Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC
- Thread starter Bruce B
- Start date
Hello Michal
I would like to thank you for this great dac you do. Really fantastic.
I try 2 units home but unfortunately couldn't keep one.....
I'm leaving in France where the voltage is 230v/50Hz. The Dac is very sensitive to electrical interferences.
Sometimes the fact turning on some home electrical appliances causes micro cuts in the dac.
Some other Mytek owners have the same problem.
May be the power transformer is not shielded.... I dont know....
May be you have an answer to this anomaly?
Thanks
JClaude
I would like to thank you for this great dac you do. Really fantastic.
I try 2 units home but unfortunately couldn't keep one.....
I'm leaving in France where the voltage is 230v/50Hz. The Dac is very sensitive to electrical interferences.
Sometimes the fact turning on some home electrical appliances causes micro cuts in the dac.
Some other Mytek owners have the same problem.
May be the power transformer is not shielded.... I dont know....
May be you have an answer to this anomaly?
Thanks
JClaude
wow, I don't have that problem at all. I don't think it is the DAC per se. See what else in your home
might be causing it.
Below is quote from opus111 in another thread it might shed some light on your problem. I have the Mytek in my system and have not experienced any of the issues you describe.
"the Mytek guys either don't know about common-mode conducted mains noise or have engineered their design cleverly to avoid it. They're using an off-the-shelf mains filter block (chassis mounted, top right) and then a toroidal transformer. The upshot of this is plenty of coupling of external mains noise to the internal circuit ground. Using an standard filter 'brick' means there are going to be Y-caps (mains to earth) and so the filtering quality depends on how clean the provided mains earth is."
"PS I'm conjecturing here but probably Bruce already has industrial strength mains cleaning technology installed so won't be worried if kit doesn't provide its own filtering. The average domestic user hasn't heavily invested in mains purification kit."
Hello Rob
Thank you for your precious indication.
This confirm my words.
Could you send me the link for the quote from opus111 please, I dont' find it. This could hep me to find a solution. The Mytek is really on my taste and not sure to find an other one dac like it.
PS: Could you develop about Brice' Kit please, I don't understand what is.
Many Thanks
Jclaude
It's a balanced power system from Equi-Tech, also known as Technical Power
http://www.equitech.com/products/industrial/wall.html
More information through their main page
http://www.equitech.com/
just plugged mine in this morning , Excellent sounding , great value
Anybody know of any DSD download sites ( real music would be ideal )
Anybody know of any DSD download sites ( real music would be ideal )
I'm still not quite clear on myteks output balanced design. Can anyone confirm me if this unit is a truly balanced design?
Another thing that I'm a bit confused, with my setup, that is with Audionirvana+, I'm not able to have pure DSD (with all kernel bypass on the OS and the so called holly grail DSD logo on the DAC's display that so many folks talk about), correct?
Nor able to listen to DSD128, correct?
In order to do so I would have to go for windows and ASIO, correct?
Prefered connections on:
Windows - USB2
MAC OSx - Firewire
Is that correct?
Does anyone know if the so called problems on OSx will ever have a solution that will see the light of the day? Can that be expected?
As anyone compared this DAC to say the PS Audio MKII PWD? Or any other in that price range? For PCM obviously...
I don't know if I should go for the Mytek or wait another two years to see what will be the future DAC that PS Audio is working on at the moment. It seams a truly promising project, although no one knows the price tag at this stage. But I'm willing to pay for a higherendish DAC that would be more "compliant" with my remaining gear.
I'm just not willing to go for MSB, DCS, Playback-Designs or EMM Labs price ranges... Although they really sound good!
My current setup is composed by JRDG Model 6 w/ BPS-6 + Synergy IIi + Monitor Audio PL-300 and I'm really curious to see how would the Mytek work on my system but I'm afraid that I'll be spending more money on another DAC that once again won't be satisfying enough for me on this setup.
What are your thoughts?
Another thing that I'm a bit confused, with my setup, that is with Audionirvana+, I'm not able to have pure DSD (with all kernel bypass on the OS and the so called holly grail DSD logo on the DAC's display that so many folks talk about), correct?
Nor able to listen to DSD128, correct?
In order to do so I would have to go for windows and ASIO, correct?
Prefered connections on:
Windows - USB2
MAC OSx - Firewire
Is that correct?
Does anyone know if the so called problems on OSx will ever have a solution that will see the light of the day? Can that be expected?
As anyone compared this DAC to say the PS Audio MKII PWD? Or any other in that price range? For PCM obviously...
I don't know if I should go for the Mytek or wait another two years to see what will be the future DAC that PS Audio is working on at the moment. It seams a truly promising project, although no one knows the price tag at this stage. But I'm willing to pay for a higherendish DAC that would be more "compliant" with my remaining gear.
I'm just not willing to go for MSB, DCS, Playback-Designs or EMM Labs price ranges... Although they really sound good!
My current setup is composed by JRDG Model 6 w/ BPS-6 + Synergy IIi + Monitor Audio PL-300 and I'm really curious to see how would the Mytek work on my system but I'm afraid that I'll be spending more money on another DAC that once again won't be satisfying enough for me on this setup.
What are your thoughts?
Great to have you aboard WBF!
I have a MAC but have not tried the Mytek with it, so I cannot comment on that side.
I am running 2 Windows machines. One machine is with Pyramix and the Laptop is with HQPlayer. Both use the Mytek ASIO driver out via USB2 and work perfectly at DSD64fs and DSD128fs. The Mytek ASIO driver is my preferred reference. I don't want to fool with the DoP protocol, though I'm sure it's perfectly fine.
The DACs I have compared this to are the MSB Tech, Playback Designs, Digital Audio Denmark, EMM Labs, BADA and the Lynx Hilo.. I can say without reservation, the PCM is the best I've heard in all but the Playback and MSB tech, both of which are $$$. Don't cheat yourself and keep waiting for the next best digital box to come out. There is always promise of something better around the corner. For now, the Mytek is the King of the Hill for anything <$10k.
Buy one now... you won't regret it!
Hi,
Sorry where are my manners... I forgot do present myself.
I'm Jonathan, been reading this forum for quite some time now but made only two posts yet.
First of all, congrats on this great forum! It's been very interesting and very pedagogic.
Thank you for your reply Bruce. That is quite a bold statement especially coming from you... I'm sure Mytek's DAC really accomplishes all the positive feedbacks people have been giving.
I'm tempted to give it a try.
As anyone ever had any experience on A/B comparison between Mytek 192-DSD DAC and Resonessence labs Invicta?
A DAC doesn't sum up to the chip and it's implementation, most of it's sound signature might come from the analog output circuit topology and components used therefore Invicta, although developed by the same team that developed the ESS Sabre Delta/Sigma chip, isn't necessarelly that superior, if superior at all, comparing it to the mytek.
And yes, most of the knowledge and bug reporting from the chip itself came from 3rd parties that gave feedback to ESS so that doesn't mean also that Invicta is necessarily the ones with more knowledge on how to implement this particular chip in order to achieve excellent results. But it might help though.
The Invicta still is in a price range that I might consider but I would like very much to have some feedback from experience users that have heard both.
Invicta as even more features, although no DSD support till now but promised by Resonessence labs, than Mytek...
But how does it sound compared to Mytek that uses the same DAC chip?
Is it really worth the extra bucks for the Invicta, soudwise?
I'm really considering pulling the trigger on the Mytek...
What are your thoughts?
Cheers,
Tiff
Thanks Jonathan.... I'm not familiar with the Resonessence labs Invicta, but would sure be willing to give it a try if the opportunity should arise.
The Mytek is the first DAC I've had in here that exceeded its price tag. Our Playback and MSB sound like the $$ DACs they are, but if I heard the Mytek blindly, I would lay money that I'm listening to a $10k DAC.
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It is a fine unit for the price. I picked up one (mastering version) a couple of weeks ago, and have been listening on and off while it is running in. It's got about 200 hours on it now. The first 150 hours was pretty variable, but it is settling nicely. I'm being dangerous and running it directly to the power amp, as I found just going through my Crane Song Avocet monitor controller, there was significant coloration especially in the bass frequencies. Also a mild veiling overall.
Still, it seems to me that the Mytek has some significant compromises in its analog processing & output stages. When playing a very well recorded performance, high speed PCM or DSD the results are quite good. However, I do enjoy some music that is not recorded to the highest of standards and contains various types of distortion, not the least of which is the effect of *some* loudness-wars engineers and the type of compression/limiting and other processing they use to achieve the loudness. It's clear that the analog stages of the Mytek are reacting to some of these recordings in a very negative way, accentuating distortion products such that they are out of proportion to the music. In some cases that's just the way the recording is, but in others, not so much. I can't quantify this with measurements. It's a characteristic that I've heard over the years (a very unique type of sound) when analog gear is having trouble passing the complex nature of music with a lot of upper range distortion.
It's too bad, but for some it will never surface as a problem. Others will be quite aware of it once they realize what's happening.
Another thing that bothers me is that the AQ is quite different when you use the 'output jumpers' at the -6db setting, then compensate for that by raising the volume to the same level. The AQ is much more refined and less-affected by bad recordings. Why that would be I haven't determined yet, but if you haven't yet, try it and see what you think. It has nothing to do with net output level or distorting a downstream input. It looks like the jumpers change the gain construct of some early (in the audio path) IC's which in turn changes how they handle (distort) the audio.
What ever it is, the analog section is not that neutral. At least not compared to top notch analog gear. But hey, for $1500, not bad!
--Bill
Still, it seems to me that the Mytek has some significant compromises in its analog processing & output stages. When playing a very well recorded performance, high speed PCM or DSD the results are quite good. However, I do enjoy some music that is not recorded to the highest of standards and contains various types of distortion, not the least of which is the effect of *some* loudness-wars engineers and the type of compression/limiting and other processing they use to achieve the loudness. It's clear that the analog stages of the Mytek are reacting to some of these recordings in a very negative way, accentuating distortion products such that they are out of proportion to the music. In some cases that's just the way the recording is, but in others, not so much. I can't quantify this with measurements. It's a characteristic that I've heard over the years (a very unique type of sound) when analog gear is having trouble passing the complex nature of music with a lot of upper range distortion.
It's too bad, but for some it will never surface as a problem. Others will be quite aware of it once they realize what's happening.
Another thing that bothers me is that the AQ is quite different when you use the 'output jumpers' at the -6db setting, then compensate for that by raising the volume to the same level. The AQ is much more refined and less-affected by bad recordings. Why that would be I haven't determined yet, but if you haven't yet, try it and see what you think. It has nothing to do with net output level or distorting a downstream input. It looks like the jumpers change the gain construct of some early (in the audio path) IC's which in turn changes how they handle (distort) the audio.
What ever it is, the analog section is not that neutral. At least not compared to top notch analog gear. But hey, for $1500, not bad!
--Bill
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