@nyev You may be alot of things but timid is not one. Few of us mere mortals will purchase three top notch server/streamers for a shootout. Never forget, the fastest depreciation known to man happens to server/streamers and dacs.
A few more free pieces of advice, in particular, dac optimization as it pertains to the Grimm MU1. The first of which is….do not buy any dacs right now…you are introducing so many variables with three server/streamers and the various cables that you really do need to see whats going on with your existing setup. As a reminder, you were seeking a simple setup…two boxes. To me, based on my own unscientific experiments, that didnt seem possible to me with the Innuos or N20…it just might though with the Grimm. My recent posts encouraged you to try as many as you like and I implied that you should consider the Grimm after listening to the others in the event they didnt please you. Of those you are trying, the Grimm IMHO may be the only one capable of elevating your inboard Gryphon dac module to a level that you could be satisfied. You wont know until you try but now that it is on the way, you may as well be patient and wait and see. With that caveat…
Consider focusing on stand alone dacs which do not automatically upsample. For instance, the Meitner MA3 (which I love enough to have owned two at the same time in two systems) would not be a great fit with the Grimm because the Meitner upsamples everything to dsd regardless of what is input. Others may or may not but do your due diligence. Since a great deal of the magic with the Grimm is due to its clocking and proprietary upsampling techniques I can’t imagine a rational reason for the 24/192 output from the Grimm could be improved upon by that stream being re-upsampled by the dac.
Everyone prefers what they prefer but in my experience I have found the NOS R2R ladder dacs seem to sound most natural to my ears. Some will swear by dsd or higher pcm dac rates, I just havent been inspired by sample rates, only by good sound. Focus on the output stage of the dac….thats where the magic either happens or it doesnt.
I also have not tried the spdif/rca/75ohm output from the Grimm, only the AES/EBU output. I have said elsewhere that, if I hadnt already owned a top-shelf dac I might consider some of the better resistor/ladder/or R2R 24/192 stand alone dacs with the Grimm. A couple that come to mind: Aqua or Merason dac1…maybe even a previous gen msb. Might save some money given the dac’s clocking is somewhat moot since the Grimm clock owns the day in this regard.
Above all else, I might suggest that you hold off bringing in any dacs until you have the chance to hear the Grimm with your inboard Gryphon dac module. You can then perform back to back to back comparisons. Your next step will likely be to liquidate the 3rd place server/streamer in your shootout, Maybe even the second place as well. I contend that the Grimm has the potential to elevate the performance of well executed dacs which may not have alot of bells and whistles.
With the Jorma aes cable, you will get a better idea of what the N20 and the Grimm can do. Dont be afraid to rotate some other ethernet cables to feed these server/streamers. I can’t stress enough my disdain for the AQ diamond ethernet cable but YMMV. You will find the Grimm to be a little more ethernet, power and AES cable agnostic than others, which I consider a good thing. Also run your ethernet stream “wide open” at its fastest in the event your switch reduces speeds to a steady 100mbps (like ether regen and the like).
Best wishes in this next stage of your evaluation….you will find that the Grimm volume control will be your go to…especially since Roon makes it so easy. Unlike most server/streamers and their interface with Roon, the volume control from within Roon is intercepted by the Grimm and controlled by the Grimm for superior resolution. Most others are controlled by Roon and risk bit stripping unless run wide open. Again, not the case with the Grimm.