Oh fuck! Someone finaly snagged that thing! Masize gz! I cant wait for impressions
Snagged what thing?
D1-twelve (mk1)
The original stack you had looked at about a year ago, where the dealer didnāt want to break it up or lower the price?
No, that was a direct. This is an earlier revision of what i have that has been listed in europe for a while for a real solid deal
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Thanks, sorry for the confusion. That stack has been re-listed several times and they finally started lowering the price, the one I thought you were talking about.
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Not happened, the owner decided to give it to one of his friends 
ā¦so got an replacement instead: Grimm Audio MU2
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Congrats!! Lot us know how you like it. Itās also a streamer + DAC, right?
Analog discrete Pre-AMP, DAC, Roon Serverā¦Iām pretty impressedā¦
Iām also very interested in hearing an honest consumer opinion about MU2. The guys at alpha-audio seem to think its the best thing since sliced bread but dutch loves dutch so I always take their fondness for Dutch products with a grain of salt.
ā¦yes, they are biased, but Iāve played it now just for 4 days and must say:
the pre-amp is really good and the so called major-dac is playing impressive. The Grimm engineers are also have done some decent research on switch psu and well known here in Europe for their DAC/analogue circuit designs. Many of them have a long track record with Phillipsā¦
Is it better than my Weiss DAC 501 MKii?
- yes and no - the Weiss is damn neutral and a bit on the precise/analytic side
- MU2 is precise, but not clinic-analytical and I can understand what those guys from Alpha Audio meant, you can listen hours for hours without getting overloaded
Is it better than my Abbas Audio 3.2SE?
- no, because Abbas (vintage TDA1541a/S1) DAC is much more towards Audio Note DAC Level 3 even Iād say L4 (different sound signature) and outstanding for my full range speakers and Devore O96
- therefore I ordered a new one with a complete new design (PCM64 based Signature)
P.s. : sorry for hijacking this thread!!
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Thereās no tubes for you to play with on this guy 
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Triunity vs Unity shoot out underwayā¦
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Anyone with a unity architecture TD on the east cost wanna meet up so I can try your dac (ill happily bring AIC)?
Ive been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with some pretty damned solid estat chains using my 12 and I am feeling like I want to get ready to make the jump to estats, but the 12 hasnt been synergizing super well with my current top pick estat amp. Its ultumately lacking the raw image clarity and separation on those amps (I dont feel this way on AIC though) plus I would like some more energy and incision (this is a complaint I have on AIC). As such, I am trying to figure out if upgrading to sublime or simply moving to a different dac would be a better call (or maybe getting a driver? but idk the value proposition is there for that last one).
TBH I dont think anyone here can answer that question for me, but I did want to talk about it since its something ive been thinking about a lot.
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Which amp are you looking at to replace the AIC?
What about moving to the Levante?
Nah, only way i move on from aic at this point is for estats tbh. The unreleased b22 and vica stx are currenrly top of my list for that
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I have secured a driver. That got me currious to look up the internals. Whats even going on here? At first I thought the left is all power filtering, but im not sure that even makes sense given the use of an external power supply. Anyone have any idea?
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@M0N always spoke very highly of the driver. Itās the one standalone Total DAC component Iād want to try.
That looks like a hell of a lot of power on demand for when things call for it. Now that youāre east coast, Iād like an in home sample. 
LOL
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Thereās a lot of filtering and grounding going on. I wonder if it helps improve the noise issues they have and if itāll measure any better with the driver?
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Best guess, the capacitors are all power, except MAYBE the two silver colored ones. Which might couple the input or the output.
The two transistors at the bottom bolted to the copper plate probably act as the buffer.
The other devices bolted to the plate are probably resistors.
No idea whatās in the big black boxes are, probably impedance matching transformers.
If I had to guess without tracing any lines, itās probably either a Mosfet Source follower or a collector follower using some other transistor type.
That would give you unity gain and an output impedance of ~1 Ohm, maybe a bit less
The transformers are probably on the output side, probably doing SE to Balanced conversion or vice versa.
The fact there are 4 diodes around the 2 silver caps implies itās doing some AC to DC conversion, which would explain the large capacitor bank.
Iāve never checked to see if the live power is outputting AC or DC, or some combination there of.
Also the blank 10 pin surface mount device may have been intended for an opamp, possibly an alternative for the SE to Balanced conversion or the buffer itself.
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