpable, saturated midrange. If so, I can understand others' critique of Accuphase. Having the E-650 in the mix would have been better. On the Boulder 866 thread, some folks have noted a close competition with the E-650, which speaks favorably for Accuphase.