Mytek Brooklyn Bridge II Streamer Review

[KSTR]

Does it happen in loudness war production when crushing everything to the max ?

Yes. Even a perfectly conforming input signal, properly band-limited by the recording ADC will stop being properly band-limited with heavy dynamic processing or by just simple hard-clipping. Same goes for intersample-overs.
The best way to mitigate this is processing at a much higher sample rate like 4x or 8x and apply proper filtering and IS-over protection before down-sampling to the final rate.

 

[Angsty]

The funny thing in that is that previous Mytec stuff use SMPS

Maybe time to upgrade for the followers?

(I admit I'm a sucker for linears,I would put Salas in my coffee machine if I could )

Clearly, the design faults of the Mytek are not just about linear vs. switching, but several other compounding issues.

It’s been demonstrated that linear power supplies are not uniformly better than switching power supplies in audio applications. The Benchmark AHB2 is one of the most notable examples. Linears are superior in some applications, but the design engineer has to decide what tradeoffs to make.

I love what Michael Fidler has written about his use of linear power supplies in his phono preamps, both unregulated and regulated. Ron Sutherland points to a different set of tradeoffs in his SMPS-powered preamps.

 

[Sokel]

Clearly, the design faults of the Mytek are not just about linear vs. switching, but several other compounding issues.

It’s been demonstrated that linear power supplies are not uniformly better than switching power supplies in audio applications. The Benchmark AHB2 is one of the most notable examples. Linears are superior in some applications, but the design engineer has to decide what tradeoffs to make.

I love what Michael Fidler has written about his use of linear power supplies in his phono preamps, both unregulated and regulated. Ron Sutherland points to a different set of tradeoffs in his SMPS-powered preamps.

Sometimes is about the visuals too if you mess with this stuff (apart that is far easier),the total lack of harmonics in a nice linear makes nice charts.
Here a silly one of my 15-0-15.It's not even made with 78/7915 but with double 7815 from the drawer,the old DIY hack.

It's on one of the x-overs I have to play with,so a 80Hz is more suitable for detecting as with 1Khz everything lower than 250Hz (the filter freq) would be greatly suppressed.



Nice and clean all the way,simple and will probably outlast me.
The fact that the filter is on (there's no other way,it's analog) adds extra points as filters can mess up things big time.

Edit:Here's one I took good care off,sadly it maxes my old interface's ability to measure it,I need a Cosmos ASAP:

Actif analog crossovers

Seems to me there are lots of benefits to using actif analog crossovers over DSP crossovers, if you are using a Dac to convert to analog then using a dsp, are you not converting back to digital? Can't be good. If you are using an actif analog crossover you don't need a 8 chanel Dac. Also with a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[IamJF]

Mytec can write whatever they want about the "sound" of their units. It has a lot of hum and can't even switch the filters - I would rate it a defect unit when it doesn't fulfill manufacturers specs.
Mytec is a valued name in the studio world ... after this post from the owner - not any more. Would never buy a device from them now.

 

[AlfaNovember]

> claim that he can hear filter difference down to almost -200dB

This amuses me. -200dB what? u? V? FS? That's something raised to the negative 9th power, innit? Regardless, that's gotta be like hearing the lightbulb warm up the room I'm sitting in.

 

[Mnyb]

> claim that he can hear filter difference down to almost -200dB

This amuses me. -200dB what? u? V? FS? That's something raised to the negative 9th power, innit? Regardless, that's gotta be like hearing the lightbulb warm up the room I'm sitting in.

I think it's even worse scale is down in the Brownian motion of dust molecules in the air .

Speaking of the air ? those molecules move randomly ? if by miracle the -200dB popped out on the other end of the electronics and speakers ( which also is impossible in it's own way ) those faint soundwaves would be "destroyed" just by the random shuffling around by the air molecules

 

[Mnyb]

I think it's another kind of magic thinking mr watts use to fool himself and or the customers , the filter differences may show up at -300dB ( He has improved to -200dB ? it used to be -300dB ) in measurements . I think the magic thinking is that this somehow translates to some elusive unmeasurable quantity that does not show in the other measurements in the audio band ?

If we want to be positive the good thing is that chord i probably alone in having an actual proper filter , most other dac's have a bit lazy filters that leaks a itsy bitsy tiny bit .
It's not audible but technically it could be better . But at a cost a you could make much more substantial improvement in your hifi before considering this .

 

[ExUnoPlura]

I think it's even worse scale is down in the Brownian motion of dust molecules in the air .

Speaking of the air ? those molecules move randomly ? if by miracle the -200dB popped out on the other end of the electronics and speakers ( which also is impossible in it's own way ) those faint soundwaves would be "destroyed" just by the random shuffling around by the air molecules

I found a paper (link dumped in the Roon thread) that shows that Chinese first-language speakers can kind of make out tonal events -6 to -12dB SNR embedded in a Gaussian background noise. Even such modest capabilities impressed me. There's some interesting work on how we discern speech (rather than tones) in various types of noisy backgrounds, but I haven't found any good results on sensing music signals in a noise field, but it is likely in the range...no reason to do that study?

 

[Mnyb]

I found a paper (link dumped in the Roon thread) that shows that Chinese first-language speakers can kind of make out tonal events -6 to -12dB SNR embedded in a Gaussian background noise. Even such modest capabilities impressed me. There's some interesting work on how we discern speech (rather than tones) in various types of noisy backgrounds, but I haven't found any good results on sensing music signals in a noise field, but it is likely in the range...no reason to do that study?

We can hear down under the noise , but thats the ”normal” noise like the hiss on some CD’s or LP or Cassete

Ponder the supernatural ability when your program material is all noise from -80 dB and you still hear stuff -200dB

dB is logarithmic-12dB is really impressive in its own rigth !!

 

[IamJF]

I found a paper (link dumped in the Roon thread) that shows that Chinese first-language speakers can kind of make out tonal events -6 to -12dB SNR embedded in a Gaussian background noise. Even such modest capabilities impressed me. There's some interesting work on how we discern speech (rather than tones) in various types of noisy backgrounds, but I haven't found any good results on sensing music signals in a noise field, but it is likely in the range...no reason to do that study?

That's pretty normal, at least down to 8-10dB. A wide band noise has distributed power over all frequencies - look at the spectrum, the level at frequencies is lower as the integrated over all value from 20-20kHz. You can easily see a -10dB sine in the spectrum!
And we are way more sensitive to a singel sine as distributed noise.

There was an Audio Precision test CD with sine signals at -100dBfs - and a CD player can reproduce that and you can measure it in the noise of the player! Doesn't sound good ;-) but it's there.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Shots fired...

Mytek Brooklyn Bridge ll with Roon…is it ever shipping?

I read this “review”. Unfortunately the SCIENCE at audioscienreview.com seems to be from the mid 20th century. We are now 70 years later and there is an ample science on brain and psychoacoutics that these guys seem not to even know about. ASR founder Amir WRONGLY assumes that low THD is the...

community.roonlabs.com

Where is he getting the idea that there is an “angry attacking mob?” I don’t think anyone is angry, but rather stating matter-of-fact that middling measured performance for many thousands of dollars is a poor value proposition.

I get it—the Mytec does a lot of things crammed into a small box. Something had to give. As a result, the level of performance is not commensurate with its high price.

 

[Billy Budapest]

He should have used his time more usefully usefully improving his product.
Keith

Some companies like Schiit and CEntrance respond to ASR by reengineering their products for better performance (and thus better value).

 

[Billy Budapest]

What I don’t understand is since Brooklyn has an Audio Precision analyzer why does his product measure so poorly ?

It’s easy for me to understand. Features and size were prioritized over audio performance. Audio performance is still “good enough” and should be audibly transparent. However, you can get audibly transparent for many thousands of dollars less.

 

[Billy Budapest]

He expresses surprise that the Apple dongle is deemed *better* or *as good as* an exalted dac costing thousands (or words to that effect), yet output level and zero facilities aside, that damned Apple thing DOES sound good to the subjectivists ears and if your sound system has enough gain, I reckon it's all you need from a computer or suitable Apple phone... I suspect much of it is knee-jerk really, but to suggest Amir knows nothing about 'audio?' Beggars belief frankly.

Apple has enough money to be both a marketing-driven and engineering-driven company. I am not surprised they have been able to eke out the level of performance they have from their cheap, tiny dongles. A lot of brainpower (and development money) has gone into them.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Or put more generally, the art is the music, not the reproduction. Reproduce the art faithfully and you've done the work justice.

Very insightful.

 

[Purité Audio]

Some companies like Schiit and CEntrance respond to ASR by reengineering their products for better performance (and thus better value).

Better late than never.
Keith

 

[Jimster480]

As a gaming PC user for over 2 decades, I don't get the point of audio streamers at all let alone something as expensively bad as this one.

Not sure, I use a Topping EX5 for my gaming PC.
I have a D70S + THX 789 on my workstation and I do game on that from time to time.

 

[wunderkind]

Is that a typo of an extra digit to the MSRP? At first glance it looked like another chi-fi black box.

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge II Roon Core, streamer, phono stage and analog preamplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $4999.
View attachment 351805

 

[Billy Budapest]

Is that a typo of an extra digit to the MSRP? At first glance it looked like another chi-fi black box.

It’s American/Polish fi. The company has one foot in the professional audio world, one foot in the consumer “audiophile” world, which could account for the extra digit in the price.

 

[ocinn]

Would appreciate a photo input and analog line input measurements performed in the future on products like these.

Obviously this one is a lost cause and I don’t think anyone will be purchasing it that reads this review, but it would be nice to consistently have that data for other products in the same scope.