Craig B
Re:trophile
From the blogosphere...
One thought on “Griffin G200”
Latin Ear says:
November 2, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Ah, what memories! My Saturday job at a local Hi-Fi shop and Griffin dealer! If memory serves, our most frequent recommendation was the Griffin 27 Aperiodic and the Griffin 25; we never did get a pair of 85’s on SOR despite our close friendship with Paul. Almost irrespective of source components and amplifiers, the Griffins had an incisive open and detailed soundstage, with bass only present when it was ‘really’ there. Not every customers cup of tea, but most people appreciated the natural sound quality. Comparing the 27 ‘Ape’ with the Spendor BC1 made the Spendor sound sluggish and terminally dull with only the imaging rescuing an otherwise poor show. For some reason, Griffins never did very well in magazine tests, and this may well have been largely ‘political’ as Paul didn’t schmooze well the the Hi-Fi press, the Haymarket crowd especially; and their endorsement or the lack thereof, could make or break a brand. He had an (near) contempt for the ‘golden ears’ brigade, as they had no engineering experience to speak of, and often wrote reams of twaddle about products without much merit. At the time, I read press reviews of Griffin kit that bore no relation to the sounds I’d hear when doing demos, so I think the knives were out from an early stage. In the end, Griffin needed the services of a decent industrial designer, (eg: someone like Boothroyd of Meridian,) and a marketing team, but it stayed largely as a one man band and the result is a matter of history. Sadly missed, as I believe they could have flourished, and who knows what Paul would have brought to market as he was an incredibly creative and smart guy.
One thought on “Griffin G200”
Latin Ear says:
November 2, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Ah, what memories! My Saturday job at a local Hi-Fi shop and Griffin dealer! If memory serves, our most frequent recommendation was the Griffin 27 Aperiodic and the Griffin 25; we never did get a pair of 85’s on SOR despite our close friendship with Paul. Almost irrespective of source components and amplifiers, the Griffins had an incisive open and detailed soundstage, with bass only present when it was ‘really’ there. Not every customers cup of tea, but most people appreciated the natural sound quality. Comparing the 27 ‘Ape’ with the Spendor BC1 made the Spendor sound sluggish and terminally dull with only the imaging rescuing an otherwise poor show. For some reason, Griffins never did very well in magazine tests, and this may well have been largely ‘political’ as Paul didn’t schmooze well the the Hi-Fi press, the Haymarket crowd especially; and their endorsement or the lack thereof, could make or break a brand. He had an (near) contempt for the ‘golden ears’ brigade, as they had no engineering experience to speak of, and often wrote reams of twaddle about products without much merit. At the time, I read press reviews of Griffin kit that bore no relation to the sounds I’d hear when doing demos, so I think the knives were out from an early stage. In the end, Griffin needed the services of a decent industrial designer, (eg: someone like Boothroyd of Meridian,) and a marketing team, but it stayed largely as a one man band and the result is a matter of history. Sadly missed, as I believe they could have flourished, and who knows what Paul would have brought to market as he was an incredibly creative and smart guy.
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