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Griffin speakers.

M

Martyn Miles

pfm Member
I am interested in a pair of small pair of Griffin speakers I saw advertised.
Difficult to gauge their size, but I think about 14 inches high by about a foot wide.
The grilles come to the edge of the cabinet and are angled.
They look in good condition.
Any PFM members own Griffins, or know of them ?
 
I seem to remember a Griffin 25 from the mid 70s when I was looking for my first pair of speakers. They must have had some decent reviews or they wouldn’t have impinged on my consciousness. They would have been a little bigger than the ones you are looking at, though. Made in the Midlands, IIRC. Something stirring in the back of my brain is saying ‘triangular badge.’ None of this really helps you, does it? I couldn’t find one dealer that sold all the speakers I wanted to hear, so the idea of the Griffins was forgotten. I ended up with Celef Monitors.
 
76 to 79 I worked at a dealer in Birmingham and sold Griffin speakers, among many others.
made in West Bromwich, owner / designer was Bob Griffin, namesake of Bob Griffin of Griffin Audio, but not connected IIRC. Great speakers, used Kef and other drive units. If you have an opportunity to buy some I don't think you would be disappointed. They did a range called Aperiodic which at the time I thought were excellent, with great imaging.

Bob
 
Taken from the HIFI Yearbook 1976 Griffin Type 15c
Reflex enclosure, units KefB110, STC 4001. Crossover 5.4kz. HC 20 W. 8ohm imp. FR 55-18khz +/- 4db, Cylindrical shape 11.5" diameter (height not given) £66.91p incl vat
Type 15
Cabinet version of type 15c
14.5" x 8" x 8", FR 48-18khz +/-4db

Hope this sheds a little light
 
Marchbanks said:
I seem to remember a Griffin 25 from the mid 70s when I was looking for my first pair of speakers. They must have had some decent reviews or they wouldn’t have impinged on my consciousness. They would have been a little bigger than the ones you are looking at, though. Made in the Midlands, IIRC. Something stirring in the back of my brain is saying ‘triangular badge.’ None of this really helps you, does it? I couldn’t find one dealer that sold all the speakers I wanted to hear, so the idea of the Griffins was forgotten. I ended up with Celef Monitors.
Click to expand...


Thanks.
I was just guessing on the size.
These do have triangular badges.
Interesting that you bought Celef Monitors.
I also bought a pair in the ‘70s.
 
I remember the Griffin Studio Aperiodic 85 Electronic looking most impressive but never got to hear them... an active speaker with built in amps and crossovers etc.
I heard a few of their smaller speakers from time to time and although they had reasonable reviews I was never impressed... I clearly recall hearing a £300 ish Griffin speaker against Mission 770's at Gilson Audio In Borough Rd 'boro and the Missions completely blowing them away!!
 
Griffin.JPG
 
The big 85 electronic actually registered for Isobaric patent around same time as Linn.
I had a pair of Griffin for a few years. 8" quality base unit , Audax I think, and a cone tweeter. Very simple crossover. Quite good.
 
Was that the Phoenix model then?

The Isobaric aspect of the 'Studio Electronic' 85 is interesting; Griffin called theirs 'tandem-line bass system' and referred to the internal driver as 'infra bass unit', an 8" round driver that faced downward into the largish chamber behind the B139. I recall being intrigued by the high, medium and low, user adjustable damping facility applied to this driver via a front panel knob.

se85_0004.jpg
 
I mentioned the little Griffins I saw to a friend who worked in Audio retail for years.
He said some of the models had rather an ‘odd’ sound, be he didn’t elaborate.
Checking on some of the models, they do seem to have a mix of drive units from
different manufacturers.
 
Craig B said:
Was that the Phoenix model then?

The Isobaric aspect of the 'Studio Electronic' 85 is interesting; Griffin called theirs 'tandem-line bass system' and referred to the internal driver as 'infra bass unit', an 8" round driver that faced downward into the largish chamber behind the B139. I recall being intrigued by the high, medium and low, user adjustable damping facility applied to this driver via a front panel knob.

se85_0004.jpg
Click to expand...

Come to think of it now I did hear the Studio 85 Electronic after all.... many years after they stopped making them and in the NEAT shop in Darlington. I was not impressed...
IIRC they were suspiciously cheap for what you were getting for the money. £650 ish.

I was working on some very interesting active studio monitors the other day which had variable damping, but not user adjustable. These were Mackie HR624's. A 2 way speaker but with a B139 sized ABR on the rear panel underneath the amp and crossover pack. The bass amp has current derived feedback from the earthy end of the bass driver across a 0r22 resistor and is to some extent a current output amp rather than the usual voltage amp.
This will no doubt be used to obtain an unusual and probably higher order bass alignment and there are factory presets inside for damping....
In spite of being a small (but quite heavy) speaker of about 13" X 10" X 8" they are speced as -3dB @ something like 40Hz!
 
I popped over to their factory to buy a turntable mat from them - they did a closed cell foam mat that worked really well on the Thorens TD160. I ended up spending the whole afternoon there, listening to their speakers and discussing their ideas - the speaker stands were tuned to the weight of the speakers so acted like isolation suspension so no vibration was transmitted into the floor. Really nice, interesting people, and when they discovered I was a student they 'invented' a student discount of 50% for my mat (not for the speakers - that I couldn't afford anyway). That was the only time I heard their speakers - the big ones had awesome bass, well up with active Isobariks that I'd heard at Naim only a few weeks earlier.
 
Just to keep the ball rollin`
I think I might have bought (it`s not arrived yet) the mentioned speakers -
The same seller had a faulty G200 available which is on it`s way too ...
Would be great to find more information and will help with detailed pictures as soon as ...
 
Hi Glue,
Do you mean a pair of 25?

I bought some small Griffins several years back_ foolishly sold them to a friend at cost. Once properly amplified they made a pretty good noise. Don't know which model it was but it was not the 3-way 25 with the KEF T52.
 
If you have a closer look at the Griffin ad in post #7 above, you'll notice that there were two Griffin 25 models; Omega 2 (2-way), and Omega 3 (3-way).

The G200 certainly looks decent enough on paper...
g200_0002.jpg
 
A G200 (not working) went for £40 on Bumtree last week. Saw it but was out of the country and couldn't do much about it..:(

Craig, it may well have been the Omega 2, based on looking at more pictures online.
 
^^^^Big claims in that advert. But somehow I would give Griffin the benefit of the doubt. Their speaker range alone suggests some clever thinking and technical skill (in my relatively uneducated opinion).
 
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