Hick-ups
Contents
At the front of the Grimm MU1 there is a colour display. That display will show – if all works correctly – title information, sampling rate and some information about volume and input. Now we had a fight with the display, because if we set the MU1 as Roon endpoint, the title information does not come through. A phone call learns that this has to do with an extension in Roon that is not yet working properly when multiple Roon servers are active in the network. The display will work if we set up the MU1 as a Roon server. Work is in progress on the extension.
We set up the MU1 as a Roon server. Most MU1 owners will do the same, so no problem. It is possible to connect external drives to the MU1 via USB. Or use an (optional) internal drive. But we simply set our Synology-NAS (DS1618+, 12GB RAM, 10Gbit) as the source, add Tidal and … yes: after indexing our library, we play with the MU1 as a Roon server.
If we enter the menu by pressing the button on top for a longer period of time, we can then scroll through the menu items by turning it. That’s a little slow. Too slow in our opinion. That too – we learn after a phone call – is going to be fixed soon by Grimm. The slow response takes away the premium feel for us. So it’s a good thing they’re working on it.
In the menu we can now do a few things: see the software status, turn the upsampler on and off, put the player in standby and get a short explanation of the menu. More things will be added later. Think about settings for the upsampler.
My hope is that there will be more than just a slight sonic improvement. Noting that the Weiss 501 will up sample to 195Mhz and use its own low jitter clock, on data it receives from the Grimm via AES/EBU connection.
The MU1 is not a slight improvement. It is – not kidding – the best streamer I have ever heard.
Fingers crossed! Thank you for your thoughts and feedback
Welcome!
Hi Jaap, great review.
I know you have reviewed both the MU1 and Weiss DAC 501. I’m wondering if you had ever paired the MU1 with the Weiss and could offer your impressions? I have a Weiss DAC501 Mk 2 version and am very interested in the Grimm product.
Sorry… I havent tried that combination. But I can imagine its absolutely gorgeous.
Jaap, I am currently in the process of sourcing a few AES/EBU cables to use for connecting my Weiss 501 to the Grimm MU1 (I now have one on order which will be delivered in about 2 weeks :).
I’m wondering of you have any feedback on the following few cables which I so far plan to trial – Transparent Reference G6, Nordost Valhalla 2, Cardas Clear? Or, do you have any other suggestions you recommend are worth a listen to?. FYI, the interconnects I have from my Weiss to my Genelec G5 speakers are Cardas Clear Beyond balanced XLR cables, which were sublime to my ears.
I havent tested any of those. Sorry. I mostly use Grimm TPR for AES/EBU. It is fine for my testing purposes. But I guess it is not good enough in your setup.
I am curious what you think of the MU1 please let us know!
That’s ok Jaap:) Ultimately it will be my ears that decide in the end. But I thought it was definitely worth asking you just in case you have ever found a certain cable that was extraordinary from your point of view, and hence worth adding to the list to explore.
I will be happy to share with you how it all goes!