Grimm MU1 Streamer - Really "The Best"?

Ok, I have this observation in regard to MU1, look at this internal photo of Grimm, https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/grimm/2/. Now compare this to N20,https://www.aurenderamerica.com/products/n20 Aurender looks far more substantive to me, power supply alone seems much substantial.

Now, as far as impact on sound quality, I can only speculate without hearing, but when it comes to choosing equipment for purchase I rely on internal photos in part. I'd be more likely to purchase N20 vs Grimm in this case.

@sns 

Grimm chose to go in the direction of SMPS as the preferred power supply option. For the record, Antipodes has followed suit with their flagship Olandra music server. SMPS rather than linear power supply as found in their K50 server.

“Powered by a twin-PCB switching power supply developed in-house to provide the lowest possible jitter values, the MU1’s core is shaped by a NUC board that runs Linux and the Roon Core server component. Importantly, Grimm does not just rely on standard Linux or Roon packages. Refusing to use standard libraries, the Grimm team wrote their own code from the ground up. This is where the MU1 differs from other music servers and likely an important reason for why it sounds so superb”

From the Hi-Fi Advice review.

Charles

SMPS does seem like it is gaining some traction as a preferred power supply source. I've never heard it in a SOTA configuration, but would like to. You also mention Charles, that Grimm has written all their own code from the ground up. From all I've read, optimized code is one of the big influencers behind top-quality sound. Taiko is current working on XDMS, their proprietary streaming software, and by all accounts of many users on WBF, it has had a very significant impact on sound quality for their Extreme server. These are interesting times for sure.

@sns 

I owned an Innuos Zenith, I demo’d an Aurender (w20) and purchased the Grimm. Everyone should demo multiple streamers and buy what sounds best to them. In the event it is a tossup between two or more, then I guess the tiebreaker for someone could be parts count or weight? Are fewer parts or lower weight considered better or worse?

On the topic of Grimm and DAC pairings…pairing the Grimm with an nos R2R makes for a radically different (and in my mind more natural and engaging) sound. Grimm and totaldac? Home run.

I would not however be scared to pair the Grimm with DACs that do their own sampling or DSD conversion. Grimm and Tambaqui? Fantastic. Grimm and Meitner? Also fantastic (although less of a delta here vs the onboard Meitner renderer which is quite good, as compared with the Tambaqui, which has a so-so internal Ethernet renderer). As always, I speak from direct experience in my own system and not internet screenshots of what parts are under the hood. That said, YMMV.

The theory behind the above, according to Grimm, is that they think their precise clocking and sampling does the heavy lifting, making any digital sampling/conversion done by the DAC more straightforward and therefore less prone to error. That’s just their theory, but I’ve heard it in (my) practice as well.