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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...

 

 

nyev
nyev OP
1,024 posts
 

Just finished reading the highly technical article that @svenjosh referenced explaining why digital cables less than 1.5m are not ideal.  I have the right background to understand it but I did have to read through it a couple of times to figure it out as it’s been a while.  

Here is my attempt at a one sentence explanation, assuming I understood it correctly:  A fast transition of a square wave transmitted to the DAC by the streamer will cause the DAC’s receiver to receive it a few nanoseconds later.  The DAC will register the transition and then impose that transition back on the line - slightly later.  After 3-4 “ping-pongs”’ of these reflections the timing of the digital sample can result in the transition being registered at the incorrect time.  Essentially, jitter.  A 1.5m cable will prolong this ping-pong effect with delayed propagation over a 1m cable, and the digital sample will occur prior to the damage (jitter) caused by the ping-pong effect.

Okay a bit more than one sentence :)

Here is the link to the Positive Feedback article.  For anyone technically inclined, I’d be curious to know my summary of the article is accurate….  Or if maybe I totally misunderstood it :)

 

 

richtruss
163 posts
 

There are some comments in this thread about using the PhoenixNet with the Grimm Mu-1.

The PhoenixNet only operates at 100Gb/s.

The Mu-1 gives its best performance with a 1Gb Ethernet speed. Running it at 100Mb/s will hold it back.

The Mu-1 should be used with a 1Gb/s Ethernet switch and a 1Gb/s Ethernet filter to get the best performance.

 

nyev OP
1,024 posts
 

“The PhoenixNet only operates at 100Gb/s.

The Mu-1 gives its best performance with a 1Gb Ethernet speed. Running it at 100Mb/s will hold it back.”

@richtruss thank you.  That would make a lot of sense.

svenjosh
76 posts
 

@richtruss I am not sure I understood. Why would any device run only at 100gb/s? There is no 100Gb/sec available for any home in US. Even 1Gb/s is not consistently available.

Moreover why do you need 1Gb/sec. You can get max bandwidth (192hz/24bit ) with around 10Mbps. Grimm mu1 manual recommends 50 Mbps Ethernet. Can you link a reference as to where Grimm recommends 1GB/s?

 

jedclampet
6 posts
 

Why is it that so many MU1 owners end up pairing it with a Tambaqui (or vice versa)?  It it just due to precedent, that they are both Dutch, and have both had a common designer that had a hand in their design?  Or, does this pairing actually sound better than other alternatives?  For me it’s the former I suppose.

I believe it partially due to being represented by the same distributor and imo a very good combination compared to my prior setup, which  was an AuralicAries G1 to a Playback Merlot fed by Roon off my PC.   

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