Grimm MU1 Streamer - Really "The Best"?

Once in a blue moon a low cost product seems to rival far more expensive ones.  I had considered trying out the inexpensive Musetec DAC that many say beats much more expensive DACs, including some who say it beats the Tambaqui at a fraction of the cost.  Seems to be a lot of people who love that DAC.  The thing that made me not include the Mustec in my journey was the fact that in every instance where people claimed it beat the Tambaqui or similar more expensive DACs, the poster was feeding the DAC with a very basic and inexpensive streaming source.  My hypothesis is that the better DACs were simply better at exposing flaws of the source and therefore people concluded the cheaper DAC was best.  I’m not saying that’s what happened, it’s just a hypothesis as I said, given that I couldn’t seem to find one of these comparisons where a higher end source was used.  HiFi can be misleading like that, it’s even happed to me in this thread were I’ve attributed sonic qualities to one component only to find later that it was a different component responsible for the sonic trait.

@nyev I don’t have a problem with a lower price component sounding better but the poster claims he has not even listened to it and is making comparisons between unheard stuff. 

@nyev

My friend, on the internet anyone can say anything. But you are dead wrong about what Musetec users are feeding it with. Take the one example you cite, that of a comparison with the Tambaqui. That comparison was made here on the Musetec thread. The writer is a principal of Network Acoustics manufacturing sophisticated ethernet filters. The DAC he chooses is used for testing as well as pleasure. He has tested every variety of front end on his DACs.

I know that with 1475 posts it’s hard to figure out what streaming sources are being used by each poster, but if you ask, I’m sure they’ll let you know. There are some very high end sources being used because the DAC is worthy of them.

The DAC is considered cheap by some standards. But look at it very closely; it is not cheaply made.

In the interest of transparency, the guy who compared the Musetec with Tambaqui became a distributor for Musetec right around the time he shared his thoughts on these two dacs. Of course this doesn't necessarily mean his comparison is biased, but it is an important data point that must be taken into account when citing the example.

As for the comparison between Grimm and Gustard R26, I'm currently comparing the R26 to Pontus II at this very moment. Is the R26 streamer function as good as Grimm? Based on what I'm hearing, no ... not even close. I think the R26 streamer (not the DAC) plays at the level of Node 2i or many other sub $700 streamers in the market, but it will not outperform higher end streamers. My take on the R26 is that the value it provides is in the DAC section, which is actually very very good. But the streamer functionality is more of a convenience feature and not a serious attempt to become a giant killer. Compared to Innuos Zenith MK3 (which I recently sold) and Aavik S-280 (currently in my main system), the audible difference between R26 and these two are readily apparent. 

@arafiq 

In the interest of completeness, "the guy" wrote of the comparison months before over at head-fi, well before he became a "distributor" for which he has never done advertising.  Also, the pittance one can make being a distributor for Musetec in the UK is not going to affect the opinion of one who has a reputation to uphold for his primary business that focuses on the integrity of the incoming digital audio stream, at least IMO.