Mytek Brooklyn comments?

[Mike Pinkerton]

I'm in the market for a DSD-capable DAC in the $2k range. I initially went for an Auralic Altair, but had so many firmware issues I had to return it. So I'm shopping again and keep coming back to the Mytek Brooklyn. 

 

On the surface, the Brooklyn looks great and has a lot of positive reviews (including Stereophile). That said, the Stereophile review is overall a bit lackluster. My takeaway is that there's nothing bad about this unit, but it has so many features crammed into it that it probably doesn't excel at any of them. I don't need a phono preamp. I don't need a headphone amp. I just want a top-notch DAC. I start to question if the Brooklyn would still be $2k if it was just a DAC, and other reviews have alluded to that as well. Do folks have first-hand experiences with it and are happy?

 

Part of me wants to splurge on the Manhattan II, but I just can't bring myself to pay $5k for something when I doubt I can hear the difference. 

 

Thanks!

-mike

[Mike Pinkerton]

Yeah, I know. I’ve read that thread, it’s not terribly helpful at 100 pages long. 

[Mike Pinkerton]

I'll re-read it, thanks for the suggestion.

 

I think what I'm most concerned with in the Stereophile review is that most of the article is spent talking about Brooklyn itself (the city, musicians that come from it, the tour of the office, etc) and background of some of the music that was auditioned. Very little of it talks about the actual performance of the device, culminating in a vague description that he enjoyed listening to it. On the other hand, the ManhattanII review was very detailed and enthusiastic. 

 

"Apart from all that, there are two things you need to know about the Brooklyn. First, it's basically a pro DAC. It has all the features the audio professional needs, and it will play exactly what's on a recording, including what you might not want to hear. [...] Second, it has a consumer-friendly feature set:"

 

The conclusion It doesn't mention anything about performance, it talks solely about the feature set.

 

Am I reading too much into it? Or is this the closest Stereophile will ever get to saying "bits are bits, who cares"?

 

[Mike Pinkerton]

Read through all 101 pages (well, skipped the first 15 since they were from before the device was shipping). Whew!

 

I’m disappointed at the number of firmware issues and the lack of discrete IR codes for power and input selection. But overall it seems people are mostly happy. I’m still bothered by the Stereophile review, I’m not sure why there was so little chatter about it. Maybe it’s bcause JA’s measurement were so good. 

[Mike Pinkerton]

17 minutes ago, JDoyle said:

I liked Hans Beekhuyzen's review on YouTube...

 

 

Thanks, that was helpful!

 

i think I’m sold, appreciate everyone’s help!