Grimm MU1 Streamer - Really "The Best"?

 A lot of this is apples to oranges comparisons, best ports on streamers and dacs make direct comparisons impossible. One should purchase dac and streamer as a package, decide in advance which scheme they're going with, AES/EBU, USB or I2S, both dac and streamer should be optimized for that scheme. I'll reiterate usb most difficult/expensive to optimize, has more inherent disadvantages, usb can have extremely high sound quality, gets bad name from less than optimal implementation in both streamers and dacs.

In question above as to how N20 would compare to Zenith and Phoenix. I'd keep Zenith + Phoenix vs N20, K50 and MU1 IF STAYING WITH USB. Now, if changing rendering schemes anything goes. USB is capable of wonderful rendering, Phoenix is one example of that. Now, is that Phoenix going into dac with optimized usb board, that being XMOS or Amanero, perhaps some proprietary board. If that is the case one isn't going to do much better using another rendering scheme. Assuming the Phoenix going into dac with great usb implementation, there still may be gains to be had with a better streamer serving only server duty. In other words Zenith II may be bettered with newer Zenith or some other streamer.

Point I'm trying to make above. Streaming sound quality can also be improved through better streamer acting ONLY as SERVER.  Lets say one already has optimized usb rendering via Phoenix or another dedicated usb streamer only, assume optimized usb implementation in dac. One can still achieve better sound quality with higher quality streamer, and NOT USING IT'S RENDERING CAPABILITY.  Improved noise suppression, music player processing  ALONE can make substantial improvements in sound quality. I know this from my own experiments with multiple rendering schemes VIA USB.

I have no experience with I2S and coax rendering so above may or may not apply. At one point  thought I'd experiment with I2S via DDC, in the end made no sense considering extra complexity, limitations of DDC equipment itself and less than optimal I2S implementation in  dac.

In thinking this out more. If I had top flight usb rendering via Phoenix or others, nice usb on dac and looking at three streamers mentioned here I'd go with K50, which was my plan. With k50, assuming top flight usb in streamer/dac you have the dedicated ethernet port out direct to Phoenix or other usb streamer. I believe this direct out ethernet port in K50 has some optimization, meaning filtering/clocking? So k50 ethernet port out to Phoenix to dac, shazam, top flight usb! And then you still have the optimized AES/EBU port on k50 to play with, this may play out to be better than optimized usb, two for one optimized setujps!

@sns , nice thought but the Phoenix doesn’t have an Ethernet input unfortunately! Just a USB input. Also, I’m trying to consolidate to one box and one set of cables for my player/server, as good as the PhoenixUSB is. Plus I plan to sell the PhoenixUSB to help fund this purchase!

That said I’m still interested in the K50!

Update:  oh you mean ADD the new box as a server only which means I’d have THREE boxes!  I’m trying to consolidate, so no, not going to work for me.

@lalitk +1M

@nyev At this level, price has very little to do with anything. Example, the N20 is 95% as good in SQ as the N30, for half the price. The N30, Taiko and K50 are all favoured interchangeably.

@sns and myself both swear by the Musetec 005 DAC which is a $3200 DAC but will challenge anything you put up against it. We're not cheap, we have confidence in our hearing, regardless of price tags.

Be happy that the N20 is the least expensive option, move on if if you don't like it but you probably won't.

Good Luck anyways.

I made an offer on the Aurender N20, but the seller did not want to use escrow (which I understand) OR PayPal Goods and Services. PayPal for Friends was his only PayPal option, I guess he wants to get the cash prior to shipping. Seller has a fair number of positive reviews over the past two years, with comments, but in theory that would be possible to have fake reviews.

I don’t know about everyone else, but that seems like a lot of money to send to a stranger with no protection beyond a few positive reviews - at least beyond the amount that I could stomach if I were to be scammed. The seller is someone you can find online without is an owner of a business serving the public, but who’s to say they are that person. I suppose I could ask them for a photo of their ID which would help somewhat but still….

The MU1 seller has similar restrictions.

Am I being overly cautious? How frequently do people get scammed dealing with sellers that have more than a few positive reviews in the past two years?

The K50 is through a reputable dealer so that remains an option. I wouldn’t need those protections with a dealer…. With the K50 my only real concern is how good my Gryphon Diablo DAC module’s AES input is, in comparison with its USB input which is very good. But if it doesn’t work out, I can always sell and lose little or no money since it’s used.