Gryphon Audio Designs Mojo speakers

Abandoning its distinctly aquatic line of product nomenclature for the folk-magic allure of ‘Mojo’, stereo aficionado and highly regarded European audio provider Gryphon Audio Designs has produced a smaller line sporting an innovative concave-front baffle structure. Designed that way to “achieve true time alignment” and reduce reflections, according to Gryphon, the new Mojo speakers are set to work their magic on customers who are serious about their music but are looking for something a little more colourful than the sombre hues of the company’s massive Atlantis, Poseidon or Trident reference floorstanders.

A self-described audiophile who got into the high-end audio business “by accident”, Danish graphic arts graduate and now Gryphon CEO, Flemming E. Rasmussen always puts audio performance before his professional love of design.

Rasmussen found success by putting his money where his mouth is, such as in producing integrated amplifiers that were nevertheless ‘high-end’; a descriptor that Rasmussen believes is a matter of performance, not merely price, as retailers would have it. And, with the compact Gryphon Mojo, he’s doing it again, dismissing other companies that claim to offer time alignment using cheaper and inferior components in their designs.

Rasmussen’s mantra, that ‘design must follow function’ is embodied in the new speakers. The clean lines and quite industrial design of the Mojo system belie its incredible performance, not to mention the high price tag. But, as an expert who wants his company to be regarded as the ‘Lamborghini of the audio industry’, Rasmussen is undeterred by cheaper competitors.

Finished (ironically) using a urethane paint developed for use in Mercedes Benz cars (with even smarter, custom auto paint jobs available to order), Gryphon has built to achieve the lofty goal of ‘perfect phase at all frequencies at all times’ rather than a more mundane, and usual, price point. Accordingly, the Mojo houses components chosen for their performance rather than their cost – the crossover, for instance, uses Duelund Coherent Audio graphite resistors, Jensen capacitors, Jensen air-core paper/oil inductors and German-made low-memory, precision capacitors.

It’s adjusted by hand and hard-wired using silver solder, exemplifying Gryphon’s commitment to using only the very best components and making for unparalleled audio clarity. All this in a pretty small form factor, just 20 cm wide, 42 cm deep and 52 cm high.

Impressively, Gryphon also puts the two-way three-driver Mojo customer in the driver’s seat, almost literally, with the inclusion of an ultra-wideband Air Motion Transformer driver in the speaker, with resistors that can be switched to suit the specific acoustic peculiarities of the new home its owner has found for it. These range from producing a mild roll-off (-0.5 dB) to a neutral response (0 dB) or even a mild boost (+0.5 dB). Thanks to a pleated diaphragm, the large Air Motion Transformer produces a flat frequency response claimed to go beyond 38kHz but does so with only the smallest of motions, minimising the chance of distortion.

For a company whose products are almost always black acrylic, the new Gryphon Mojo represents quite a daring step away in the design department without ever compromising the company’s utter dedication to providing their customers with high-end audio perfection. Just don’t ask them for surround sound.

Specifications

  • Frequency response: 37 Hz – 40,000 Hz (room dependent)
  • Crossover frequency: 2000 Hz, 4th order
  • Sensitivity: 89 dB/2.8V
  • Nominal impedance: 4 Ohm
  • Power handling: 200 Watts

Price

The Gryphon Audio Designs Mojo speakers sell for $27,000 per pair.