Absolute Sound

In Stereophile Magazine’s Brilliant Corners #41, Alex Halberstadt writes about the time he lived with the MU2 in his system. He starts by thanking us for striving for perfection in stead of accepting “good enough” philosophies. And then he talks about all the great hours of music listening he enjoyed, highlighting many records. His pieces are always a joy to read. We copy some excerpts below, but please read the original article on Stereophile’s homepage.

“One of the first tracks I listened to through the Grimm was a Qobuz stream of "My Funny Valentine" from Paul Desmond's Desmond Blue, an album that shouldn't work but does. (…) But what surprised me, given this track's streamed, disembodied origin, was its emotional accessibility. Desmond's improvisation is freighted with more despair than most readings of the Rodgers and Hart standard, and the Grimm conveyed the inward, lacerating quality of the performance with insight and force. Hearing this from a digital file was both unexpected and exciting.

This inspired me to play one of those records I rarely try to listen to on digital: Dreaming My Dreams, the song cycle Waylon Jennings recorded in 1975. (…) Some digital components extract copious detail but do it surgically, without regard for the music's texture, density, and ambience, killing the patient on the table. But on the album's rollicking opener, "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," the MU2 illuminated the song's structure without smothering its excitement or scrubbing away its messy energy and drive. And Jennings's blustering guitar solo, one of the most memorable he's recorded, came through without being hollowed out or polished into dullness.

(…)

The Grimm is one of those rare components that nails both functionality and performance while remaining reliable. It offers some of the best—and least musically destructive—sound from streaming I've experienced. (…) Handing the Grimm back to the FedEx guy was no fun at all.”

Continue reading in the blog: https://www.grimmaudio.com/reviews/stereophile-mu2-nails-functionality-and-performance/

Turn it up. Get lost in it. Stay there.

Sometimes music stops being something you're listening to and becomes somewhere you are.

The kick drum hits and you feel it in your chest—a vocal hangs in the room. The space around a guitar suddenly makes sense. A familiar track comes on and, somehow, you're hearing it like it's the first time.

That's where the Kii THREE BXT lives.

It doesn't ask you to sit still and analyze the sound. It gives the music room to breathe, move, and get under your skin.

More scale. More impact. More of that feeling that makes you reach for the volume k**b instead of the remote.

Because great audio isn't really about chasing perfection.

It's about chasing that feeling.

And when the right song comes on?

Don't overthink it.

Turn it up.

Every bit arrives correctly. So what could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot – because digital audio is not only about the data itself.

A music file stores information, but it does not unfold in real time until playback. The player must turn it back into a continuous audio stream – and give that stream a precise time base.

This is where clocks, jitter, electrical noise and countless design decisions come into play.

In his new essay, Norbert Lindemann traces this idea from the CD1 and HIDRA to our current streamers – and explains why the latest interface, the highest sample rate or the newest DAC chip does not necessarily tell the whole story.

The music comes from the file.
The timing is created in the player.

Read the full essay:
https://lindemann-audio.de/en/lindemann-world-of-sound/digital-audio/

The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel, internationally known on Youtube, had the privilege of publishing the first review of our new PA1 mono block power amplifiers. Hans talks about the PA1’s functionality and the technique under the hood and then clearly outlines his opinion on the sound quality:
“The stereo image is wide and deep. Spaces between the instruments are well defined and the background is pitch black. (…) Dynamics are perfectly rendered as are microdynamics. We could never hear any coloration on any instrument and no instrument influenced other instruments.”

His payoff stunned us:
“Don't go to demos if your budget is too tight, for you will be sold within 3 minutes and then you might need another 5 minutes to admit you're sold.”

Soon we will start to ship the first units to more reviewers and dealers. Stay tuned…

Watch the video in our blog: https://www.grimmaudio.com/reviews/hans-beekhuyzen-channel-pa1-offers-the-magic/

What if your speakers could tell you the truth about your music, Ultimate Stream meets the Kii SEVEN Ultimate Stream Live | Series 2 Episode 2What if your living room ...

Nearly a decade after its introduction, it continues to be one of the most influential designs in high-end audio. Not because it follows convention, but because it challenged it. Cardioid dispersion, DSP that serves the music instead of drawing attention to itself, and performance that remains remarkably consistent in real listening rooms.

It's a speaker that has earned the respect of mastering engineers, recording professionals, reviewers, and music lovers alike because it does something few products ever achieve: it disappears.

The conversation stops being about hi-fi and starts being about the performance.

Technology evolves. Trends come and go. Truly great loudspeakers become reference points.

The Kii THREE has become exactly that.

Every great album has moments you've never noticed before.

Not because they weren't there, but because your system never quite let them through.

That's what stood out to us in The Ear's review of the Kii THREE BXT. Beyond the technical achievements, it speaks to something every music lover is searching for: a loudspeaker that disappears, leaving only the performance.

The Kii THREE BXT doesn't ask you to admire the technology behind it. It invites you to rediscover the records you've loved for years, hearing new details, new space, and new emotion every time you press play.

That's why we do what we do.

Thank you to the ear for such a thoughtful review.

Some speakers impress. Others disappear.

The Kii SEVEN does something rarer — it gets out of the way entirely.

In a recent Qobuz review, it’s described as “staggeringly detailed, agile, and convincing” — but what that really means is this:

You’re no longer listening to speakers.
You’re inside the music.

Every layer feels exposed. Every nuance arrives intact. Nothing added, nothing exaggerated — just a level of definition and control that makes even familiar tracks feel newly discovered.

It’s not about volume.
It’s not about hype.

It’s about truth.

And somehow, despite all that performance, it still manages to feel like a system you can actually live with — not just admire.

The future of listening isn’t coming.
It’s already here.

Qobuz