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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
fastfreight
685 posts
 

Hello all, My Grimm MU1 arrives tomorrow and will run my roon core and stream directly over AES to my Tambaqui.  Since I have another nice system on my network, a MM Makua with onboard Tambaqui, this system will  receiving streaming over LAN connection.  I am sure from what I have heard the main AES connection to my Tambaqui will be awesome.   I can't wait to try it!  but will the Grimm improve my second (LAN connected) system?  It has been mentioned that the Grimm has less processing power to run Core than my Nucleus+.

So I can move my hot rodded Aries G2.1 to my second system...

 

I reached out to Grimm:

Dear Ken,

Thank you for checking out the MU1!

To answer most of your questions: yes, the MU1 will replace the Nucleus, no problem. It has similar functionality. Important is to use it for your main system via its AES outputs, but I read you already knew that.

There will be very little to no advantage of the MU1 over the Nucleus for your Zone 2 system since it is just a Roon core with a nice power supply for that.

The Certified Roon End Point function of the next software update (due in quite a few months...) will add little functionality. Only customers with huge databases (> 30000 albums or so) will need a more powerful computer for the Roon Core and they will benefit. If you like to use a second MU1 in your system, you can stream to it without problems. For the track information to become visible however you need to wait until the MU1 has become a Certified Roon End Point.

Please enjoy the MU1!

Kind regards,

Eelco Grimm

 

So the option of a MU1 as streamer only will come with a software update!

 

nyev OP
1,026 posts
 

@svenjosh , can’t wait to hear of your testing of the Sablon and Nordost AES cables vs the Shunyata AES!  I ended up buying the Shunyata Omega AES (hasn’t arrived yet), after first trying to find a Jorma cable.  If there is any way for you to try a Jorma I suggest  adding it to try alongside the Sablon and Nordost.  Like the Omega and Sablon, the Jorma seems to be mentioned a lot in pro reviews and in forums and is apparently good with the MU1 and K50.  But I just couldn’t find one!  Very interested in Sablon and Nordost though!

@fastfreight we receive our MU1’s on the same day…. What AES cable are you using?


 

 

metaldetektor
148 posts
 

Hard to find for unfortunate reasons, but the black cat tron AES is very much worth trying, if you can find one.

nyev OP
1,026 posts
 

Received my MU1 (still no AES cable though).  Powered it up and configured Roon.  However, I'm not able to access the internal 2 TB drive to load files.  Also, the instructions say that I'm to add sdb1 to the Roon storage folder (per my serial number as directed by the manual, and because there is no HEAP found), however when I go to the mnt folder per the instructions, there is no sdb1 listed (I see sda1, sda2, sda3 only). 

Also, when I go to the IP address in Windows File Explorer, it takes me to the Roondata folder which is password protected, and not a Music folder like the instructions indicate.

Am I doing something wrong?  Or is there something wrong where it's not finding the hard drive?

I won't be able to troubleshoot until the weekend unfortunately, as I'll be travelling the rest of the week!  @fastfreight I'd be interested in your experience!  @svenjosh , I believe you had a demo unit but if your serial number is higher than 13.0.002.XXX then the process should be the same as with my unit.

fastfreight
685 posts
 

Fed Ex is not my friend.

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