In the international forum Audiophilestyle, ‘DuckToller’ just published a wonderful 3-part story about his experience when visiting our room at the Vienna High End show last June where we introduced the PA1 monoblock amplifiers with our MU2 streamer DAC and a ‘study model’ passive loudspeaker. Eelco Grimm played ‘No Woman No Cry’ of Bob Marley (live recorded on July 17th, 1975) and this was a recording DuckToller “knows by heart, and that heart really loves it.” He then explains what the album means to him and what he experienced in our room. Please enjoy a little taste of it:
“In the room, I did not analyse the take. I was instantly beamed into the concert hall, guided by my memories: the cover, the song, the Lyceum atmosphere, the physical memory of the record, the teenage years, the DJ years.
(…)
A system can play “No Woman, No Cry” loudly and still miss everything. The Grimm system didn’t!
To my ears, the whole 1975 Lyceum recording has always felt like a packed, sweaty, overheated room captured on tape. It stands like a physical wall of heat and sound. The joy of the audience is instantly recognisable. On most imperfect playback chains, it does not give away a great deal of space. The atmosphere is there, though it often suffocates the spatiality.
What the Grimm Audio system did with this specific recording in that room was almost surreal for me.
It gave that dense, hot Lyceum recording the maximum amount of space I could possibly imagine. The Grimm system did not make the record sound new. It made it sound more complete.
(…)
For me, Grimm Audio was Best of Show at Vienna 2026. (…) Out of reach, yes. Straight to the heart, absolutely. I did not leave Vienna with a Grimm system. I left with a tender memory of one.”
Please read the full 3-part story of DuckToller at Audiophilestyle (part 1, part 2 and part 3). He has a great pen and is able to find words for the very emotion that makes us love audio and music so much.
