Bruno Castelluzzo did a review of the MU1 and praised it highly in the French printed magazine Haute Fidélité. He even offered it the Haute Fidélité Référence award! We are happy to offer you the original French text as pdf, and a few translated sentences below.
“It is hard not to become impressed by the immense palette of expressiveness of the Grimm, that excels in every register, while retaining its monitoring DNA through a transparency that in no way stifles emotion; on the contrary, it is free of any digital “roughness”. The MU1 first and foremost delivers exceptional bass quality, which opens up a truly wide and deep soundstage that is perfectly stable and grounded. This bass is not there to impress, but to reproduce the entire bandwidth with precision. On Patricia Barber’s live performance of Night Club, the singer’s presence is superbly realistic, and the atmosphere of the recording seems admirably credible. The Grimm MU1 proves itself a true master of digital files.
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The upper-midrange can also be magical, like Sinne Eeg’s voice on “Caravan”, splendidly accompanied by Thomas Fonnesbæk’s double bass. Here, naturalness, neutrality, accuracy and a sense of nuance come together, resulting in a beautifully served high resolution. This player is capable of highlighting the harmonic richness and dynamics of acoustic instruments, such as Alison Balsom’s trumpet, splendid in its brilliance and openness on “Baroque Concertos (transcriptions)”, conducted by Trevor Pinnock.
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The MU1’s high musical qualities are by no means accidental, but result from a carefully considered and masterful approach by the Grimm team regarding the conversion process from digital to analog. It’s no wonder that the MU1 comes so truthfully close to the fluidity of real life instruments and vocals, something extremely difficult to achieve digitally. The investment is not insignificant, but the Grimm MU1 is certainly one of the best digital sources currently available, completely open to the future, and to music.”
“It is hard not to become impressed by the immense palette of expressiveness of the Grimm.” – Bruno Castelluzzo, Haute Fidélité
