Grimm Audio MU1 and MU2 Music Players

[fas42]

From the Stereophile "Sounds Like? An Audio Glossary", J. Gordon Holt, July, 1993

 

Quote

bright, brilliant The most often misused terms in audio, these describe the degree to which reproduced sound has a hard, crisp edge to it. Brightness relates to the energy content in the 4kHz-8kHz band. It is not related to output in the extreme-high-frequency range. All live sound has brightness; it is a problem only when it is excessive.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, fas42 said:

From the Stereophile "Sounds Like? An Audio Glossary", J. Gordon Holt, July, 1993

 

 

Not relevant to this thread at all. You’re taking us on one of your wild goose chases that better left to your own existing thread. 

[aangen]

At Axpona I went first to the BACCH-SP demo room. Jenzen powered speakers. The next room I visited was right next door, Dutch and Dutch 8C powered speakers. And then straight to Grimm for guess what, powered speakers. My faves were the Grimms but you could by a pair of each from the first two rooms and have money left over for an MU1. Funny how things work. I think I could live with any of those three systems….

 

If someone called my system bright I would be sad. J/K

[skatbelt]

On 4/11/2020 at 3:34 PM, matthias said:

 

.......or a comparison with the upcoming Taiko "Mini extreme" which costs about 50 to 60% of the Extreme.

 

Matt

You've been saying this for two or three years but to my knowledge there are no signs of a mini extreme. The wish is the father of the thought.... :)

[Ronnie112]

Roon was updated and since then pretty unstable. Roon Radio is not queuing new music or throwing in random songs while playing my own. Also the stereo image is not stable and sometimes pulls to the left side. Also unpredictably, to the point checking and replugging all my cabling to see if anything was 'off'. Everything checked out 100%, must be Roon/MU1 being the source of all this. Anyone else having issues or is it just with me?

[Mike123]

43 minutes ago, Ronnie112 said:

Roon was updated and since then pretty unstable. Roon Radio is not queuing new music or throwing in random songs while playing my own. Also the stereo image is not stable and sometimes pulls to the left side. Also unpredictably, to the point checking and replugging all my cabling to see if anything was 'off'. Everything checked out 100%, must be Roon/MU1 being the source of all this. Anyone else having issues or is it just with me?

Is it just RR that has imaging issues?

[Ronnie112]

4 minutes ago, Mike123 said:

Is it just RR that has imaging issues?

No, that's a general issue both on streamed content as the library on internal SSD.

[PYP]

1 hour ago, Ronnie112 said:

Roon was updated and since then pretty unstable. Roon Radio is not queuing new music or throwing in random songs while playing my own. Also the stereo image is not stable and sometimes pulls to the left side. Also unpredictably, to the point checking and replugging all my cabling to see if anything was 'off'. Everything checked out 100%, must be Roon/MU1 being the source of all this. Anyone else having issues or is it just with me?

Roon Radio was working normally for me last night.   Did you reboot the MU1 to see if that made a difference (after sufficient warm up after power cycle)?  

[Ronnie112]

Yes, rebooted twice now. Roon Radio still behaving weird (from nothing in queue and silence to random songs for 10 seconds and then the next.

 

Thought the imaging was okay again, but especially voices shifted to the left gradually shortly after. Must say that's a problem I've noticed before, but after fully checking the rest of the chain now, have me suspecting something is not right within the MU1 unit.

[PYP]

2 minutes ago, Ronnie112 said:

Yes, rebooted twice now. Roon Radio still behaving weird (from nothing in queue and silence to random songs for 10 seconds and then the next.

 

Thought the imaging was okay again, but especially voices shifted to the left gradually shortly after. Must say that's a problem I've noticed before, but after fully checking the rest of the chain now, have me suspecting something is not right within the MU1 unit.

how strange.  Hope you get it sorted out soon.  Maybe the folks at Grimm haver heard of this phenomenon...

[Ronnie112]

1 minute ago, PYP said:

how strange.  Hope you get it sorted out soon.  Maybe the folks at Grimm haver heard of this phenomenon...

It is not adding to my enjoyment, to say the least. Indeed hope to get it sorted, thx.

[aangen]

I had weird issues with mine that no solution could be found to resolve it. Turns out, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it at all. It was a new piece of gear it was plugged into. Had I tried playing it not plugged into anything but power and Ethernet I would have discovered it. Doh.

[Ronnie112]

23 minutes ago, aangen said:

I had weird issues with mine that no solution could be found to resolve it. Turns out, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it at all. It was a new piece of gear it was plugged into. Had I tried playing it not plugged into anything but power and Ethernet I would have discovered it. Doh.

Roon Radio trickery seems to be 'self healed' by now. However, problem with the imaging shifting off centre still remains. Walking down the path of elimination to determine where the problem lies.

 

Learned from a call with Grimm that it's likely not with the MU1 as channel seperation is not really an issue in handling the data packages in the digital domain. So now looking at my other (analog) components.

 

Just so you know, it's (probably) not the MU1 causing my issue. Actually only testifying the wonderful and easily accessible service from Grimm as a company.

 

I will be down the slippery road of getting to the root cause a bit longer I'm afraid.

[Mike123]

10 hours ago, Ronnie112 said:

can someone kindly walk me through connecting an external CD player to the MU1? More specifically suggest the output settings? Currently running AES directly to DAVE. Many thanks! 

 

[Low325]

MU2 has been announced. Closely trying to monitor all convos on the new box. 

[TheAttorney]

Quote from hifi pig: "The MU2 is scheduled for shipping in October, at a price below €18000".

 

This against the current MU1 price of  €12700.

[PYP]

5 hours ago, TheAttorney said:

Quote from hifi pig: "The MU2 is scheduled for shipping in October, at a price below €18000".

 

This against the current MU1 price of  €12700.

The MU2's description had me very interested and that price seems very good for the level of performance that is implied in the description.   Then I listened to one of my favorite vocalists and thought:  even if it is "better," would I enjoy it more than this?  The MU1 + excellent DAC is truly a wonderful combination.

 

[FredM]

7 hours ago, PYP said:

The MU2's description had me very interested and that price seems very good for the level of performance that is implied in the description.

The price point seems reasonable indeed, I actually expected it to be above 20K.
 

If the performance of the MU1 (with the high user- and press ratings) is some kind of a predictor and considering the Major DAC is specifically designed and tuned with the FPGA board, it sure can be interesting. About €5.000 to include a discrete DAC seems fair. Heck, in this league most users will (have) spend around €2.000+ on power cables, interconnects, platforms, fuses, etc for a separate DAC, costs that also can be saved.

 

This said, the proof of the pudding, is … 

 

Looking forward at the first live impressions at Munich 👍 (and I’m curious on which amps and speaker the MU2 will play)

[matthias]

On 5/8/2023 at 1:12 AM, skatbelt said:

You've been saying this for two or three years but to my knowledge there are no signs of a mini extreme. The wish is the father of the thought.... :)

Correctly I have said this two and a half years ago not for two or three years.

At that time there was a plan to release it, but they retought the concept and didn't launch it for several reasons.

No wishful thinking at all.

 

Matt

[TheAttorney]

17 hours ago, FredM said:

About €5.000 to include a discrete DAC seems fair. Heck, in this league most users will (have) spend around €2.000+ on power cables, interconnects, platforms, fuses, etc for a separate DAC, costs that also can be saved.

Well, as soon as I can, I'll be comparing MU2 to MU1+DAVE.

A new DAVE is currently priced at around €12,500 (everything's gone up). And yes, plus €2.000+ on cable and power cord.

 

So if, say, they are equal in performance, then the DAC/pre-amp part of the MU2 would be great value.

Although that value only applies if buying from scratch. As I already own MU1+DAVE, I'll have to swallow the cost of second hand (or part exchange) values. It's going to be complicated...

EDIT: In practice, it will only make sense to change if MU2 significantly beats MU1+DAVE.

 

Also for this headphones-only user, MU2's headphone output will be particularly important, I imagine that headphones will be a much bigger challenge, than a pre-amp or active speaker, to MU2's analogue outputs.

[Mike123]

On 5/7/2023 at 4:12 PM, skatbelt said:

Very reasonable! Although with new DAC, doesn't appear likely that there would be an upgrade path. MU1 secondary market could probably fetch 7-8K (w/ 8tb)

 

[Mike123]

39 minutes ago, TheAttorney said:

 

EDIT: In practice, it will only make sense to change if MU2 significantly beats MU1+DAVE.

 

 

I have the same setup.  "Significantly" is subjective to $$$.

[Ronnie112]

17 minutes ago, Mike123 said:

 

Or less... Meaning the upgrade from MU1 to MU2 will set you back at least 10k. Minus trade in of your current DAC/powercord/digital cable of course. Still serious money only justified if it betters my current DAC (and pre not to forget) by a significant margin. Count me curious nevertheless.

[TheAttorney]

18 hours ago, Mike123 said:

I have the same setup.  "Significantly" is subjective to $$$.

"Significant" to me (in this case) means a Wow moment in the first few seconds of listening.

"Insignificant" (in this case) means I have to repeatedly go back and forth to work out if there is a significant difference.

 

There are a thousand levels in between where an audiophile's heart can overrule their head for no good reason 🙂

[Ronnie112]

Not present myself unfortunately, but the first reports from München state the MU2 sounds incredibly fast and transparent with very accurate transient behavior but still natural and easy on the ear.