Grimm MU1 Streamer - Really "The Best"?

A couple of updates.

I sold my N20! I know. Too early as I hadn’t yet tried it with the Merason DAC1. Blind squirrel, three legged horse and all that…. But:

1. The N20 already taught me a lot as I said above. And the sound ultimately is not for me - I know… at least with my current DAC and in its three-legged horse masterclockless configuration.
2. A buyer who is a fan of Aurender approached me. And I know how long it can take to sell high value items.
3. I was able to get back my original expenditure, minus shipping, fees, etc.

Premature, I know, but an opportunity arose and I had to make a call.

Onwards. The MU1 and Merason DAC1 are inbound.

I am still without any AES cable or interconnects, and I need to return my overdue demo Audioquest Diamond AES! A dealer has valiantly tried and failed to become a Jorma dealer, to source a Jorma AES cable for me.

With that path a dead end, primary choices are to go with either Sablon or Shunyata AES and balanced XLR cables. Any suggestions which? I feel Sablon to be highly intriguing. But I also feel resale may be better with Shunyata. I feel either would be great. I want to go with Sablon but I feel a Shunyata might be wiser. After all, if I end up sticking with Innuos after all this, I’ll be selling both cables! Why not stick with the Audioquest Diamond AES that I’ve been demoing? Not sure. If I’m honest, maybe because I see a lot more buzz around a Shunyata and Sablon AES cables. Lots of people go on about the AQ Diamond USB but not really about the AQ AES or XLR interconnects.

@nyev I presently have a Shunyata Sigma v2 AES/EBU cable. I also have in house a Network Acoustics Muon AES/EBU cable to compare. I can’t reliably tell them apart in A to B and B to A testing. What does that mean for your application? Maybe nothing, maybe something…

Regarding interconnects, I have in the past settled in with Cardas or Transparent for XLR interconnects when I was using Audio Research ref gear. I am also fond of Audience interconnects and speaker cable although, since my setup today is single ended, I use a mix of Audience AU24 SX, Auditorium 23 and Audio Note. What does this mean for your application? Maybe nothing, maybe something.

@nyev I think in this instance you may be worrying about a problem that isnt a problem. Pick up some well made XLR interconnects and call it a day. There isn’t a great deal of sound difference between XLR interconnects…that’s a compelling reason to go XLR whenever possible.  I did hear a marked difference when I bought the Shunyata AES XLR digital cable to replace my previous one. The fact that the Network Acoustics AES XLR cable is very similar also speaks volumes given the price differential.

If you get a chance try the Siltech classic legend cables. they use a silver gold alloy conductor. you get the best of silver and the best of copper sonics without the downsides of each is the easiest way to explain the sound. i replaced a few shunyata, wireworld and nordost cables in my main system and couldn’t be happier. and i feel understanding somewhat your sonic preferences this would be a good fit for you. also very interested in hearing your impressions of the innuos statement if you happen to go that route! right now i’m looking at the statement vs n20/n30 vs something like the pulsar or new Lumin U2.

@richh84 , if the MU1 is better than my Innuos Zenith Mk3 and PhoenixUSB, with or without the outboard Merason DAC, I won’t likely bother with the Statement. The logic being that most who have experienced my Innuos gear and the Statement say that the Zenith and reclocker gets you 90% of the way towards the Statement (non Next Gen version). If however my current Innuos gear is equal or better than the MU1 in my system, then I 100% plan to trial the Statement. As I mentioned earlier Innuos kindly offered to send a demo to my local dealer who is not even an Innuos dealer.

I do think I might head the Shunyata route. Only because I’ve trialed their power cords before (Omega and Sigma NR v2) and was impressed, along with their level of customer service. Even if I didn’t end up buying last time. Plus, I’ve read so many accounts over the years of people saying how Shunyata interconnects sound, in general (which is consistent with how I felt their Omega power cord sounds), that I don’t think I’ll be overly surprised. But thanks for sharing your experience with Siltech. I do think I know what you mean about the benefits of silver/copper without the negatives however. Know people feel silver is harsh/fatiguing/revealing/overly lean, but I’ve not actually found any of that to be the case in my system with my components. Except for the revealing part, which I like. But my system seems to do okay even with poor, harsher recordings. Probably because my current DAC is known to be warm leaning. And possibly my amp too although there is some debate whether it’s the Diablo amp or DAC that provides the warmer mids. The Merason DAC1 is also reported to be revealing with a softer smoother midrange so that should be a really interesting comparison when it arrives.

So I’ve been enjoying Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind Bootleg Series. MQA version. Not my typical music but the seller of my Merason DAC1 mentioned how much he was liking it and I have to say I’m really enjoying it too.

I was playing the MQA version of Bob’s sessions, and realized that I had years ago read up on all the controversy, went “huh” and promptly ejected it from my mind. So I read up on it again. Found out my current Diablo 300 DAC doesn’t support it. Then I wondered, does my Innuos gear deal with MQA? Went to check settings in Sense, and nope. Nothing about MQA, only DSD stuff. But wait! There’s a new version of Innuos software with press releases saying they now deal with MQA and is “core certified”. So I promptly updated my Innuos software to 2.3.1. And found by default Sense now does “the first unfold” for MQA. Naturally, I tried disabling it and…. I found things were definitely better with it enabled. Interesting!

Now, the Merason DAC1 doesn’t support MQA. And the MU1 seems like by design it encourages you not to worry about MQA beyond the first unfold by Roon. As it’s upsampling board can’t be used if you are passing the MQA stream to an MQA enabled DAC. I like this approach. Makes an argument that having an MQA-enabled DAC is really pointless with a MU1, because a big part of the reason you buy the MU1 is for the 4X upsampling. And you get that benefit even on non-MQA material.

That said I have to say the MQA unfold by Sense, feeding my non-MQA DAC module, sounds pretty good…. Really looking forward to seeing what the MU1’s upsampling can do in comparison.  Not really an apples to apples thing I know.  Just an interesting side note really with the latest Innuos update.