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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
1,026 posts
 

@ghasley should have both next week, however I need to travel for work and will be gone most of the week which is terrible.  And my wife said she will NOT set everything up to commence burn-in while I’m on the road….

ghasley
2,436 posts
 

Well, since you are already married you will have to let that slide LOL. Breakin for the Grimm is only a few day and Shunyata’s newwer cables are minimal as well. Looking forward to you achieving your goals.

metaldetektor
148 posts
 

Waiting for the “I didn’t think it could get better but then I added the Grimm and new ICs” follow up :-)

nyev OP
1,026 posts
 

Over the past two nights I’ve noticed sound with the Tambaqui to be significantly clearer with greater dynamics and more dimensionality at night, after midnight. Which is typical for most people I know, but the difference between day and night has become a bit more noticeable with the Tambaqui I think. My theory on why this is, is either the Tambaqui has greater headroom in terms of performance so with clean power the boost is more noticeable, or, that the Tambaqui is particularly sensitive to dirtier power. Certainly don’t see those big transformers in the small Tambaqui that larger DACs have.

I had this issue in my system before and the solution was to upgrade everything to the extent things sounded acceptable during the day. And the Tambaqui still sounds great in the day. But late night listening spoils me a bit.

Unfortunately I have found that while conditioners do reduce noise, the relative difference between day and night remains, as both day and night get better. That said I find conditioners adversely affect tonal balance and as such I went with a Torus RM20 isolation transformer instead. Which also reduces noise but without impacting balance, and not resolving the day/night difference (day/night improves equally so gap remains).

I’ve concluded there is no solution short of what I’ve read that some audiophiles have done: at their expense, convince their power company to upgrade the city transformer feeding their house. That’s not happening!

fleschler
1,922 posts
 

I agree and also purchased the same Torus isolation transformer from Bryston Bit-20.  However, as my system evolved and became better the day/night conundrum dissipated.  Biggest change in a decade has been SR fuses, now with a mix of blue and purple which made EAR equipment which was relegated to back-up status now the stars of my electronics.

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