Grimm MU1 Streamer - Really "The Best"?

@nyev pretend for a moment that we have been friends for many years. Now, pretend that I just hit you squarely on your jaw to try to knock some sense into you! You are already fretting about interconnects? You have a six dollar ribbon cable or a four dollar board slot with traces presently connecting your Gryphon dac module... so relax for a moment and take a deep breath.

Also, free advice...I've heard interconnects make both a positive and negative difference. Its a thing. BUT...I utilize nice but sensibly priced (in my opinion) interconnects but its a bigger deal since I use single ended/rca. With that disclaimer, you could pick up a pair of nice XLR interconnects for peanuts ~$500 and you wouldnt be able to hear much if any difference between them and $5,000/pr interconnects as long as the dac adheres to the balanced XLR standard, you will be fine. Your Gryphon has balanced inputs so you are good to go. Thats what the XLR standard was designed for...to virtually eliminate variations in cables.

Get a good dac in your system. You need to know if the streamers are the limiting factor right now or if its your dac board. This exercise will easily demonstrate which. If you acquire a great dac then you will also experience a small epiphany.

Regarding your "cable rat's nest", it doesnt have to be that way. You do however have to step back and admit that the self-inflicted audiophle neurosis that is so prevalent these days is likely overkill. What cables do you have that are causing you heartburn?

(A) Server/streamer: 1 power cable, 1 ethernet cable, one digital cable to the dac

(B) Dac: 1 power cable, 1 pair interconnects

(C) Amp: 1 power cable, 1 pair speaker cables

Don't get FOMO on interconnects (or any other cable for that matter). In most cases, and I'm a committed cable believer to a large degree, people lose their rational minds. Cables make a difference but that's the final thing you tweak, not a paralyzing decision up front. and my final comment....the fact that you've heard no other dacs besides whats inside your Diablo is all the more reason to to bring in a high quality dac for comparison. You simply dont know what you dont know. If, after listening to a quality external dac and still find your Gryphon dac preferable...then you will have removed a variable.

Above all else, stop reading reviews....they have you amped up for all the wrong reasons...we have all been guilty of the same behavior so the sooner you relax and trust your ears the better. In fact, my favorite interconnects to my ears in my system are NOT the top tier of the manufacturers lineup. 

@ghasley , thanks and all good points. My incorrect hunches on interconnects was certainly not solidified since I have zero experience with standalone DAC’s and related interconnects, which is why I put out the hunch to be shot down :)

I get your point on reading accounts of others, but I disagree as this approach has in the past led me to products I would not have otherwise considered - like my Diablo. Never would have considered it without first getting a general idea of the voice of this amp. And my sentiments after living with it for years would reflect the consensus from others who have heard it. All generalizations of course, there is a level of understanding that goes beyond when you’ve heard it yourself.

My reading of others opinions (mostly forum posts) led me to look to the three particular servers I am considering in this thread - I would not have been turned on to them for consideration without this research. After I started this thread, I’ve maybe once or twice been back to reading accounts of others; the research is done :)

Anyways, my personal view is that you can make generalizations towards how a particular piece is voiced, despite the multitude of variables, with the caveat that this is merely a starting point to set you on the right direction, as there is so much more to unpack beyond these generalizations. Just my opinion and as I said, I never would have come across Gryphon without this process! I was NOT having luck home demoing separates at the time, I hated them all (yes, I was limited in what I could test). When I tried the Diablo in my system the first time it was a total revelation!

I know others don’t share this view, but hey, this process has worked for me in the past.

I am relieved to know I wouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg on interconnects for a DAC….  Thanks again for the advice; I appreciate it!

@nyev

Its all good. Whatever gets us to the desired outcome. I hear you regarding research, reading, gathering info...but so many reviews are embellished or worse...they might be truthful and factual but without a clear understanding that context is everything. To make matters worse, the writing style and the motives of the writer sometimes combine to communicate an unintentionally false impression. The writer may be trying to drive home the point that product A is "warmer" than product B but they are afraid to alienate manufacturer B by adversely comparing the two products. Therefore, they attempt to write something objective when, in fact, neither product might align with our respective definition of "warm". Unless everything in our system is identical to the reviewers, then the outcome will be different. Unless our version of a term aligns perfectly with the person recording their findings, then we will innocently form an incorrect assumption.

I was merely giving you a hard time to drive home the point that we all get conditioned..."if I add a component then I have to buy Audioquest Diamond or Audio Note Sogon interconnects" or I won’t hear it "at its best". We go "there" without ever hearing the component and cable combo and worse, we listen for a few minutes and immediately wonder how we can improve it. I’ve done it...I have a closet full of various gear, cables and interconnects to prove it LOL. We buy a filter or gadget and immediately buy more to see if daisy chaining them is cumulative?

Keep it simple, have fun, know why we want it and repeat. For instance, I have some speaker cables I swear by in my system and recommended them to a friend and he hated them. My amp is a single ended triode vacuum tube amp which is optimized for 6/8 ohm loads, my speakers are 12 ohm, 96db and my cables are almost 30 ft in length. He has SS amplification and drives 8ohm, 90db speakers with 2.5 meter speaker cables. What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly explain the difference of opinion? Of course, the physical properties which optimize those cables for my system are inconsistent with what was required by his system. Interconnects? Single ended interconnects of a particular brand/model SHOULD sound different than the xlr version of the same wire but which is right? Most likely the balanced version because the standard removes most variables.

Best of luck.

Thanks @ghasley. I also don’t think I’m far off from what I’m looking for in SQ - the N20 proved that. It does everything I want, aside from a slight bit of what the the Innuos does. Just needs a hair more transparency and I’d be there. I don’t even need all the transparency of the Innuos. Is that unreasonable? Maybe! But maybe not….