Grimm Audio MU1 and MU2 Music Players

[aangen]

I am pretty excited. I have an MU1 not exactly speeding my way. It is going to be a couple of weeks or more. But gosh, this toy could shine in my little setup. 
I am going to trust that it’s a fine choice and order the top of the line Stealth Audio AES/EBU cable to see how that works. It could be fun.

[aangen]

I have not received mine yet. Thanks for reminding me! I am going to call and find out what the eta is.

 

I am currently using a Pink Faun 3.16 to serve Roon via USB to my Gryphon Kalliope DAC. I was thinking of hooking the Pink Faun to an input on the MU1 and see how that sounds before setting up Roon on the MU1. Has anyone tried that? I have heard CD transports in particular are well served by the MU1 magical process.

[aangen]

Yes sir. I finally have a chance to sit and listen for a bit. I have a Stealth Audio V18 Dream SE power cable into the unit, and a Stealth Audio Octava-T AES/EBU cable running into my Gryphon Kalliope DAC. That feeds into a Gryphon Pandora Preamp that feeds a Gryphon Antileon Evo Amp driving Vivid G1 Spirits. 
 

Prior to the arrival of the MU1 I was using a Pink Faun 3.16 (no X) to serve Roon to my DAC via one of PF’s high quality USB outputs. 
 

Last night I was in a poor mood as I could not make a Roon backup that lives on an external hard drive work with the MU1. Grimm sets externally mounted drives to read only mode and that may have been an issue. So I had to do a restore via Dropbox. That took nine plus hours. By the time I sat down to listen I was not really in a mood for it and didn’t really notice anything special. Tonight however I am noticing a very analog sound from almost everything. I’m a hard core vinyl guy and this MU1 seems like it could make staying in my chair a lot easier. Goosebumps at the moment.

 

I talked my audio guru, George Vatchnadze of Kyomi Audio in Chicago into looking into the MU1. I allowed him to test it out in his world to see what he thinks before sending it to me. So it came with Roon setup with his credentials. Changing them to mine seems to have caused a bit of an issue and so far it’s slow going getting support from Grimm. Perhaps I’m an instant gratification sort. No wait, I waited months for this. 
 

At any rate at the moment playing familiar music I am startled by what I am hearing. It’s quite stunning. Quite stunning. Analog, it sounds like vinyl. It is not similar to the Pink Faun, it is much better. I’ll think of the best standard “it sounds like” comments later. Right now I just want to listen. I have Roon playing songs at random and it’s fun to hear the different recordings and how they fill the room. These Vivid Spirits get right out of the way and let the room fill with whatever the artist had in mind. Wowza!

[aangen]

3 hours ago, haltermr said:

I'm really enjoying my MU1, especially with classical. I also enjoy the functionality of the gold dial on top. It now controls my audio and video, and works very will in this regard. Curious what your guru at Kyomi thought, given he is an Aurender and Lumin dealer...

For me, I wanted to keep the Roon interface, but I wanted better sound. My audio guru swears by Aurender for sound, but the interface wasn't adequate for me....

He was familiar with Grimm and held their clocks in high regard. When I meantioned the MU1 to him he was under the impression that it had a built in DAC due to the FPGA inside. I pointed him at a few reviews and he contacted Grimm and ordered a unit for me. I let him spend time with it so he could hear it for himself. He loves what he heard and is ordering a few more.

 

I have been listening all day and I love what I am experiencing! The line “there is more there there” describes it. These Vivid Spirit speakers are painting on a very wide and tall canvas. Every song is a treat.

[aangen]

By the way, I am in Savage just south of Minneapolis. A visit perhaps…..

[aangen]

Well this is odd. I plugged my Jay’s Audio CDT2-MKIII transport into my MU1 and 4x over sampling occurs and sounds wonderful. I also plugged a PS Audio PST transport in, same interface, same cable. No oversampling. Odd.

 

Guess which sounds better.

[aangen]

Oops, all better now. The PST is being processed properly by the MU1. Whew.

[aangen]

On 10/10/2021 at 1:43 PM, haltermr said:

Hi;

Noted on another forum you are doing a "shootout". I will be interested in what you think of the Transport vs using the Roon interface. Are you planning on comparing Qobuz vs downloaded music on the MU1 hard drive?

Thx

Oh indeed I am. Had an issue with the internal 8TB Samsung SSD. Cable issue, a connector wasn’t seated properly and the drive is fine. Loading music to it now. It’s a slow process as Grimm makes externally connected drives read only and not mountable externally. The only way to get music to the internal drive is over Ethernet. Slow business.

 

The two transports I was testing, one owned, one borrowed sound really, really good through the MU1. They both sound amazing straight into the DAC. Processed by the FPGA they are noticeably better. But still no match for music sourced from the SSD. It’s like all the gear gets right out of the way and the sound is broad, tall, and really engaging. 
 

The MU1 is a keeper. The Pink Faun 2.16 is not likely to get much use for a while. My Euphony setup is packed away.  MmmmmmU1!

 

[aangen]

I have quite a few hours in with the latest update and I detect no degradation. Now let’s see what happens when the Roon update is released.

 

I have noticed that even though I have successfully programmed a remote to work with my MU1 the remote function fails after a short period of time and I have to reprogram it. I may try another remote but using one that is always handy seemed a better idea. Has anyone else experienced this?

[aangen]

I just did the Roon update, no issues, quick update.

[aangen]

I rip all my CDs with dBPoweramp on my computer and transfer copies of the files to the MU1. No issues, works fine. I have over 25,000 tracks I have done this in this way. Are you asking if I could directly rip to the MU1? I don’t see any reason that my computer couldn’t write them directly there either.

[aangen]

I using a Stealth Audio Octiva-T AES/EBU cable and a Dream 18 V18 UNI power cable for my MU1. These two cables together cost more than the MU1. But they don’t seem to hurt things. I have tried lesser cables and find I prefer these. I think it s common for gear manufacturers to say you don’t need nor will you benefit from expensive cables. Lots of people agree with this. Many of us believe otherwise. Find a friend who has better cables and see if they will let you try one to see. Or try the Cable Company lending library.

 

Or better still decide cables don’t make a difference and save your money.

 

I have found that cables can and do make a difference. I also believe the world is round for what it’s worth.

[aangen]

I bought my MU1 with the 8TB internal SSD. It is close to full. Lots of FLAC, AIFF, and DSD files. It sounds wonderful and in my opinion it betters the sound quality of streaming. I also have an external 2TB Samsung T7 SSD mounted via USB. It is easily disconnected and carried to my computer to add or revise music on it. It too sounds wonderful. Grimm decided to protect us from ourselves and make external drives read only. I have written to them and begged they change this. I want to be able to manage my external drives the same way I manage the internal SSD. They have replied they are considering this for a future update. I hope they do so.

 

The person who wrote that their dealer refuses to order an MU1 with and internal SSD needs to find a new dealer. My dealer does not have this silly condition. I would be happy to refer you to him.

 

I look forward to the day when a 16TB internal SSD becomes an option. I don’t need it now but I know I am almost out of space on my 8TB drive.

[aangen]

I guess many of you who own an MU1 simply enjoy it daily without a need to consider another similar device. Or wonder if you are missing out on some other piece that might exceed it. No, I just use the thing without wanting whatever else is out there. And it’s so easy. There isn’t much more to say about it hence this lonely thread. It just keeps on pleasing me day after day.

[aangen]

Apparently you missed the John Atkinson review in Stereophile last year.

[aangen]

Loving the web interface and the screen off!

DSD 256! I have a lot of DSD 256 recordings.

Noice!

 

to use the web interface just type the MU1 IP address into the address bar of you browser.

[aangen]

When I tested a DSD 256 recording with 1.4 I disabled upsampling and was sad to see my DAC was receiving a 176.4 stream. Upsampling didn’t change this of course. I had to go into Roon and change the settings for the MU1 from 128 to 256 being the upper limit. I couldn’t tell much of a difference with upsampling disabled, at 2x or 4x. But now that it is an arm chair issue to make the change I’ll spend more time with it and see if I can detect difference.

Now I want them to finally allow us to manage external drives from over the network, I.e. add and remove music without disconnecting the drive from the MU1 and carrying it to a computer.

 

And bring on the new music interface please!
 

Overall quite a stunning and welcome upgrade.

 

Sorry, no D&D 8C thoughts from me.  ;)

[aangen]

I have a fully configured Pink Faun server that is currently in a closet. 
I may try this as well. How does one set an MU1 to be an endpoint? And what connection is preferred between the server and the MU1?

[aangen]

On 5/17/2022 at 3:17 AM, pvanosta said:

In the meantime, I looked at the Pink Faun webpage. Their 2.16 series appear to be streamers, not servers (in other words: they appear to have the same function as the MU1). Am I reading that wrong or do you have a different device?

They perform similarly. Pink Faun 2.16 devices can be Roon server and endpoint simultaneously, but PF says the preferred method is to use two, one for each task. In my system I was using one for both. Just like my MU1 which replaced it.

[aangen]

I know those things. My Pink Faun hasn’t been powered up since I bought the Grimm. So it is basically a time machine. I can add a lot of the missing music to it but I may not bother unless the results of the trial are very compelling. I like my current Grimm setup a great deal so my hope is I don’t hear a large difference. 
 

The Pink Faun has a 4TB SSD in it, the MU1 a nearly full 8TB SSD in it plus an external 1 TB SSD plugged into it. The library is so easy to work with on the Pink Faun due to the fact that the Pink Faun isn’t forced to protect me from myself by forcing all external drives to be Read Only.

 

So if I just log off Roon on the MU1 I might even enjoy the travel into the six or eight month in the past Roon setup. I’m guessing Roon and the Pink Faun will go through many updates before I hear what changes have been made since it’s last use. It is a largely automated process so no big deal. 
 

Pink Faun support is the very best I have ever encountered. It’s twice or maybe four times as good as second place. And if it doesn’t work, and I firmly believe it will, no big deal. I only have 8300 albums so the MU1 is always loafing. I am curious to hear how it sounds professionally loafing.

[aangen]

I am using the Pink Faun as a Roon server now and the MU1 as an endpoint. It sounds quite good. Quite good!

[aangen]

9 hours ago, soupcon said:

Better?

At the moment I believe the answer is yes. I don’t know what the NUC inside the MU1 would have to do when it is used as an endpoint only. Perhaps the extremely powerful and extremely well built power supplies in the Pink Faun make the ones and zeros sound better than the NUC can. 
 

I have the PF on one side of my clock enabled EtherREGEN and the MU1 on the other side. I kind of wish the EtherREGEN had Router capabilities.

[aangen]

So I had Jord from Pink Faun lay hands on my gear via remote access. He had me plug the Ethernet cable from the Grimm MU1 directly into the Pink Faun. A 15” long piece of expensive Ethernet cable. Then he told me to build a NAS. That seemed like a good idea so I did. So the Pink Faun is serving up Roon directly to the MU1. Reading 24.192 files off the NAS. It sounds swell. Soon I’ll use the MU1 on its own, first with the internal SSD, then with the NAS. If my current setup beats that I may buy a Pink Faun Ultra and maybe pass the MU1 down the line. But I am pretty confident the MU1 can do all this without help. Fun.

[aangen]

1 hour ago, pvanosta said:

Has anyone installed the new firmware 1.4.4 successfully? On mine (1.4.0), It does not seem to find the file (I am connected to the internet, via ethernet and the connection is active)

I installed on two machines. The first one got stuck on see you real soon. I waited 15 minutes and rebooted. Then I tried again and went to dinner. Hours later it was up and running. So for my second install I started it and went away. Hours later when I returned it was fine. No useful information can be gleaned from this but maybe hit the buttons and go away.

[aangen]

It is very easy to open and view the odd looking components. Turn it upside down, use the correct fitting driver. The screws surround the outside and are obvious. 
Or so I have read….