Hello everyone. Courtesy of a friend of the forum 
, I am in possession of boatload of new hardware to measure/test. I am starting with the well regarded Mytek Brooklyn DAC measurements.
This is a $2,000 DAC with support for MQA and DSD, balanced output, and multiple inputs (Toslink, S/PDIF, AES/EBU). It even has an analog input!
The Mytek Brooklyn has a very nice OLED display, volume control, remote and headphone output. Unit is self powered with its own AC input/internal power supply. The box is the size of a paperback book, albeit in square format. It is heavy enough to feel solid and stay put.
Driver installation was a breeze and all worked the first time. For some reason I cannot get into any of the menus. The four buttons in the front that are supposed to do that, do nothing in my loaned input. Maybe there is a lock function some place.
As usual, I threw the 24-bit, 12 Khz, 48 Khz J-test signal at it. Results show comparison to iFi iDAC 2 (around $350) and Behringer UMC204HD ($70):
As we see, all three show very clean output. The Behringer noise floor is lower but so is its output level. If compensated, it would look like the other two.
Next up is a test of harmonic distortion using 7 Khz tone. For the Mytek, I used a 6.7 Khz tone so that its output is shifted to the left, allowing simultaneous comparison. Here, I am comparing it to the Behringer:
Sadly we see the same problem we had seen with iFi iDAC with pretty high second harmonic distortion. The Behringer on the other hand only has a third harmonic which it shares with the Mytek Brooklyn just the same. Remarkable how the $70 Behringer DAC is able to have such low level of harmonic distortion.
Now to a problem that cost me a lot of time. When I first tested the Mytek with the same 7 Khz tone as the others, it generated a ton more distortion products than what is seen above. After some investigation, I realized that the distortions were due to overflow in the signal processing/filtering in the Mytek Brooklyn. See this comparison of the 6.7 Khz tone at -1.0 db to 7 Khz at 0.0 db:
Notice all of those spikes with 0 db signal. The levels of each spike may seem low but what we hear is their combined energy which will be quite a bit higher. I will do some listening tests later but for now, it is disappointing to see that they do not have enough headroom in their math to avoid this overflow. Neither iFi DAC nor Behringer have this problem.
Given the fact that a lot of music today is compressed with levels a hair below or at 0 db, I expect this to be a real nuisance.
Another note: the levels out of the box was some 8 to 9 db higher than other DACs I tested. The manual says there is a -4db adjustment that can be made by changing a jumper. This not being my box, I did not attempt to do that. But suffice it to say, subjective testing will present the user with much higher level than other DACs, potentially resulting a much more positive impression than would exist otherwise.
Summary:
This seems like a well implemented DAC from physical point of view. The box, display, copious inputs, etc. are all nice. Alas, when it comes to analog performance out of the DAC, it shows the level of maturity that exists out there where a $70 DAC from Behringer outperforms it in distortion product. The clipping at 0 db FS is also disappointing.
As usual, I very much welcome comments, inputs, feedback, corrections from manufacturers or members alike. It is easy to make mistakes in conducting such measurements and I am happy to acknowledge any errors in them.
EDIT: I received more information from the designer of Mytek Brooklyn on the issues I found above as reported in this post: http://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...-of-mytek-brooklyn-dac.1828/page-3#post-47017
, I am in possession of boatload of new hardware to measure/test. I am starting with the well regarded Mytek Brooklyn DAC measurements.
This is a $2,000 DAC with support for MQA and DSD, balanced output, and multiple inputs (Toslink, S/PDIF, AES/EBU). It even has an analog input!
The Mytek Brooklyn has a very nice OLED display, volume control, remote and headphone output. Unit is self powered with its own AC input/internal power supply. The box is the size of a paperback book, albeit in square format. It is heavy enough to feel solid and stay put.
Driver installation was a breeze and all worked the first time. For some reason I cannot get into any of the menus. The four buttons in the front that are supposed to do that, do nothing in my loaned input. Maybe there is a lock function some place.
As usual, I threw the 24-bit, 12 Khz, 48 Khz J-test signal at it. Results show comparison to iFi iDAC 2 (around $350) and Behringer UMC204HD ($70):
As we see, all three show very clean output. The Behringer noise floor is lower but so is its output level. If compensated, it would look like the other two.
Next up is a test of harmonic distortion using 7 Khz tone. For the Mytek, I used a 6.7 Khz tone so that its output is shifted to the left, allowing simultaneous comparison. Here, I am comparing it to the Behringer:
Sadly we see the same problem we had seen with iFi iDAC with pretty high second harmonic distortion. The Behringer on the other hand only has a third harmonic which it shares with the Mytek Brooklyn just the same. Remarkable how the $70 Behringer DAC is able to have such low level of harmonic distortion.
Now to a problem that cost me a lot of time. When I first tested the Mytek with the same 7 Khz tone as the others, it generated a ton more distortion products than what is seen above. After some investigation, I realized that the distortions were due to overflow in the signal processing/filtering in the Mytek Brooklyn. See this comparison of the 6.7 Khz tone at -1.0 db to 7 Khz at 0.0 db:
Notice all of those spikes with 0 db signal. The levels of each spike may seem low but what we hear is their combined energy which will be quite a bit higher. I will do some listening tests later but for now, it is disappointing to see that they do not have enough headroom in their math to avoid this overflow. Neither iFi DAC nor Behringer have this problem.
Given the fact that a lot of music today is compressed with levels a hair below or at 0 db, I expect this to be a real nuisance.
Another note: the levels out of the box was some 8 to 9 db higher than other DACs I tested. The manual says there is a -4db adjustment that can be made by changing a jumper. This not being my box, I did not attempt to do that. But suffice it to say, subjective testing will present the user with much higher level than other DACs, potentially resulting a much more positive impression than would exist otherwise.
Summary:
This seems like a well implemented DAC from physical point of view. The box, display, copious inputs, etc. are all nice. Alas, when it comes to analog performance out of the DAC, it shows the level of maturity that exists out there where a $70 DAC from Behringer outperforms it in distortion product. The clipping at 0 db FS is also disappointing.
As usual, I very much welcome comments, inputs, feedback, corrections from manufacturers or members alike. It is easy to make mistakes in conducting such measurements and I am happy to acknowledge any errors in them.
EDIT: I received more information from the designer of Mytek Brooklyn on the issues I found above as reported in this post: http://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...-of-mytek-brooklyn-dac.1828/page-3#post-47017
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