[JemHadar]

Eelco, Welcome to Audio Aficionado and thank you for taking the time to join this conversation, clarify certain topics and share your insights. It is very much appreciated.

The consumer audio industry is one of the few left where brilliant minds, mad scientists, maverick designers, visionaries find a place and opportunity to realise their vision and delight customers with the fruits of their labour. However it is an industry nonetheless; business rules apply and the bottom line has the final say. I find this aspect as fascinating as the merits of the gear itself. I guess this fascination is borne out of my professional occupation.

I’m not a specialist but help teams of specialists develop and execute strategies, deliver projects etc. Everything has a story, a narrative. It is my job to make sure these narratives survive the boardroom; that the people who sign off adopt these narratives as their own. Most likely we “crash and burn” within minutes if we miss the mark. If the team gets it right, very few questions remain. The process of getting it right is relentless and merciless and to this day two mantras rule “expect the unexpected” and “assumption is the mother of all...” (I think you can fill in the blanks). We prepare by asking a simple question, “Why?” ad infinitum, sometimes ad nauseam.

Why this rambling introduction? When I am in the market for a new piece of gear, I want to understand the narrative. Some of my remarks may seem trivial, petty, nitpicky, whimsical or farfetched. However I cannot switch off my way of looking at things; I guess you could consider it an occupational hazard. In my job, we (the Team) always aim to do better and I hope you can appreciate the spirit in which my remarks are made. Anyway, who ever said making an audiophile purchase was an exercise in rationality?[emoji854]

As you are taking the time to participate on AA it only seems fair I share my personal purchase decision making process in more depth. Bart has a MU1 on order; I’m still on the fence, but then, my use case is different.

Before diving in deeper, there is one technical specification that is not clear to me. Will Ethernet connected Roon End Points and USB connected devices receive up/down sampled data, or do only the AES3 outputs benefit from this feature?

With regard to the usage of the USB port as a digital audio output; here the narrative stutters. When reading reviews, forum posts, marketing content, even the manual, the story is confusing. For me Roon is all about convenience. Most if not all music producing devices in my house are serviced by my Roon Nucleus+. In our guest room a set of Dynaudio XEO wireless speakers were almost up for sale if not for the ability to connect the Dynaudio XEO hub to a Nucleus USB port. Does it qualify for critical listening? Hardly, but it works flawlessly, it is convenient, it is fun. As the hub is recognised by Roon I could bring the XEO ecosystem into the Roonverse.

On the topic of the user interface, or more broadly the user experience; from modest dabblings with this matter I know it is very very challenging to get it right. It is not only about interaction, but also about visual cues, tactility, keeping it simple, feedback, User acceptance and User adoption. As Bart pointed out in his review; the MU1 is an expensive piece of kit. Expectations should be high; criteria and features that come into play are partly dictated by competing products.

As it stands now, I would prefer the MU1 without display all together. I asked Ben if it was possible to switch off the display. At first I was not a fan of big displays with cover art either. But now with the Auralic Aries G2 in my headphone setup I have come to appreciate its advantages. I no longer have to switch to my iPad to see where I am in the playlist; it is convenient as it doesn’t break the flow or blind me in a darkened room.

The way the screen is mounted, the perceived quality of the screen; IMHO is just not up to standard at this price point. At least I would expect an option to display cover art or not. If I’m not mistaken long tittles are truncated on the display. For me, in its current iteration, it is more of a distraction than value adding.

Comparisons between the Grimm control knob and the Naim control wheel are bound to be made. I own a first gen MUSO and the control wheel is inviting to use, self-explanatory and just a marvel of design and execution. The way it carries over DNA from their reference system is brilliant marketing. It feels just right, one doesn’t need a manual to operate it and it could have come right out of an Apple or Tesla Design Studio. When a unit has only one means of tactile control, it is tempting to compound functionality in that one control device. Although I can appreciate the engineering cleverness of the Grimm approach, you lost me at “rotate while pressed”.

However all this wouldn’t matter that much was it not for the elephant in the room. Possibly remotes are a thing of the past but the absence of a native control app, iOS or Android alike, does the MU1 a great disservice. It just breaks the narrative. IMHO, bringing to market an unfinished or incomplete value proposition with the promise of future upgradeability is like walking a tightrope during a blizzard; very few companies get away with it.

As far as the capabilities of the resident NUC go. By introducing the Nucleus and Nucleus+, Roonlabs has in effect set two benchmarks for two distinct types of users. I kind of suspected the chassis would be used for passive cooling but could not be sure. It would help though to publish the capabilities of the resident NUC in terms of the metrics used by Roonlabs to define their respective Nucleus versions; clear, simple and no surprises.

As I already use a Nucleus+ (the blistering fast indexing is important to me) it is hard to gauge what I would lose, if anything, by switching to the MU1. From what I have read on the www, I am not the only one musing about a core-less version. I am not privy to the internal workings of the MU1 but to have a Roon End Point capable of taking on the dCS Network Bridge and Auralic Aries G2.1 at a comparable price point with the up/down sampling capabilities of the MU1 would be very appealing.

I’m confident the MU1 will find and enchant its audience. I look forward to the future developments, announced in your post, and wish you and the Grimm team all the success this extraordinary accomplishment deserves.