Mytek Brooklyn Dac +

Mikey081057

Considering a dedicated DAC and since I do listen to Tidal alot this one jumps out... Anybody have any experience with Mytek? They seem to have a vg reputation. Any thoughts?

http://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2017/11/8/mytek-brooklyn-dac-

Mikey081057

So I been thinking about this for a while now and did some research and decided on the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ . I spoke to Michal on the phone and I asked him a bunch of dumb questions and he was awesome and very patient. The unit will be back in stock and friday and he offered to overnite it to me at his expense so it will arrive here next week sometime. He even convinced me to try the phono pre. I might then take my budgie pre out of the chain too.

All reviews I could find had the DAC+ as a very solid performer in it's price class and I can't wait to install it in my rig with my Ushers and Halo A21 and let y'all know.

SCompRacer

There are some threads over at Computer Audiophile that say good things about the Brooklyn DAC. If you haven't already, check them out.

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/forum/6-dac-digital-to-analog-conversion/

mikeyb128

This was on my short list as well. Look forward to hearing what you think of it. It looks very nice.

Mikey081057

Her is the older model reviewed

The DAC+ has upgraded Sabre 9028Pro chipset

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfJYHhONdSI

Mikey081057

http://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2017/11/8/mytek-brooklyn-dac-

SCompRacer

Twisted Pear finally released their DAC with the ES9028Pro/ES9038Pro chips. I went simple with the 9028.

The over-sampling filters and IIR filter are much improved over the ES9018. While the 9018 only had two filters, the 9028/9038 has eight. The 9028/9038 output is higher than the 9018.

Brickwall
Hybrid fast roll-off minimum phase
Apodizing fast roll-off linear phase
Slow roll-off minimum phase
Fast roll-off minimum phase (default)
Slow roll-off linear phase
Fast roll-off linear phase

The ES9028/38 Jitter Eliminator technology has undergone some very important changes in regard to how it can be configured including a new sync mode feature. It also has some interesting configuration around trade offs like initial lock speed and DPLL bandwidth that are completely new compared to the ES9018.

The ES9028 and ES9038 are near identical except for the analog output section. The 9038 output is duplicated 4 times and connected in parallel. The ES9038 was designed for 8 channel operation. Of course it will work well in stereo and mono mode but you need an output stage that can handle its high current output.

You'll be fine with Mytek, they know the ES DAC chip well.

msg

Man, that seems like a nice piece of gear. I wonder if it can do justice on each level it offers? DAC, Phono Pre, and Headphone Amp?

Mikey081057

I am going to take the Budgie phono pre out of the loop and try it. Reviews I read said the phono pre was good so we will see.

I will connect the Bluesound Node2 to SPDIF1

I am also going to hook my SA8004 into the second SPDIF2

I will also experiment connecting into my P5 pre balanced vs unbalanced.

I have read tons on this product for the last year or so while making my decision and then the new version (DAC+) came out.

Mikey081057

Received and hooked it up...

Comes double boxed and the inner box reminded me of the way Oppo packages their units...Nice

The unit is compact and has a HEAVYish feel to it for it's size/dimensions.

As I was thinking I figured I would still have to leave the the SA8004 connected to the P5 via analog as I recall reading that everything BUT SACD will play out of the digital outputs.

The setup takes about 5 minutes to walk thru with a lot of settings to toggle I have put many of them on ignore for now. The 4 buttons select the menu item and the multipurpose push/rotary knob becomes pretty easy once it sinks in.

I have the BlueSound Node 2 Via SPDIF coax with external MQA decoding set.

Output vol's on the DAC+ and the Node2 at "fixed". Even with it set to fixed the volume for the headphones could still be enabled.

Using unbalanced RCA's into line level input of the P5.

Phono into analog inputs of the DAC+. Going to try that a bit later.

I'm playing a Tidal MQA playlist.

Initial Observations Are:

Excellent Build Quality.

Well packaged and documentation is very well laid out.

Sound Quality... I expected that the DAC+ would outperform the Marantz SA8004's DAC and the difference is BIG. Sounds great at reference levels very detailed without any perceptible coloring. No noticable jitter as you would expect from a DAC in this price range.

At lower volumes you still get very satisfying SQ... Digital audio can be missing stuff at low volumes and this seems mitigate that to my surprise.

Soundstage depth and width is huge and just bring out the the best feature/strength of the Ushers. I keep looking at my center channel knowing there is nothing coming out of it.

Listening to an MQA version of Slack Key Soquel Rag by the Doobies, an acoustic track, is sweet and uncolored. No noise. Very "pure".

To me the biggest standout is how the music becomes what I call "uncompressed" bringing out all of the dynamics that the artists and audio engineers intended for us to hear.

So far.... Life is GOOD!

Mikey081057

Mikey081057

Listened to some vinyl with the Budgie vs the Mytek phono pre. I'm not sure if 1 less pair of cables in the signal chain would make the difference but the Mytek is much quieter than the Budgie other than that I think the Mytek sounds better at all volume levels but especially at higher vols where there is no virtually no noise. Reminds me of my old Musical Surroundings Phonomena II. The Budgie will be going in the Flea Market FS thread with the upgraded tubes and the originals. A good deal it will make for someone.

Nightfall

Tubes in a phono pre will always have background noise, solid state does much better.

When I switched from Amperex Holland 12AX7's to a new pair of (then) prototype triple mica Psvane tubes my background noise went way down.

http://psvanetube.com/wordpress/store/products/shuguang-custom-12ax7-lx-special-edition-pair-low-noise-triple-mica/

mikeyb128

It’s a budget tube unit, so it’s going to have some noise. All phono Tube phono pres DO NOT have noise. My current tube phono is as quiet as solid state.

Mikey081057

So the Budgie is relatively quiet when I put a $120 set of NOS Tesla ecc83's in it... But the DAC+ phono pre is good enough for now and it allows me to eliminate some cabling and components from the signal chain. The SoundSmith Carmen is a winner and mates up nicely so far.

tonyb

Glad your diggin' it....now talk to me about tone, weight, musicality.

Mikey081057

So it makes everything sound like the way it was recorded. It doesn't seem to color anything. Now there are controls but with my current rig I have everything bypassed. To me it always seems to sound better that way. And for that occasional bad recording well I don't know if muddying it up with tone controls really helps anyway. It has been running for about 24 hours now and is opening up a little. But this DAC is very musical. Now the Ushers and the sub blended in are just about all I could ask for. The tweets in the ushers are about as sweet as can be in their price range. I have added a ROON subscription today and find the interface between streaming services and network attached devices to be very easy to comprehend.... Now if I could just get off the phone today...

Nightfall

mikeyb128 wrote: »

It’s a budget tube unit, so it’s going to have some noise. All phono Tube phono pres DO NOT have noise. My current tube phono is as quiet as solid state.

I just go off of what I've been told. Thanks a lot @mhardy6647

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2215761/#Comment_2215761

Mikey081057

I switched over to listen to some vinyl again and can certainly live with this as my vinyl pre...

I am also digging ROON... The UI is the best I have seen so far and works with just about any networked audio device and music server/storage. Very easy to use.... JRiver made my head hurt.

Mikey081057

Roon is so intuitive compared to JRiver.... Wish you could hear the DAC+ on your old Ushers

Check out Mytek in your travels.. Definitely worth comparing

Mikey081057

Been listening to this setup now for a couple of days and have it dialed in nicely. The ROON app is definitely a game changer. ROON Radio can play forever and automagically takes over(If you select it too) when your album or playlist finishes. ROON gives you lyrics and info on your signal source/path. Pretty amazing.




The DAC+ is working flawlessly. Tidal HiFi and MQA sound amazingly rich... the Ushers have disappeared. Incredible uncluttered detail.

Mikey081057

Did a little more tweaking today.

Upgraded my digital coax to a new WireWorld Starlight 7

Connected Dac+ to P5 with .5M pair of AQ King Cobra balanced interconnects.

Keeps gettin' sweeter.