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...
Preaching to the choir.😊 The Grimm MU1 may be an exception to the rule scenario. But I definitely understand where you’re coming from in principle. I also believe that the less manipulation, the better. Charles |
@nyev I think it's silly for anyone to suggest that the dac in Gryphon is not worthy of a higher end streamer. The only reason this dac doesn't cost $10k is that the designer did not use a separate chassis and other parts. People forget that when a designer creates a module like this there are other synergies at work that allow him or her to squeeze out more performance. I heard the Gryphon with the dac last year and I think it competes favorably with standalone dacs costing up to 10K or even more. |
“People forget that when a designer creates a module like this there are other synergies at work that allow him or her to squeeze out more performance” +1, @arafiq Sometimes we can’t get pass the notion that a ‘add-on module’ can’t be as good as separate component. My $1K phono module in Accuphase performed much better than a stand-alone phono costing 3.5x. |
@lalitk From my experience, building a dac module as part of the amplifier is a tale of two cities. For example, I did not like the built-in dac in the Hegel amplifiers. Not that they were bad per se, but they could be bettered by even a $2k standalone dac. You get the feeling that it was an afterthought, or something that was added for convenience only. So people just assume that this would always be the case. But some companies, e.g. Accuphase as you mention, don't treat this as an afterthought. There is a lot of design and engineering considerations that go into the process. It also depends on the expertise/mastery of the designer. By the way, I totally agree with you regarding upsampling or downsampling. But many dacs also provide an "unsampled" option. Do you think that is good enough or is there some trickery going on behind the scenes although the manufacturer calls it unsampled? Just curious to know what your experience has been, |
Hans Beekhuyzen reviewed the MU1, praised it to the heavens and subsequently purchased and placed it in his reference system. According to him the up sampling feature can be turned off. So in this case it seems off really means off. Having said that, the majority of users universally praise the up sampling capability. Charles |
