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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@ghasley thanks again, and this time I’ve already been thinking along the lines of your advice :) I admit I still hang onto the dream of being satisfied with my current DAC and staying true to my original objective - which I know is probably unlikely. Even if the Grimm does everything I want and more, you and others have convinced me to try an outboard DAC just to see. For all these reasons I am not planning to buy any DAC(s) at this point. I admit I might have a moment of weakness if a used Holo KTE comes up for a good price. But that aside , not going there at this point. BUT - One thing that bugs me, in the back of my mind sort of way, is how many thousands of hours my poor Diablo has been run simply breaking in other gear, cables, etc. The Diablo does get quite hot - like a very warm (but not scalding) cup of coffee - due to its small amount of Class A power. For this reason, it DID cross my mind that I might want to buy a very cheap used DAC, simply so I can have the new server circuits running with a connection, so my Diablo can have some rest…. Not sure if this is a silly concern or not!!
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On the subject of Grimm DACs, no the MU1 has no onboard DAC. It is in the same class of product as the N20 and K50, but with its FPGA upsampling board. The other thing that distinguishes it is that currently, it only supports Roon. But as @ghasley said, the MU1 intercepts things and the usual disadvantages of Roon don’t apply to the MU1. Grimm have gone to great lengths to do this. Now, the truly interesting product which is long overdue is the MU2. I believe it’s about two years late coming out now. The MU2 will have an onboard DAC. Not sure if it will finally launch this year. But I have read that MU1 owners expect to have the option to upgrade to a MU2. I’m not sure how this upgrade works, but sounds good. Another reason to hold off on purchasing any DACs I suppose. Other forums report incremental improvements in the MU1’s sound with firmware updates (as has been reported with other servers updates too). The most recent being the 1.5 update in December. People report a denser, bigger midrange, however they did report this effect gives the top end less of an edge. But overall thought it was an improvement. I don’t like thinner sounding midranges, that’s one reason I like the N20. Prior to the December firmware release, I read that Grimm had actually overhauled the code that does their onboard upsampling. I like how they present each firmware update as a labour of love, indicating how long they’ve been working on it will all the value it provides. In one of their firmware release notes they sadly said that they failed to enable the FM tuner hardware that is on the MU1 with their firmware release, with the resulting sound not being up to Grimm’s standards. They announced they were giving up on this notion. I’m thinking this was an April Fools joke, as that particular release was in April. Either way, funny! |
The MU1 doesnt have an internal dac, it is a D to D only via an AES/EBU connection to a dac. Yes, I have a Totaldac D1-Tube-Mk3 which has three dac ladders per channel and a two tube 12au7 output stage. I have played around with the Grimm upsampling at 4fs, 2fs and then disabled. It sounds quite good with each and its really dependent on the recording. For instance, I happen to almost seek out a well recorded 16/44.1 recording over some (I repeat, SOME, not all) higher resoluton versions of a given piece of music. It seems there is something really special when the Grimm gets ahold of a really good 16/44.1 file and runs it through its 4fs upsampling and outputs it to 24/192. Quite special to my ears.
Seriously though, I went through all the right brain, various iterations of the options and I have just left it on 4fs and forget about it. I just listen and enjoy these days.
Indeed, the Merason utilizes two Burr Brown 1794a dac chips in dual mono. To many ears it competes well with well executed R2r ladder dacs. I mentioned it as a very well built but no frills non-oversampling option with an excellent output stage for very reasonable money. At least it used to be very reasonable money at ~$5k...its now an $8k dac.
The Grimm firmware updates are well done, you are correct. I must admit though...I just dont hear "night and day", "a veil has been lifted", "my wife walked into the room and asked what I had changed", "my jaw dropped" kind of comments I read all too often. It just sounds great. BUT....so did the Aurender I demo’d and while the Grimm MU1 clearly outperformed the Innuos Zenith Mk3 that I owned at the time, I was never unhappy with the Innuos. In my system, I appreciate the Grimm remote volume implementation almost as much as some other independent components as my amplification of choice doesnt have a remote volume control.
Some rumors of the MU2 are a little off the mark. I have heard, although unsubstantiated by anyone with good knowledge, that the dac section for the MU2 is (once again, rumor) being contributed to by Bruno Putzey of Mola Mola Tambaqui fame. Evidently they are good friends and have collaborated in the past.
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