Grimm Audio MU1 and MU2 Music Players

[nevillekapadia]

On 4/11/2020 at 10:55 PM, McNulty said:

I agree if you read between the lines it appears that they didn’t include a direct comparison with the Extreme on purpose. Based on the price difference between the Grimm and the Extreme, a comparison of the MU1 with the Innuos Statement seems fairer.

 

Reviewing is a commercial business, and so difficult to place direct comparison when one has revenue tied to it especially in these times. But I can say that for long listening sessions the Grimm will be more favourable.  

[nevillekapadia]

10 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

It seems to me the MU1 is directed at audiophiles who have medium range/older non-USB DACs that might "strain" to upsample.

The price point of €9800 though would seem to to contradict this.

I think anyone who could afford that level of server would have the means to explore top-notch DACs

 

 

The Grimm can output USB if so desired, and you can defeat the up or down sampling on it to provide the native signal.

I have a DAC with a USB input that upsamples everything to double DSD, but having trialled the Grimm 176.4 or 192 sampling via AES/EBU it will outshine the USB output due to it's FPGA card. 

 

Grimm were so entrenched in DSD earlier through their converters, that when they found out that 176.4 works better and required more stringent calculations to make it sound great, they pursued PCM.

 

 

[nevillekapadia]

15 minutes ago, ronfint said:

Is this done by request to the factory, or can the user accomplish it at home?

Accomplish at home. Just using one of the USB inputs, as it acts as an output too. Turn off the oversampling in the menu would let it deliver the song at its original recorded format.

 

[nevillekapadia]

7 hours ago, Nenon said:

 

I am assuming you meant more favourable than the Taiko Extreme for long listening sessions? Can you please share your experience that led you to that conclusion? Have you had both in your system? Or maybe you've heard an A/B comparison somewhere? What DAC was used and what did the rest of the system look like? Thank you. 

 

This was the feedback drawn by others when both units were in the same system, as I had to rely on reviews to make a choice which unit to pursue. 

Unfortunately I am left in a position not to be able to disclose this source, and it may seem vague or shrill to others in making such comments. But I leave that for users to audition and make up their minds.     

[nevillekapadia]

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

 

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

 

Matt

 

Pricing between the two would not be a fair comparison for sound quality. The Grimm holds its grounds.

[nevillekapadia]

I have had the Grimm for close to half a year and am floored by its performance, and am extremely satisfied with what it does. It sounds good straight out of the box, but over the months of listening it has just kept on improving.  

 

The noise floor is amazing low and hence the sound staging, transparency and detail that it pulls out 'consistently' from streaming Tidal and Qobuz is ever so pleasing as you hear all the notes. Even with changes occurring in Roon software, the presentation does not waver. It certainly surpasses my Playback Designs CD transport. 

 

The flow of it is close to an analog non-fatiguing style with all the micro and macro dynamics present. I would place it on par with some of the top servers that are out there. 

 

Most of all, it does NOT have the need for switches, re-clockers, platforms, etc. to deal with to improve the sound or change its presentation. The AES/EBU output with a Grimm digital cable is all one needs to go to the DAC. 

 

There is just no fatigue in listening to it on end for hours. It certainly for me is the last stop for the first step as a digital feed into a DAC. 

 

This is a must listen audition for anyone out there looking for the top performance player. 

[nevillekapadia]

On 7/31/2020 at 2:47 AM, beautiful music said:

 

Out of curiosity what is your previous Server and current CD transport?

The Grimm was my first server. 

Playback Designs MPS-5.

[nevillekapadia]

On 8/2/2020 at 8:46 PM, TheAttorney said:

 

Did this cable come bundled with the server?

 

As far as I can tell, there's no USB or optical outputs, which seems rather restrictive.

@The Attorney - no the cable did not come bundled, but it is a Euro 60/- cable that Grimm had developed. The model is TPR, and is disconitnued to be sold, replaced by a better series cable for analog purposes. Sorry to make it sound confusing. When it came to Digital, Grimm recommended the cheaper TPR cable. For Analog their new series is supposed to be great (less than Euro 300/meter). I am sure they have some of the TPR cable still there with them. 

 

In terms of restrictive that there is no USB or Optical output. You don't need it! As long as your Dac has AES/EBU and can play up to 24/192 files -you are done.

I was a fervent DSD fan and so were Grimm. When I met them in Munich, they had just stopped making their DSD A/D converter. 

I even have the Playback Designs Pinot - quad DSD converter for my vinyl drops. 

As you know the Grimm converts everything to 176 or 192, or down samples higher resolution to that. The thought of that drove me crazy too. Why would I want to down convert higher resolution to 176 or 192. Till I HEARD what it did!.

The Grimm FPGA card is where that magic happens. it removes all the flaws of USB or ethernet. It saves you a ton of money having Switches and clocks between a USB or ethernet feed to a dac. And removing all those flaws, I can comfortably say it does not even in the slightest bit degrade the sound down converting. It picks up the great qualities of having a lower noise floor, analog flow, detail transparency that I have heard in the Grimm. 

 

You can use the USB in/out if you want, and are super keen to satisfy yourself that down sampling is disastrous. I tried it, and there was no thinking required as the sound quality of the signal going through the FPGA card was better. If you do use the USB then all you have is a very expensive Nuc with a nice power supply and your better off getting a Roon Nucleus and battling the demons in USB and ethernet with switches and clocks. 

 

Hope the above explanation helps.

 

 

[nevillekapadia]

On 8/18/2020 at 7:24 AM, FredM said:

Nice Grimm Audio company overview by Alpha Audio. In this extended interview (1h50!) various topics are covered, like company history, background of Eelco Grimm and Guido Tent (both lecturers), what’s drives them, design philosophy, network company, new products, ..

 

On the MU1 the power supply, clock circuitry, jitter treatment, importance of up scaling via the FPGA board and the in-house software development are mentioned. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=6YPznUzSRB0&feature=emb_logo

 

The interview is in English (after ~30 seconds), for quick access you can use the timestamps in the description on Youtube.

 

 

A really great video and so much of a learning curve as they cover so many topics. 

 

[nevillekapadia]

On 12/9/2020 at 11:09 PM, FredM said:

I can’t remember that I’ve seen an estimated release date.

@johnlior@nevillekapadia, perhaps that you know something?

 

I wouldn't know either, but they did significant updates for their software recently. One of them was that you can choose to play it with an output of 88.2, 96, 176 or 192Khz.