Grimm news from Europe

Grimm Audio from the Netherlands will soon be available in Australia for the first time through Sydneybased distributor Advance Audio. One of the neat systems on offer will be the combination of Grimm’s MU1 digital music source in combination with the stylish LS1v2 active speakers

(pictured right). The company’s MU1 flagship digital music source aims to set a new benchmark in music player design, says Grimm. It runs the Roon Core server, requiring no additional installs, as well as being a Roon endpoint, enabling easy playback from Qobuz or Tidal. It bases the quality of its digital output on a Linuxbased computer system with an ultra-lowjitter clock and in-house-designed FPGA interface board, promising “breakthrough performance levels in format conversion”.

In a conventional system the MU-1 would require an external DAC, but not if you pair it with the LS1 active speakers. These can accept a digital AES/EBU connection from the MU-1, in addition to having an analogue signal input on XLR, then using their internal DAC, DSP and 180W Hypex NCore Class-D power amplifiers to drive their 25mm dome tweeters and 203mm magnesium bass/ midrange woofers. Their enclosures are relatively small 14-litre sealed boxes suspended between two half cylinders that combat diffractions and function as an integral two-legged floor stand. The DSP helps ensure a linear frequency response down to 35Hz and also controls an analogue subwoofer output that can be easily integrated with stereo subwoofers, notably Grimm’s own SB1 or LS1s models.

For more information on the first arrivals from Grimm, contact Advance Audio via www.advanceaudio.com.au