Mytek Brooklyn Bridge II Streamer Review

[Liya]

double post

 

[Billy Budapest]

An apple dongle at $9 has similar noise and distortion. Surely that would blow away the Mytek in value. Is that what you are asking me to do?

And I thought the Apple dongle was $16. Either way, a massive value proposition.

 

[Timmeon]

An apple dongle at $9 has similar noise and distortion. Surely that would blow away the Mytek in value. Is that what you are asking me to do?

It's just a thought, but perhaps it would be interesting to see what features and performance you get for your $5K in the Mytek vs. a product with a similar feature set. Using the RME as an example, for 5x the price, the Mytek offers a few additional features with a CPU/steaming built in but with substantially lower objective performance. That could be a very interesting dashboard for someone in the market for such a device.

The Apple dongle jumped out at me in the SINAD chart with higher performance at $9, and that's pretty astonishing. But there's a huge gap in features there. If someone could come to this site, filter product reviews based on product type and feature set, and be presented with the objective performance data along with every device reviewed that matches their criteria. I don't know where else you can get that kind of data all in one place.

Perhaps an intern could do the grunt work tagging posts and aggregating the data.

 

[amirm]

It's just a thought, but perhaps it would be interesting to see what features and performance you get for your $5K in the Mytek vs. a product with a similar feature set. Using the RME as an example, for 5x the price, the Mytek offers a few additional features with a CPU/steaming built in but with substantially lower objective performance. That could be a very interesting dashboard for someone in the market for such a device.

I think the feature set is impressive. And ability to stuff it in this little box, doubly so. That is not in dispute. The issue is that the company sells itself and this product as high precision and high fidelity. Measurements don't back those claims. If the box did perform, I would have given it very high rating.

 

[JustJones]

It's just a thought, but perhaps it would be interesting to see what features and performance you get for your $5K in the Mytek vs. a product with a similar feature set. Using the RME as an example, for 5x the price, the Mytek offers a few additional features with a CPU/steaming built in but with substantially lower objective performance. That could be a very interesting dashboard for someone in the market for such a device.

The Apple dongle jumped out at me in the SINAD chart with higher performance at $9, and that's pretty astonishing. But there's a huge gap in features there. If someone could come to this site, filter product reviews based on product type and feature set, and be presented with the objective performance data along with every device reviewed that matches their criteria. I don't know where else you can get that kind of data all in one place.

Perhaps an intern could do the grunt work tagging posts and aggregating the data.

The Eversolo DMP-A6 would be similar to this. The Eversolo doesn't run Roon core but is a streamer/dac/internal storage for music library /DSP in beta and has good measurements about $850

 

[AnalogSteph]

After reading this test, for me Mytek is a double disaster. Mytek is polish, I am polish, and I would love to see them making better products. But no, overpriced rubbish. Ehhh...

Actually, one could say that polish is exactly what this product is lacking. Rotate the power transformer, twist the wiring, hunt down the ground loops and fix the software bug that keeps the filter choice from working, and we'd have a lot less to grumble about. As-is, it's a complete half-ass job for 5 grand.

 

[Joffy1780]

I think we can all look at a device's feature set and decide for ourselves what value, if any, it may add to compensate for a device's poor measured performance.
There are numerous reviewers who will go through the various features of a given device as well, in great detail.
I think we all appreciate Amir gives us something we simply can't get elsewhere.

 

[Jimster480]

You can buy a 14” MacBook Pro M3 Max (14/30 CPU/GPU cores) with 36GB RAM and 4 TB SSD for about the same money. Its 3.5 mm output has about 100 SINAD, so on par with this thing. Seems like a better deal despite the maddening SSD Apple Tax

That's actually a wild proposition, although I'm not sure if you can run roon on an apple laptop.
But the reality is that for literally $5,000 you can build any kind of mega PC and use it as a music server and still have tons of money left over with whatever kind of accessories you want to plug into it. I mean I understand there's a convenience in buying a single device. You would place in your house and just use it but the tax on the convenience here is just too high.

 

[Mikig]

strange product, as it is!

excellent in functionality where you could even do without, just sufficient in the necessary parameters...

in 2024 the vast majority of the competition "gives" performance even if not audible, even if not necessary... this says many things...

this is a modern machine in terms of name and possibilities, but with objective performances of the last decade…

 

[Brian Hall]

Just a quick note in their defense. The Mytek is actually a server and can store content. Not that this is very useful these days with streaming and such but it does have that functionality as a Roon core above and beyond a standard streamer.

My Roon server cost $159 plus $65 for a 1tb SSD so $224 plus a Wiim Pro Plus for $175. Total $399. Both boxes together are probably smaller than the Mytek unit.

I don't think Mytek should get any points for being also being a Roon server and able to store content. That Mytek unit would be a ripoff even if it didn't have the issues you found.

 

[Mikig]

I'll throw it out there:

as already noted previously, probably the choice of a non-armored toroid in the middle of the boards with analogue, digital and a CPU on one side and the other, didn't pay off in such a small space.
As far back as I can remember, many competitors use two smaller shielded toroidals, with respective filters, one for analog and one for digital, and protections between the various cards.
There is no space? offer it with separate power supply: at that price and in that user range the "two chassis" would have been more appropriate, also taming that high-end profile!!!!

 

[Liya]

I was replying to @Tks who was commenting on the high labor costs in New York possibly adding to the price but it isn't built in New York.

Darko says in this video that Mytek is designed and build in Poland.
link

 

[AudioX3]

Yet this is one of the audiophile darlings. Shame in many ways.

 

[ta240]

Y’all have lost your minds when SINAD of 98 is "broken". It’s audibly transparent. Of course it’s not worth its price, but that should be an asterisk independent of the technical review.

I agree. There is a lot of attacking it based on it being a failure, when, aside from the filter settings, nothing seems wrong with it.

I see a lot of comparisons here to products that do 'nearly' all of what it does but 'nearly' isn't 'all'.
We also get the "For me, I'd get a...." replies. In which case you aren't the customer base. These certainly aren't for the customers that would setup their own streaming PC or cobble together multiple items. (see the 'luxury product reference below)

Could it do better? Sure, but would anybody notice? Is anyone doing any double blind testing to see if they can pick out this over a much higher rated piece? Of course not, we don't call for double blind testing when blasting an expensive product. We only call for that when saying good things about an expensive product.
Speculating that a product sounds terrible is encouraged, speculating that one sounds good is questioned.

It is expensive, but really, if you aren't buying it why does it matter? We are stepping into luxury product territory again, where the value of the parts does not equal the price of the whole. $8,000 handbag anyone?

 

[srkbear]

I find it so demoralizing that someone would pay $5,000 for a device with that crappy SINAD when you can get the latest SOTA with a simple Pi Hat or Volumio-based microcomputer, a nice Topping or SMSL DAC/preamp, and a Roon software subscription. Or, as others have said, an ADI-2. I get it done with a d90se, Roon, and a $300 Zen Stream. I wonder, does the manufacturer publish their own measurements for this heavy box of screws?

 

[Mikig]

I agree. There is a lot of attacking it based on it being a failure, when, aside from the filter settings, nothing seems wrong with it.

I see a lot of comparisons here to products that do 'nearly' all of what it does but 'nearly' isn't 'all'.
We also get the "For me, I'd get a...." replies. In which case you aren't the customer base. These certainly aren't for the customers that would setup their own streaming PC or cobble together multiple items. (see the 'luxury product reference below)

Could it do better? Sure, but would anybody notice? Is anyone doing any double blind testing to see if they can pick out this over a much higher rated piece? Of course not, we don't call for double blind testing when blasting an expensive product. We only call for that when saying good things about an expensive product.
Speculating that a product sounds terrible is encouraged, speculating that one sounds good is questioned.

It is expensive, but really, if you aren't buying it why does it matter? We are stepping into luxury product territory again, where the value of the parts does not equal the price of the whole. $8,000 handbag anyone?

well, I understand what you mean, but:

there are 12 measurement graphs, and I don't seem to have read even one graph: exceptional or good performance...

imagine a different "blind test":

comparing the performance graphs detected, in an absolutely anonymous way, between this Mytek and SMSL SU10.
How would you rate the two performance?

 

[ta240]

I find it amusing that people project their desires and hobbies on other people and make judgments based on it. My guess is the consumer for this has no interest in messing around with a DIY RaspberryPi or other microcomputer. Honestly, I enjoy those things but I also understand that there are plenty of people with more money than time that have zero interest in that.

 

[sq225917]

The shame is that the standalone dac it was based on is a decent dac. Flawed only by the mqa remaining active even when deselected....

 

[JSmith]

Y’all have lost your minds when SINAD of 98 is "broken". It’s audibly transparent.

Not at all, it's a streamer/DAC and yet full of noise and distortion. This is then added to any noise/distortion of the amp and amplified... a DAC should be as clean a signal as possible.


JSmith

 

[ta240]

well, I understand what you mean, but:

there are 12 measurement graphs, and I don't seem to have read even one graph: exceptional or good performance...

imagine a different "blind test":

comparing the performance graphs detected, in an absolutely anonymous way, between this Mytek and SMSL SU10.
How would you rate Mytek's performance?

Who decides what is "good" performance. The purpose of a double blind test would be to find that. Without a real world test the 'exceptional' and 'good' categories are random whims of what those should be.

I guess if I was going to frame the graphs for the two products I'd want the SU10.

You are assigning a 'worth' value of something to other people based on your values, needs, budget, likes and dislikes.

Not at all, it's a streamer/DAC and yet full of noise and distortion. This is then added to any noise/distortion of the amp and amplified... a DAC should be as clean a signal as possible.


JSmith

Or... A DAC should be clean enough that you can't hear the difference between it and another DAC.

Until someone double blind tests this with what is considered an 'excellent' performing product with multiple people then all of this is just conjecture about how bad of a product it is.

If someone likes Class A amps because they make them feel good, they are considered by most here to be an idiot.
Yet if someone likes a DAC because the numbers make them feel good they are considered by most here to be a genius.
And, in only one case are the people challenged to a double blind test to prove they really know what they like.
Without double blind testing all this excitement over numbers is nothing but opinion and conjecture. The challenge for double blind testing should always go both ways.

If you are obsessed with numbers and charts then enjoy it. But, please stop projecting that onto other people. Either it is audible or it is not, there is nothing else.