Thanks to being made in China. Like the MU1 too.
The Grimm is hand made in the Netherlands, Eindhoven IIRC. Not that there’s anything wrong with Made in China…
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...
- ...
- 874 posts total
@ghasley , thanks for the correction. I’m not sure why I thought the MU1 was made in China. |
Catching up….I see that you’re now open to trying out an external DAC. Which is great and you owe yourself to do so if you want to hear ultimate performance out of ultra high-end streamers. Now that you’ve opened this door, my suggestion would be to let N20 break-in and shift your focus on auditioning DAC’s before buying another streamer. I would only consider buying K50 if you have unlimited funds to simultaneously compare K50, N20, MK3 with your choice of 2 to 3 DAC’s. You know what this would entail, tying up lots of money over a long period of time and patience to access what’s sounds best to your ears. The path to ultimate nirvana also entails multiple boxes and cable web, take a look at my ‘digital’ system under my user ID. I am well on my way to a five boxes digital front end from a once two box pretty darn good digital system (EMM Labs DA2 + N20) I can say from experience, finding the right DAC won’t be as easy as snapping your fingers. I went through painful yet equally enjoyable journey of owning 6+ DAC’s over last fours years before I finally found my ultimate DAC. Not to mention so many auditions at dealers and audio shows. Since you only stream, your DAC is the next most important piece of the puzzle after your Integrated. Truth be told, your onboard DAC is going to be a bottle neck for streamers like N20, K50 and Statement. You won’t truly know what these ultra high end streamers are capable of until you pair them with a really good DAC. During my DAC journey, Aurender remained my rock. I did hear offerings top offerings from Auralic, Innuos and Lumin but always returned to Aurender. And now I am pursuing Aurender N30SA as the ultimate companion to my DAC. Another huge plus with Aurender is their seamless integration with quite a few ultra high end DAC like MSB, Merging over Ethernet (RAVENNA). With this integration, you can opt to remove USB, AES and SPDIF cabling out of the equation. |
@lalitk , thanks for sharing, and for the advice. I may be able to get demos of DACs in simultaneously with the next server, and, depending on the value of the DAC, purchase it too. That might be doable with a DAC like the Holo May KTE (although I won’t be able to get a demo of that one - but this is the level of DAC I could purchase alongside the next server). The DACs mentioned by others above like the Bartok are more expensive, but are combo streaming DACs. So would a lower cost DAC-only, at the level of the Holo, be reasonable to trial? I see Musetec could also be interesting at an even lower price. But these DACs are a lower cost than the cost of my current Gryphon Diablo 300’s DAC module. So do I actually need to go higher? I know cost isn’t the deciding factor in performance but I’m just trying to plan at what level to engage. I can do another server + a Holo level DAC, but not another server plus a Bartok (which I could demo first but would only do so if I could potentially buy). Also, somewhere above I changed my go-forward approach to require server capabilities. This is because I discovered for the first time that my system has become revealing enough to make the difference in quality matter to me. Once I settle in on a solution, my plan is to build a library of files but limited only to my absolute favorite material. The rest I will stream. To be clear, I’d still be considering the K50 (or the MU1 despite that the K50 is more flexible) in conjunction with getting some DACs in as demos, at let’s say the $7k level or lower. Might be too limiting at that level? While I’m unable to get home demos of the servers I’m interested in here, there are a few other dealers who are more demo friendly that I might be able to borrow interesting DACs from.
|
- 874 posts total