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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
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,570 posts
 

@arafiq,

Once you hear a native file on a well executed NOS DAC, you won’t care for upsampled file. You can’t magically add meaningful ‘information’ that’s not there! Trickery or not, I will leave it your own imagination :-) 
 

@charles1dad 

You can certainly turn off upsampling in MU1. But Downsampling of DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and DXD files and streams to 4FS or 2FS 😳. For many, it’s not a big deal cause there is plenty of content available to stream upto 4FS resolution. IME, once you hear a native DXD or DSD file, you gain a whole new perspective on what’s possible. And having a DAC that allows you to appreciate these incremental differences is a bonus :-) 

jerryg123's avatar
jerryg123
3,429 posts
 

No upsampling for me please. 

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,570 posts
 

@nyev 

Unless you’re married to ROON, consider auditioning Aurender N20 and call it a day! I can hardly wait to get N30SA later this year and complete my quest on what I consider my ultimate digital front end under $100K. 

ghasley
2,502 posts
 

@lalitk 

 

I've read your comments and, like you, I was firmly in the camp where you currently reside. If someone does NOT want to operate with the Roon user interface, the Grimm is not for them. I respectfully submit though that the blanket statements about upsampling and its demerits vs merits fails to recognize that different designers do things differently. While a file might be upsampled in two different implementations, how something is upsampled is where the rubber meets the road. In short, if someone hasn't heard it for themselves they just don't know what they are talking about. Full stop.

 

I will post later when I have the time about an experiment I conducted where I became convinced that I was wrong about the universal NOS/native "doctrine". You have to trust your ears and while I want everyone to choose the path that best suits them, the right path isn't achieved by reading and adopting absolute positions. 

charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 

You have to trust your ears and while I want everyone to choose the path that best suits them, the right path isn’t achieved by reading and adopting absolute positions.

@lalitk is obviously very capable of speaking for himself, but he didn’t adopt a rigid dogmatic stance( At least he did not to me). He clearly acknowledges real world performance is what matters. It has been also acknowledged that the Grimm may indeed be quite accomplished/successful with their up sampling approach. Where is the “absolute position “?

At the end of the day it’s all dependent on the ears and listening impressions of each individual. There’s no universal consensus agreement with anything with regard to audio matters.
Charles

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