Mytek new dac Brooklyn.

[tdflance]

My Olive is much smarter then. Just now I tried to figure out whether or not there was a difference in sound quality between the Brooklyn and my Olive 4 on its own. I scrutinely measured the output volume, and made it so, that both were equal, within say 1DB.

 

My favourite album for this purpose is the first album from the Baka People (Baka Pygmees (Cameroon), Heart of the Forest, track 4: Water Drums 1). It's spacious, contains loads of water, voices from everywhere, very 3D. The sound of splashing water is particular critical, and can reveal many differences.

Luckily I heard no differences. Later on I will have some visitors to judge for themselves. I was afraid that my Olive still was a tad better, as it adheres to the less is more paradigm.

Keep in mind that I have no regular audio set, I don't need an SBooster, and the whole set has undergone changes in the past that are also applied to the Brooklyn. It makes life cheap and joyful. I really don't need an external DAC, and if it was not for the MQA feature, I never would have bought the Brooklyn.

But I did, and so the need arose to make it on par with the other parts of the set.

 

Being busy with the comparison, I noticed (now comes the "much smarter" part) that the MQA light on the Brooklyn had turned green!!!

I played something else, and it stayed green. Very old cd's from an era that did not know anything about MQA, I can assure you.

I rebooted the Brooklyn, and to my relief MQA was grey again.

But... how can this be?

I got MQA for free?

 

Marc

 

Last night I experienced something similar. I turned on the Brooklyn and noticed the MQA was lit up Green. I played some files through Tidal, and MQA light continued to be green. The volume seemed to be a bit louder than normal. I then played a DSD file and MQA light greyed out. I then replayed a file through Tidal and the MQA light remained greyed out.

[tdflance]

BTW my setup is Lightning DS App → Auralic Aries → Mytek Brooklyn

[tdflance]

Yes, interesting. I'm connected with AES Digital from my streamer to Brooklyn. I will try again after work to see if i can reproduce it. My thought was that Tidal implemented MQA streaming but i don't think that's the case...not yet anyway. I looked up your Olive device, seems like a great device. What's interesting is why Green,, because my understanding is that green indicates it recognizes MQA file type but is not decoding it.

- sean

[tdflance]

I did just submit a ticket to Mytek Support regarding this.

[tdflance]

No word from Mytek support yet. I did try and reproduce the incident after work, and could not replicate it again. So instead, my son and I spent the rest of the evening listening and enjoying music:)

[tdflance]

Update from Mytek Support: Here's the response I received from support this morning - "Have you selected MASTER in Tidal settings? - it will light up the MQA in green". The problem with this for me is that i'm using the Lightning DS app on iPad pro with Aries streamer and i have no way of going into the Tidal Settings...

[tdflance]

If Tidal does something already with MQA (I didn't think so), then that could make sense. In my situation I have no Tidal, I did not play anything that had something of MQA in it. First an iso (ripped DVD) with my AV-player, then some old fashioned FLAC's from cd's I had ripped years ago.

 

Should I open a ticket?

 

Marc

 

Hi Marc - Ok, that's good to know. I would suggest opening a ticket as i think the more tickets Mytek gets I believe it should raise the priority and visibility of the incident. I really would like to know what is happening. The other interesting thing i noticed with my situation is the bit rate was higher as well, instead of 16 bit, it was reading 24 bit. I wish i could reproduce it.

[tdflance]

I believe the "Master" setting was only available for a period of time during big audio conferences and inadvertently some users of Tidal were able to see it and select it. Tidal has since removed that option so that is why I was surprised and confused by Mytek's response about it...like it was available again or something. I have replied back to Mytek asking them to clarify this for me and no response yet. I remain dazed and confused..

I'll keep you all informed as i get any information.

[tdflance]

Hi Marc - Ok, that's good to know. I would suggest opening a ticket as i think the more tickets Mytek gets I believe it should raise the priority and visibility of the incident. I really would like to know what is happening. The other interesting thing i noticed with my situation is the bit rate was higher as well, instead of 16 bit, it was reading 24 bit. I wish i could reproduce it.

 

I finally heard back again from Mytek support. Mytek said that they have been able to reproduce MQA "green" light without playing an actual MQA file. Mytek also said to ignore their comment regarding the "Master" setting in Tidal as it does Not exist. They will have a fix in the next firmware update for the MQA "green" light for non MQA files.

[tdflance]

Agreed on the terminology regarding incident vs problem, ITIL:) I wasn't bothered by the bug either, in fact i was more intrigued by it than anything...almost as if they were experimenting with Tidal and other file types with MQA. Oh well, guess we will never know the true reason for this or it was just simply a bug...

[tdflance]

Agreed on the Mytek sound with the Sbooster. I really like the sound. What voltage is yours set at?

[tdflance]

Nice! That's cool about the fuse though. I've had Sbooster set @13v as well. The Mytek seems to run a bit warm, i think that's normal operating mode though. I'm running an Aries through it.

[tdflance]

I'm curious about the IFI DC. I'll have to check it out. And yes, the Sbooster continuously runs cool. I have one on my Aries streamer as well running with the Ultra booster.

[tdflance]

I'm curious if anyone here has/is using the phono stage in the Brooklyn for an MC cart. If so, what do you think of the sound? And do you feel there is enough gain for a low output MC cart? I haven't used it yet myself but I have another turntable that I may add to the mix but before I go and add another shelf and connect everything up, i thought i'd ask first.

Thanks

-sean

[tdflance]

Long time lurker first time post.

 

Has anyone done a comparison between the Brooklyn and Benchmark Dac2 HGC?

I've only read up to page 25 in this thread so I'm not sure if this has been discussed.

I'm borrowing the Benchmark currently and it's a big step up from my iFi Micro DSD.

 

Would love to hear the Brooklyn and compare.

I live in the Los Angeles area.

 

Thanks so much....Larry

 

Hey Larry! I just wanted to welcome you mostly is all being that i'm a newbie myself. I haven't personally done a direct comparison but the shop in which i purchased my Brooklyn is a professional studio audio gear shop and they do sell both the brooklyn and the benchmark. I asked a similar question to these guys who again are in the professional studio business and hands down they preferred the sound of the brooklyn for sure over the benchmark. Hope that helps, it definitely helped support my decision.

[tdflance]

With MQA disabled, you get a new choice: Mastering. It can be Off, Mono, L-R and "MS". As there is no new manual, does anyone know the meaning and purpose?

 

Marc

 

I think, but not sure, it is "Mid-Side" processing. Different type of stereo processing. Here's a link with some info. Again, i'm just guessing.

https://theproaudiofiles.com/mid-side-processing/

[tdflance]

Yes, it is interesting as i think the influence is due to their background in music studio equipment. Not sure I will use many of these features personally.

[tdflance]

If i understood the review on the phono stage, it was very favorable. I have another high end table that i'm trying to make room for to connect it to the Mytek to see how it sounds. It might be a while as it looks like i will need to build a shelf for my other table.

[tdflance]

I just wanted to report out that over the weekend I connected up another turntable of mine (VPI Traveler) to the Mytek phono stage. I used both a MM and a low output MC cartridge. I was very impressed! I was really surprised that the Mytek had enough gain for the low output MC cartridge. The sound was very smooth, detailed, warm and open with both new and old vinyl pressings. I was so impressed that I decided to test my main turntable (Pro-ject Xtension 10) with a Sumiko Pearwood Celebration II MC cartridge. For this table, I've been using a Lehmann Audio Black Cube SE II phono stage. Again, I was very impressed with the Mytek phono stage. I still need to do some A/B tests but again, I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance.

[tdflance]

Nice! My opinion is the Brooklyn is the best value out there and kicks butt as a DAC, I really like the sound of it and I also have an AURALIC Vega that I really enjoy but the Brooklyn continues to impress me.

[tdflance]

Could you compare them for me?

( Brooklyn vs Vega)

I wanna know that , is it different much?

 

I think I like both DACs for different reasons. I think the Vega is closer to a warm analog sound as compared to the Brooklyn. I remember when i first listened to the Vega and I was so amazed how "not digital" it sounded. It is very polite and has a deep soundstage. However, it is less forgiving on recordings that aren't great whereas i find the Brooklyn very forgiving. I also like the punch and bass from the Brooklyn and it boogies very well. The Vega also lacks many of the features that the Brooklyn has. But at the end of the day, for complete sound quality alone, I would still pick the Vega especially when I run the clock in "exact" mode. But like I said, the Brooklyn is amazing, there isn't a win or lose on either DAC. Both are a testament of technology advances in computer audiophile and I feel very fortunate that I'm able to experience.

Hope that helps,

[tdflance]

Thank you so much. ^^

Actually i love analog sound. Before i bought brooklyn, Vega and PS direct stream junior are also on my list.

 

I don't know that i chosen a wrong choice or what? Brooklyn produce very clear sound and very good detail but like you mentioned, it sounds digitaly. I compared it to my old DAC (Nad M51), M51 sounded more musical and more fluid than Brooklyn even though M51 sounded noisier than Brooklyn.

When i play some piano or violin tune, i always miss NAD M51.

But Brooklyn is good for rock and metal music.

 

By the way, have you ever compared Vega to Ayre QB9 DSD or PS DS Junior? How was it?

 

I personally don't think you made a wrong choice at all. It's definitely not a night a day comparison between the two. My brother listened to both and he really liked the Brooklyn, he was very blown away. Also, to add to the equation that i'm not running my DACs through a PC, but running them both through the Auralic Aries. I'm also running an Sbooster LPS on the Brooklyn and the Aries. Plus, I have Not tested the sound of the Brooklyn through the XLR Balanced to my amp (using nice interconnects), but I'm running the Vega through the XLR Balanced, mainly because the Vega takes more advantage of the balanced connection. That would probably be my next test though.

In addition, you throw MQA into the mix, and that Brooklyn sounds unbelievable, my brother almost fell out of his chair. The Vega obviously doesn't support MQA.

[tdflance]

Tidal is now streaming MQA. But, only through the desktop application.

only through the TIDAL desktop application

[tdflance]

I was able to test it out last night, and yes, it sounds GREAT. It's nice for a change to listen to some mainstream artists on MQA instead of just the classical music I've had from 2L. My wife also sat down and said "this sounds really good".

My only gripe is that it is limited to the desktop app for now. I really would like it to work through my AURALIC Aries that has Tidal integration connected to the Brooklyn. I really prefer not running from the desktop app, as I think the laptop is noisy.

[tdflance]

Make a MQA playlist in the desktop app and film it with Tidal Masters. Import the playlist in LDS and play an album. Watch the blue light!

 

Ok, wow. First, thanks for this reply. Just a couple questions, what do you mean by "film it" ? And I apologize for my ignorance, how to I import a playlist in LDS? thanks again