Grimm MU1 Streamer - Really "The Best"?


I've recently become interested in the Grimm MU1.  While reviews of top end players from Innuos, Aurender and Antipodes and others are typically all very positive, the tone of the many pro reviews of the Grimm MU1 go far, far beyond, with some reviews resorting to using superlatives and gushing of positive system transformation and not being able to stop listening to material, etc..  HiFi Advice and Steve Huff (actually calls it "magic") have such reviews.

Given the delay in availability of the Innuos Pulsar which I'm told will be better than my current Zenith Mk3 + PhoenixUSB reclocker, I am interested in replacing my streaming setup with a one-box solution that includes a high-precision clock.  The new streamer will continue to feed my Gryphon Diablo 300's DAC module, which I have no interest in replacing.

I'm actually a fan of Innuos, after they improved the sound of my Zenith with firmware updates and after I added their PhoenixUSB reclocker. I appreciate this commitment to improving sound quality which is why I was so interested in the Pulsar.

The trigger for considering an upgrade is not for improved sound, but rather, to solve some issues I have with too many Audioquest power cords coiled and clumped together. I will get to lose one of them and one of my USB cords with a one-box streamer. I've noticed my sound is very sensitive to positioning of my AC cords and find I often need to re-adjust the PC feeding my amp to get proper sounding vocals at center stage.  One of my subs also seems to be picking up AC noise when the crossover is set above 60Hz. The second trigger is simply system simplification, removing one box.  All that said I don't really have any complaints regarding sound, and the PhoenixUSB reclocker truly did improve the sound of my Zenith.

While the Grimm MU1 has it's 4X upsampling up it's sleeve with reviewers absolutely glowing over this feature and it's extreme ability to separate tones to the left, right, front, and back far better than the rest, I don't see that Grimm has gone to any lengths with regard to power supply management in the way other brands do including Innuos. The MU1's ultra-simplistic interior doesn't bug me, but the lack of transformers and power management makes me wonder....

Are there any updates from folks who have directly compared the MU1 vs similarly classed streamers from the competition?  Did you find it to be as revelatory as the pro reviewers found it? And, how does it compare to other streamers with it's 4X upsampling disabled?  Does it sound like it suffers from it's lack of power management?  I do see that the clock should be very good...

 

 

nyev

@sns 

I owned an Innuos Zenith, I demo’d an Aurender (w20) and purchased the Grimm. Everyone should demo multiple streamers and buy what sounds best to them. In the event it is a tossup between two or more, then I guess the tiebreaker for someone could be parts count or weight? Are fewer parts or lower weight considered better or worse?

On the topic of Grimm and DAC pairings…pairing the Grimm with an nos R2R makes for a radically different (and in my mind more natural and engaging) sound. Grimm and totaldac? Home run.

I would not however be scared to pair the Grimm with DACs that do their own sampling or DSD conversion. Grimm and Tambaqui? Fantastic. Grimm and Meitner? Also fantastic (although less of a delta here vs the onboard Meitner renderer which is quite good, as compared with the Tambaqui, which has a so-so internal Ethernet renderer). As always, I speak from direct experience in my own system and not internet screenshots of what parts are under the hood. That said, YMMV.

The theory behind the above, according to Grimm, is that they think their precise clocking and sampling does the heavy lifting, making any digital sampling/conversion done by the DAC more straightforward and therefore less prone to error. That’s just their theory, but I’ve heard it in (my) practice as well.

 

 

@nyev of you want a touch more transparency from the n20 my suggestion is to try the furutech ncf gtx(r) outlet with a good upocc silver powercord with furutech nfc plugs on the n20 such as the zenwave psr14. Dave at zenwave will loan your for free email him.

 

 

@ghasley I would not consider this official but my dealer told me the price of the MU1 was going up by $3,000. I was wondering if anyone else had heard this to corroborate what I was told.

It’s funny, in most threads I’ve read on the MU1, there is the eventual comparison of its internals vs others.  I’m surprised it took this long on this thread.  It certainly doesn’t look as sexy as the others inside, that’s for sure! But it is far more technically advanced than its somewhat crude looking internals imply. But all that doesn’t matter anyways, to me it’s just an interesting side-note to the sound. Looking forward to trying mine!

@metaldetektor interesting analysis on DAC pairings with MU1; thanks. Interesting you found the NOS DACs to be ideal, because to me that just logically makes sense as the upsampling is just moved to the MU1. Which raises the question for me at least - is it more advantageous to do upsampling in the network player, as in the MU1, or is it better to do it in the DAC? Or does it matter?

So what I think I’m not too bad at is analyzing exactly what I hear with gear. My initial analysis tends to remain even after living with gear for a very long time. My current assessment of the characteristics of the N20 have not changed one bit since my original assessment.

What has changed, however, is how I feel about those characteristics. This is the area where I struggle, as time changes how I feel.

For the first time in a while, I switched back to my Innuos gear and listened all day while working.  And I loved it. It was like the transparency, dimensionality, and air, and life was injected back into the music. I know it seems fickle and just a few posts back I said I was down on Innuos. Just please do yourself a favour and ignore any statements I make about what I like or dislike as I obviously can’t even trust myself with that. Paying attention to how I describe sound is totally okay though - I believe everything I stated in terms of sonic characteristics is totally still valid!

One note I should make - going back to Innuos I tried leaving my speakers at their toed in position that was needed for the Aurender N20 to have a solid image. It’s possible I got carried away with the positioning with Innuos before, and had the speakers toed out too much to boost the image width and crispness. But now, it sounds pretty awesome. Am also appreciating the BIG bass with more clarity and dimensionality. I also have left my DAC filter setting on “Fast” instead of the “Slow” default setting.

I think this is an example of, one server solution is not better than the other; they are simply different. I am glad to have experienced the N20 as before that, I really didn’t know what my Innuos setup added to my system. Now I know! Once I get a different DAC in house I will give the N20 another shot. I’m in talks with a dealer that may be able to set me up with a demo of the Merason DAC1, recommend by @ghasley and seemingly highly recommended by almost everyone who has heard it. The Mk1 version costs 40% less than my Gryphon DAC module, but as we know high cost doesn’t mean better sound. Still waiting patiently for the MU1 to arrive. Wondering if that will be better, or just different!

I will aspire to be a better audiophile. By honing my ability to detect what is truly “better” to my ears, as opposed to merely “different”. A good lesson.