A friend of mine recently bought The Grail and I brought my Karajan box set of Peer-Gynt-Suiten 1 & 2 to hear what it could do and immediately realised the level of transparency and ease of reproducing e.g. massed strings. Pitch black background and every single note clearly carved in space. A few more vinyls including the usual woodwinds and other acoustic instruments pretty much got me shook up. How about getting a revitalised record collection by "just" changing the phono stage? My friend handed me his Grail and I went home for an audition on my own system.

     

It took a little time getting used to the "sound" of the Grail because it kind of hasn't got a sound.
The Grail more directly links the phono cartridge to the speaker membranes as though there was nothing in between. Well, there certainly are the line stage and power amp, but I'm now uncertain of their contribution as the Grail just changes my focus. Does my 6C45pi phono stage in fact cover for a little emphasised top end of the Jungson amp? I installed my 6C33 SET power amps and there may be some truth to this. Do I have to dig into another round of interconnects? Possibly not. Is my cartridge properly aligned? I think so, but better give another check. Is my line stage up to the task? I think so.
As can be seen, any significant rise in performance will force you to take a closer look at all other parts of the chain.  
I picked out records I hadn't heard for a long time and heard details I'd missed before. Apart from details and added spaciousness the most striking thing is the apparent naturalness of instruments and vocals. I'm writing "apparent" because I don't know how things would sound in case I had an even better line stage and power amp - in case there are any, which there most likely are.

My reference system (2017) is this: Maglev turntable + Moerch DP8 tonearm + Colibri/Canary cartridges, vdh The Grail phono stage, 6N6P balanced line stage, Hypex digi amp for bass and SAC Glowmaster KT88 for mid/tweeter of ATS4. All signal cables are made from 0.4 mm single core silver in teflon, terminated with Eichmann plugs. Speaker cables are silver plated copper in PTFE.

Reference system 2019, look here. Maglev turntable + Moerch DP8 tonearm + Colibri/Canary cartridges, EAR 912 line/phono stage, bridged EAR 861 power amps and Elliptocor-3 speakers. Read riaa shoot-out here.

Reference system 2023: http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Diy_Loudspeaker_Projects.htm#My_System
A lot of things have changed over the years, but this doesn't change my perception of The Grail, still a stellar performer in the 4Point/Kuzma setup:

After some time I re-installed my 6C45pi phono stage and heard some of the same records again. In the bass and treble there wasn't any noticeable difference and I really don't like to pin out the treble because it's so closely linked to the upper mid and if we think the mid is good it may well be because the treble is extraordinarily good too, but with the Grail the midrange stood out in an exceptional way with more air and spaciousness around instruments and vocalists, a naturalness that we can only appreciate once we've heard it and realise the level of colouration we may have gotten used to.
With the Grail back in the system Jazz at the Pawnshop now has the same spaciousness and depth as my 24 bit file. I guess a 45 rpm Pawnshop would leave 24 bit in serious trouble but unfortunately this is not available (to my knowledge).
Only minor reservation was with my Jungson power amp delivering a slightly emphasised upper treble but changing to SAC Glowmaster KT88 this proved to be a Jungson related issue. With the Glowmaster the treble is smooth and silky although I hate these expressions. My ScanSpeak beryllium domes have never sounded better - and more right. Smooth when music is smooth and rough when music is rough. There's nothing "silky" about a violin.
Bottom line: Does it really get any better than what the Colibri and Grail can dig out of the grooves? For sure different, but better?
2022: I had The Grail in 2013 and now, some 9 years later, nothing has changed. In daily life I use the built-in phono stage of my EAR-912 pre-amp, but from time to time I dust off The Grail and have another listen to this magnificent phono stage. I can see recent model has become white and with wooden side panels. Looks really nice and I may make some oak panels for my own amp - just for the fun of it.
Michael Fremer likes this phono stage a lot as be read here.

Above the power supply for the Grail. *2023prices has risen to more than 8000 EUR here in DK.

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This Grail phono stage appears to be a product where everything has been put into the sonic performance and I guess it's also a constructor's (Jürgen Ultee's) personal statement to what solid state circuitry can do when done right. Nine out of ten stars as there must be room for improvements in any rating - and indeed there today are a more expensive versions (fully balanced) of this almost - Holy - Grail.
All Grail details you can find here at the vdh website including several reviews giving more in-depth info on the development of the Grail. Only thing to ad here is this: I'm buying one. I need this holographic midrange in the development of speaker systems. It's embarrassing to blame drivers for lack of performance and to find out your front end is the bottleneck.
The Grail is a significant improvement over my current phono stage, but considering the cost some people might find they could live with less. We pay dearly for these small increments of sound improvements.

2022: Today with my better amps, turntable and not least Ortofon Anna-D cartridge I still enjoy The Grail thoroughly. It will follow and rise the performance of whatever you put in front of it.

A friend of mine was getting rid of all his LPs (!) and in the stack I had was a Lotte Lenya singt Kurt Weill recording.
This is a 1955 mono recording and sounds like the signal from the microphone(s) were taken directly to the cutting head with no processing in between.
Despite the obvious shortcomings of the recording, this LP has an unbelievable presence and you-are-there feeling and the Grail certainly helps getting as close as possible.

 

Measurements

Measuring the Grail with the CLIO system is pretty boring. This phono stage is flat like a pancake from 10Hz to 80kHz. To the left via MM inputs. You can't see the difference between left and right channel. To the right via MC inputs. Blue is phase for both graphs.
I use the Hagerman anti-riaa circuit board for all measurements. CLIO was set at -6.4 dBV output to make 500 mV output at 1 kHz with the Hagerman set to 40 dB for MM measurements and 60 dB for KC measurements. The CLIO was set 192 kHz sampling rate giving a frequency span up to 80 kHz.
I guess we should pay notice to the minimal phase shift. My former transformer/tubed RIAA certainly does not look like this, although not bad at all.

Some interior pics. Enjoy!

Above the very phono section with the four inductors to the right.

Featurelist:

1	A specific designed Phonograph preamplifier section
2	Phonograph RIAA – equalization with coils only, no sound impairing capacitors in filters
3	Special printed circuit board material with gold conducting paths
4	The printed circuit board has a special seating to evade microphonics
5	Special equipment foot made of selected wood avoids mechanical energy storage
6	Low noise moving coil input stage, no annoying noise even with low-output cartridges
7	Automatic adapting input stage for moving coil cartridges, no matching resistors needed
8	Possibility to compensate phonograph cartridge sensitivity (level adjustment)
9	No coupling capacitors in the signal path as far as possible
10	Strictly separated amplifier sections and circuit layout deliver a very natural soundstage
11	Inputs: Two phonograph inputs, one for MC cartridges, one for MM or MC high-output
12	A shielded transformer is placed in an external housing to avoid hum and EMI noise
13	Power supply with Gyrators for each amplifier stage deliver very high noise cancellation
14	The external transformer is available for different mains voltages