I believe it has been acknowledged that the Cable Company doesn't extend their lending service to Canada.
Charles
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...
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And they refuse returns for cables in many circumstances. And generally frown upon the concept. Also I find that being in Canada, brands often prefer dealing directly when there is no distribution in my country available. That was the case with Innuos, where they preferred to work through a dealer of my choice. Which is great because I don’t directly deal with import duties with that approach. Also, Jorma’s website lists “Vana Ltd” as their distribution on NA. I have an open ticket with them I opened over a week ago. |
@ghasley totally get it. First, I do expect to get back most of the value of the devices I try but do not keep. Also I wouldn’t actually go further than the K50 now without first unloading one of the other servers I have, even if I “wish” I could just get all three so I have them ready to be tested. Having just the next one waiting in the wings is enough! Buying cables can rack up the cost very quickly if it doesn’t work out and I end up having to buy 3-4 pricey cables. Not sure if this is correct but I have a hunch these may be harder to resell as well. If I could buy a good used AES cable with reasonable confidence that it’s not counterfeit, I would. At least my Audioquest Diamond demo should be arriving anytime at my dealer, hopefully this week. In short, I’m not about throwing my cash around, unless I’m reasonably confident I can get the cash back, even if it takes some time. Plus, the interaction with The Cable Co wasn’t the best and I wouldn’t want to go through them - will leave it at that. If I’m lucky, when all is said and done I will not even have spent the full amount of the new server, as I’ll be able to sell everything I’m not keeping, including my existing Innuos gear. In reality I know that might be a stretch. Especially due to the pending recession, which may put major delays in selling. |
Back to the N20. Have been listening all night while working on my laptop. I know, not ideal (the working part). It is just so enjoyably immediate, so condensed (not compressed), so inviting with a touch of warmth, and so opposite really from the Innuos’ open expansive neutral and ultra-detailed sound. The N20 has a totally different take, that is highly musical. With the added bass that has arrived it adds some drive that was missing before. I am not demanding a solution that has all of the upper frequency resolution of the Innuos. Just halfway between the N20 and the Innuos would be fine. With a touch of high frequency resolution I think the 3D depth and spatial positioning would as a byproduct get better too. If this were achieved I’d be happy with this solution if it was the last server I owned. I find speaker positioning is far more finicky with my Innuos (in my revealing-leaning system), as the slightest bit off can just totally ruin things. The N20 is far more forgiving. Starting to think the Innuos setup might give me too much transparency. It’s mind blowing how much inner detail it adds when I switch back to Innuos; it’s almost like a HiFi tech demo vs the N20 which has a more liquid and music-driven presentation. Another thing I blamed on my speakers was very poor off axis performance where if you move inches from the sweet spot the image starts falling apart. Not so with the N20. The image follows beautifully moving left to right. I’m still blown away at how a network player can impact these things. I had never realized that before. Long story short the N20 is extremely enjoyable, especially on more intimate stripped down recordings which were just magical. Moments where you forget about your stereo completely and it’s just the music. Back to work and cable-hunting. I think Sweden opens for business in a couple hours so may drop them a line.
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