Pearljam5000
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GRIMM Audio LS1c & SB1 DSP Speaker Review
- Thread starter amirm
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kemmler3D
Master Contributor
Great review and one I have wondered about for some time. Turns out this putzeys guy knows what he's doing. 
Edit: Reading between the lines I think it's a good sign that they sent Amir this speaker. In the $40k range I typically think of a few publications and dealers mostly controlling the narrative. In other words I imagine the high dollar shoppers being less informed, or perhaps misinformed, compared to ASR readers trying to get the most they can for a few $100 or $1000.
The fact that Grimm sought out an ASR review could mean they were just curious. It could mean they want some SEO juice from ASR. Or it could mean dealers are asking for measurements because customers are. To the extent it's the latter, that's great news.
We have seen what happens when speaker brands buy Klippel scanners and get serious, if speakers in the $30k+ range start to take that approach they might actually be worth the money...
Edit: Reading between the lines I think it's a good sign that they sent Amir this speaker. In the $40k range I typically think of a few publications and dealers mostly controlling the narrative. In other words I imagine the high dollar shoppers being less informed, or perhaps misinformed, compared to ASR readers trying to get the most they can for a few $100 or $1000.
The fact that Grimm sought out an ASR review could mean they were just curious. It could mean they want some SEO juice from ASR. Or it could mean dealers are asking for measurements because customers are. To the extent it's the latter, that's great news.
We have seen what happens when speaker brands buy Klippel scanners and get serious, if speakers in the $30k+ range start to take that approach they might actually be worth the money...
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Just add this sub and you'd be fine
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I will make a modest prediction : this will be @MattHooper next piece of gear
And thank you Amir for an excellent review (and yes, Oh that waterfall plot!!)
And thank you Amir for an excellent review (and yes, Oh that waterfall plot!!)
a4eaudio
Senior Member
I bet anyone buying this speaker has a car that costs a lot more than $40k.
Sokel
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I have a funny story about this but that's for another thread.
Fact is that I see people around who have spent a lot more than $40k (over time, not necessarily for one piece of gear, but it's exactly the same thing) with not so much more expensive car or (the relative price of X10) houses to put them in.
I know poorer people with Mercedes and richer people with Jeeps. The most expensive audio systems I see are not stereos. They are theater installations.
Pearljam5000
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The LS1 price feels like a bargain now
OP
- Thread Starter
- #131
I like the way they thought they would make it look cheaper by pricing it $87,999 instead of 88,000. I guess they think their potential customers can't figure that out!
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I am always puzzled with the Early Reflections graphs. The ceiling bounce dips at 1.5 kHz. As I read it, this means that less energy is reflected at 1.5 kHz relative to other frequencies. Why then would ceiling absorbers help solving this? Or is the dip caused by interference (as I read in some articles) between the direct sound and the reflected sound? In that case reducing the ceiling reflections would help. But then, destructive interference at a wavelength of approx 23 cm?
I think it's clear that I don't understand this topic. Please explain. Thanks
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The burning question for me is whether Grimm also sent Amir an MU2 DAC to test!
Some bold claims by Grimm about their proprietary FPGA design. From the manufacturer’s website:
At the heart of the MU2, Grimm Audio’s proprietary Major DAC can be found. It is of a groundbreaking discrete design that makes optimal use of our own FPGA board. In a unique way our high resolution Pure Nyquist upsampling filters are combined with a fundamentally flawless 11th order noise shaper of 1.5 bit.
Darko recently proclaimed it the best DAC he’s ever heard….
Some bold claims by Grimm about their proprietary FPGA design. From the manufacturer’s website:
At the heart of the MU2, Grimm Audio’s proprietary Major DAC can be found. It is of a groundbreaking discrete design that makes optimal use of our own FPGA board. In a unique way our high resolution Pure Nyquist upsampling filters are combined with a fundamentally flawless 11th order noise shaper of 1.5 bit.
Darko recently proclaimed it the best DAC he’s ever heard….
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Darko seems to be one of the very rare people that can hear differences between DAC's that measure completely transparant. He must be from "Darko Dumbo ears Planet" or something..
P.S. I do find his videos entertaining
I tried their Mu1 when it was released do you want to have a guess at the amount of difference it made?
Keith
JeremyFife
Major Contributor
Thanks for a fascinating review of an interesting looking (measuring) speaker. These seem impressive.
They're not cheap... but the concept of value goes a bit fluid when hifi components cost more than many cars, and is creeping into house price territory!
Good to see a review like this.
They're not cheap... but the concept of value goes a bit fluid when hifi components cost more than many cars, and is creeping into house price territory!
Good to see a review like this.
According to the Audioxpress article,https://audioxpress.com/article/grimm-audio-building-the-dream GRIMM has a particular philosophy of digital audio processing .
"Grimm’s team found that getting the amplitude errors low enough required much more processing power than was available in typical converters, which led to the use of a powerful FPGA calculation engine in the MU1. It offloads the first (and most demanding) upsampling stage from the DAC chip to the FPGA. It was decided to output the signal in AES or S/PDIF form to the DAC so the MU1 clock quality could be transferred to the DAC (remember that clock and amplitude errors have similar impact). That is the reason why the MU1 does not offer USB audio — the clock in the DAC would be another unknown. By offering the signal in AES or S/PDIF format with its embedded clock, Grimm makes certain that the DAC is benefiting both from the MU1 processing and its high-quality clock"
"Grimm’s team found that getting the amplitude errors low enough required much more processing power than was available in typical converters, which led to the use of a powerful FPGA calculation engine in the MU1. It offloads the first (and most demanding) upsampling stage from the DAC chip to the FPGA. It was decided to output the signal in AES or S/PDIF form to the DAC so the MU1 clock quality could be transferred to the DAC (remember that clock and amplitude errors have similar impact). That is the reason why the MU1 does not offer USB audio — the clock in the DAC would be another unknown. By offering the signal in AES or S/PDIF format with its embedded clock, Grimm makes certain that the DAC is benefiting both from the MU1 processing and its high-quality clock"
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I don't get why there is so much excitement about 40k $ loudspeakers that have nothing under 100 Hz or the bass extension of some small 2 way bookshelf speakers.
These speakers cost less and have better frequency response :
thttps://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/dutch_dutch_8c/
Except for Kef, for 10k or less we can have better.
These speakers cost less and have better frequency response :
thttps://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/dutch_dutch_8c/
Buchardt Anniversay 10 Powered Speaker Review
Buchardt Anniversay 10 Speaker
www.erinsaudiocorner.com
Except for Kef, for 10k or less we can have better.
... which is what he always does.
Specs aren't that impressive, 107dB SNR. It's an Intel NUC (with overclocked RAM or incorrectly copied specs?) which means high power consumption and a lot of hardware to go wrong.
But they've got the Naim-style huge volume knob on the top, that is a nice feature.
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