Article: Putting Together An Audio System With Mytek, Sonus Faber, and AudioQuest

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[austinpop]

Well done, Chris! The fact that you're getting to enjoy this with your family is the only indicator of success that matters. I'm sure it sounds amazing. Enjoy your time with your daughter - these moments are priceless!

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Well done, Chris! The fact that you're getting to enjoy this with your family is the only indicator of success that matters. I'm sure it sounds amazing. Enjoy your time with your daughter - these moments are priceless!

Thanks Rajiv!

 

There's really something about listening to music through a HiFi system with friends and family. It's the best of both worlds. 

[DuckToller]

59 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Enjoy your time with your daughter - these moments are priceless!

+100

[jcbenten]

No need to stay in that stuffy classical music for the stringed instruments:

 

 

Involving my wife in music goes directly to simplicity of operation.  Hence she goes straight to the tv...try as I might, I cannot train her to hit an extra button or two to listen to music.  I have not been able get it simple enough.  I think an Alexa box is next...

 

Nice system you put together.  Surprised that you were not able to find Powered/Active speakers to meet your needs.

[Marcin_gps]

Chris, great article!

 

BTW - if anyone is looking to upgrade Mytek Bridge, JCAT OPTIMO 3  DUO PSU is one of the best upgrades according to this reviewer; http://www.highfidelity.pl/@main-1013&lang=en

 

Quote

 The JCAT power supply gave the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge the most of all the upgrades that I applied. And these were: placing it on a passive EMI/RFI Verictum X Block filter, adding the Acoustic Revive LAN-isolator RLI-1, placing mountain crystal discs (again an Acoustic Revive product) on top of it, and finally using a high-class power cable.

 

 

Cheers, 

Marcin

[DuckToller]

Chris,
if I am not mistaken, the Mytek amp uses Danish Pascal Class D amplification. Which is by the way used as well by Avantgarde Acoustic for the active elements of their speaker.

Looks like it sounds good enough for you and your family 😉
This way breakfast can quickly develop into brunch ...
Cheers, Tom

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, DuckToller said:

Chris,
if I am not mistaken, the Mytek amp uses Danish Pascal Class D amplification. Which is by the way used as well by Avantgarde Acoustic for the active elements of their speaker.

Looks like it sounds good enough for you and your family 😉
This way breakfast can quickly develop into brunch ...
Cheers, Tom

Totally Tom!

[Tone Deaf]

Nice looking and sounding system.

 

Why am I not surprised with the Pearl Jam comment?  😉

 

"The Portland Cello Project has covers of Jay-Z and Radiohead that I really like. But, it's the Brooklyn Duo's cover of Pearl Jam's Better Man that I really love."

 

And it is great that your daughter appreciates it.  You do know though that your daughter will be taking this system with her when she goes off to college....

[ted_b]

Chris, the discussion with Mytek's Michal was wonderful!  I miss seeing him; during those early DSD years of 2010-2013 I was smitten with his early products and reviewed them ad nauseum (including running three stereo192DSD's in multichannel!!).  If it wasn't for Michal's kind and generous nature, along with his special way of explaining technology I would likely never have gotten into DSD the way I did.  Thanks for the interview; I need to look him up if we ever get to socialize in person again. 

[jiminlogansquare]

Good show! What a great way to enhance time with your family. I know because I took a similar though far less ambitious step this spring, putting a single BlueSound speaker playing Roon behind the green vase on the bottom shelf of a bookcase in our living room.
 

Dinner plus music with my wife, as well as just more time together listening to music rather than me in my stereo lair, has been a marvelous thing during our pandemic summer. But it will continue to be a “thing” long after that.

 

Anyway, great story and pics, thanks for posting!

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

Good show! What a great way to enhance time with your family. I know because I took a similar though far less ambitious step this spring, putting a single BlueSound speaker playing Roon behind the green vase on the bottom shelf of a bookcase in our living room.
 

Dinner plus music with my wife, as well as just more time together listening to music rather than me in my stereo lair, has been a marvelous thing during our pandemic summer. But it will continue to be a “thing” long after that.

 

Anyway, great story and pics, thanks for posting!

 

Love it Jim!

[AudioDoctor]

Very nice!

 

On a similar scale, this is exactly what I hoped to accomplish by keeping the McIntosh MAC7200 and Sonus Faber speakers in the family room. Your daughter might like to know that the Roon lyrics option is great for Karaoke as my girls here found out one evening!

[The Computer Audiophile]

42 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

Very nice!

 

On a similar scale, this is exactly what I hoped to accomplish by keeping the McIntosh MAC7200 and Sonus Faber speakers in the family room. Your daughter might like to know that the Roon lyrics option is great for Karaoke as my girls here found out one evening!

Excellent!

[R1200CL]

 Nice, your first class D amp 😀

 

Have you tried it upstairs ?

[The Computer Audiophile]

39 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

Have you tried it upstairs ?

not yet. 

[Richard Dale]

Looks a nice system - lovely finish on the speakers. I noticed the Sonus Fabers have a large port at the rear and I wonder if that is a problem when the speakers are sited close to the rear wall. Some speakers come with foam plugs to put in the ports when you want to use them close to the wall.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, Richard Dale said:

Looks a nice system - lovely finish on the speakers. I noticed the Sonus Fabers have a large port at the rear and I wonder if that is a problem when the speakers are sited close to the rear wall. Some speakers come with foam plugs to put in the ports when you want to use them close to the wall.

Great point. This is very room dependent as you know. In my dining room it isn’t a problem. Foam plugs could be nice in some rooms. 

[RecordingsByLuis]

The speakers are ported...and you placed them against the wall (?).

[mevdinc]

Chris,
Great write up and it's very considerate and nice of you to take time and effort to provide your family members with the pleasure of quality music listening.
My daughter grew up listening to all kinds of music on my system. She eventually ended up studying (singing) at Leeds College of Music and Trinity Laban. She constantly thanks me for introducing her to many different types of music and quality listening.

Stay safe and happy listening everyone.

[ecwl]

@The Computer Audiophile Another fantastic article. Thanks.

I was wondering if you ended up measuring the system/speakers’ frequency response or ended up using some sort of EQ. I presumed not because of the diverse location of listening.

But more importantly, haha, I always measure my car speakers’ frequency response at the primary listening location and tune the Treble and Bass settings to ensure the frequency response curve is to my liking. I’m sure it won’t make the system sound like Sonus Farber but I find it makes for a much easier listening.

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, ecwl said:

@The Computer Audiophile Another fantastic article. Thanks.

I was wondering if you ended up measuring the system/speakers’ frequency response or ended up using some sort of EQ. I presumed not because of the diverse location of listening.

But more importantly, haha, I always measure my car speakers’ frequency response at the primary listening location and tune the Treble and Bass settings to ensure the frequency response curve is to my liking. I’m sure it won’t make the system sound like Sonus Farber but I find it makes for a much easier listening.

Thanks ecwl!

 

I didn't measure the system, but I've thought about having some convolution filters made for room correction just for the heck of it. The trouble is that there's no specific listening position in this system. My family is all around the room and even the adjacent rooms. 

[wm3452]

Thanks so much for a terrific piece. So happy to read about such an insightful, real-life journey. 

 

As a recent owner of the same Mytek combo and a pair of Harbeth 30.1s the interview was really revealing. I am just about to send the Amp to be upgraded to an Amp+. Now I'm even more excited about the investment.

[MarkS]

Great article.
 

I also have a small space system in my office, and the first component I choose was the Brooklyn Bridge for all the reasons you recite. It is very impressive for its size, but even not considering its size. I choose a different amp to drive the Boenicke W5se (a superlative small speaker) and went with the Kinki EX-M1 integrated (i have more space than you). I also wanted flexible interconnect and speaker cable and went with Audience AU 24sx. 

 

Now I need to spin up the Taylor Swift!

[Geoff13]

On 10 september 2020 at 8:21 PM, Marcin_gps said:

Chris, great article!

 

BTW - if anyone is looking to upgrade Mytek Bridge, JCAT OPTIMO 3  DUO PSU is one of the best upgrades according to this reviewer; http://www.highfidelity.pl/@main-1013&lang=en

 

 

 

Cheers, 

Marcin

S booster power supply makes a huge difference as well