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...
Spot on! I've asked that very question, do those numbers truly matter? Agree with @lalitk .@ghasley , you've made numerous salient points in this thread. Charles |
Have the Lumin P1 utilizing fiber optic from a Melco S100, and output on USB and/or BNC to Lampizator Baltic 4 or Musetec MH-DA005 or Gustard R26 then onto a Gryphon Diablo 300. I didn’t opt for an internal DAC cuz obviously I already had great external DACs. Btw I use Transparent cabling - and if you’re curious, the P1’s internal dual mono chip-based DAC is very good, a different flavor rather than something I’d say is better or worse than my external DACs, more importantly the P1 has proven to be a great streaming platform, as good or better than the Lumin U1 in my other system. Curious about the Grimm but can’t quite get my head around no high-rate USB OR I2S output just AES. My best results consistently come via a DDC using I2S although occasionally BNC is surprisingly more dynamic and engaging on some tracks though I have no idea why. Also the P1 renders a TV HDMI signal via ARC to 2 channel sound so I’m getting fantastic TV sound finally. Regardless, can someone explain why you think Grimm opted to forgo USB/I2S outputs? |
The Grimm team seems to be well organized, experienced and have done their homework/research. I get the impression they find no genuine superiority of USB orI2S signal paths. In fact they may have determined well executed AES/EBU is better sounding. Hans Beekhuyzen did a recent review of the Magna Mano Ultra MK III and compared its AES output to I2S and found them equal in sound quality. So possibly more hype than real world performance enhancement. As has been mentioned during this thread (Numerous times) quality of and attention to implementation /optimization is likely the dominant determinant. Charles |
Grimm chose spdif, primarily aes/ebu because superior jitter reduction and clocking were integral to its sound quality goals.
USB is clocked at the dac so variable results. I2S is great if the sender and receiver are optimized for one another. There are alot of great solutions out there. If you like what you have, stop looking…you’re welcome. |
There is other ways to do this for example Sonore optical server, rendu and excellent LPS Sonore verygood asis uptone but I just was part of a shootout Linear Tube Audio makes a even better LPS in several ways in build as well as sound for a bit less monies . I am working on having 5 LPS including my latest modem- router combo upgrade the LPS with a decent pangea sig power cord and the very good stock Linear Audio DC Pc truly made a nice improvement from the starting point of the stream before going tothe optical which I use 2 Sonore deluxe modules, every power cable counts when streaming besides the Ethernet cables . |
