Mytek Liberty D/A processor Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; Audio-Creative GrooveMaster II, EMT 997 tonearms; EMT TSD 15, Ortofon SPU A Wood, Shindo Laboratory SPU pickup heads; Grado Labs Epoch, Koetsu Onyx Platinum, Miyabi 47 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Air computer running Roon v.1.5, build 339; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 & T2 step-up transformers, Shindo Laboratory Monbrison (2017) preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Luxman MQ-88uSE, Shindo Laboratory Haut-Brion.
Loudspeakers: DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93.
Headphones: AudioQuest NightHawk.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Carbon (USB). Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Luna Red, Shindo Laboratory. Speaker: Auditorium 23, Luna Red. AC: manufacturers' stock.
Accessories: Shindo Laboratory Mr. T power conditioner, Box Furniture Company D3S rack (source & amplification components), Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner Pro record cleaner.—Art Dudley

COMPANY INFO
Mytek Digital
148 India Street, First Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(347) 384-2687
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
Bogolu Haranath's picture

Give me Liberty or give me Kalista :-) .............

Robin Landseadel's picture

Try a Martin DRS2, beautiful sounding, a little dark, really well set up.

tonykaz's picture

DACs are not much differing in perceivable performance. Even Jason Stoddard has mentioned that DACs are boring. ( I think he's right )

It seems like Audiophile's mostly 24k Golden Ears struggle to describe significant performance differences in DACs.

Tyll's 2015 "Big Sound" Event in Montana had nobody pointing out one DAC as the Outperforming Design ( including the often praised but dirt cheap Yggy from Schiit ).

It seems to make sense that this $1000 DAC will please about as much as any other DAC out there.

I like the Mytek Liberty, I'd like it more if it were named the Warsaw but not enough to be inspired to impulse "Buy-It-Now". hmm.

Thanks for tell'n us about it.

Tony in Michigan

johnnythunder's picture

Because of ever changing digital tech, getting ahead of state of the art in DACs and streamers seems to be nearly impossible. I too think that DACs these days are all a little closer to state of the art than not within reason (DCS not withstanding.) As always, a preferred sonic signature will be available at all price ranges. If you like incisive without harshness, Mytek DACS are ideal. A similarly priced DAC that's to me a perfect blend of detail and warmth without venturing into overly euphonic coloration is the AYRE CODEX. Speaking of euphonic coloration I'm also intrigued about the Border Patrol DAC but havent had a chance to listen.

political_analyst's picture

Dudley, you review overpriced audio gear—gear that is the epitome of bling. Some self reflection in the future please, if you can manage. Thank you.

ok's picture

is almost a sacrilege when referring to a swearing..

oldbigears's picture

Dudley, thanks for your enjoyable review. I'm getting more and more interested in this DAC - you obviously like it.

But here's the problem....you did what most audio reviewers do, hoping nobody notices. Instead of comparing the Liberty with key competitors that anyone would cross-shop if they were in the market for the Liberty, you pick out a couple of irrelevant DAC's waaaaay outside the Liberty's bracket.

No comparison to Border Patrol, or RME, or appropriate Schiit models for example. And we all know why, don't we? You'd have to start ranking them, and that would obviously make the unfavored brands unhappy. So instead of that you do what you always do - you say something like "....it's almost as good as xxx brand costing more than twice as much." So everyone's happy, right?

No hurt feelings. Everyone's a winner.

The trouble is, it makes the whole exercise a pointless sham - don't you agree?

Go on - tell us what you really think about this DAC. Be dangerous.

spyder1's picture

Mr. Dudley, a Editor for Stereophile Magazine, has years of experience writing articles and reviews. I like reading his articles, and find them informative. Art (Arthur) is his name, in case readers missed it.

oldbigears's picture

Apologies to Art. The use of his surname was entirely accidental but thanks for pointing out the error and correcting me. I'm delighted that you enjoy Art's comparisons and feel no reason to comment. I also enjoy his reviews, in spite of this facet of them. They would be more useful if the comparisons were realistic, in my personal opinion. But we've all got opinions, I grant you that.

political_analyst's picture

The world is grateful for your intervention, Mr. Manners. Where would we be without you?

oldbigears's picture

If that was a serious question directed at me - my guess is that you'd be with your head buried deep in the sand. Afraid of asking a simple question or pointing out a blatant truth.

I'm sure Mr Dudley doesn't mind the odd question that challenges his findings. If he does, that would be sad. But I suspect he'd prefer to do without the creepy protection of fan boys and speak for himself.

political_analyst's picture

Sorry, I must have clicked on a wrong reply button. The busybody is the one above who pestered you about calling out Dudley.

I’m with you on this one. Apologies for the mess.

misterc59's picture

From the comment about busybodies, it would seem the pot is calling the kettle black as that is exactly what a busybody would do. Websters has a great definition! Of course, my comment fits right in, but at least I'll admit that. Whether I agree with Mr. Dudley or not, I'll have the decency to address him with a bit of respect and common courtesy. I'm not in the habit of addressing someone by their last name, but I suppose someone with an axe to grind might, and you don't agree with someone's point view, then it seems all bets are off. I'm anxious to hear what vitriol I might receive in response!

Cheers,
Terry

oldbigears's picture

The use of Art's last name was accidental, apologies were offered several posts ago. Please relax and focus on the substance of the post, if you can manage to get past that typo. Thanks.

audiophool's picture

If you think that Art Dudley has earned your respect, that's good for both of you. His earning my respect is still work in progress. :))

Doctor Fine's picture

A good DAC really opens up the sound at the front end of your system.
Done right it puts life into the music.
Done poorly it wrecks everything that comes after it in your chain.
MQA is the new decoding scheme which Tidal in particular brings into your home---sometimes as a better sound if the stars are aligned.
This Mytek DAC is relatively affordable and does many things very well, including a low cost entry into all things MQA.
I will buy one as one of my internet systems is due for an update.
Thanks Art.
Nice review.

mrfn85's picture

I'm currently using a Metrum Acoustics Octave NOS dac. Is this the Mytek dac a better step up?

acuvox's picture

I love this test signal: "a crosspicking pattern in which two downstrokes are played in rapid succession, followed by a similarly rapid upstroke; the first note in each pair of downstrokes is played as a rest stroke—the plectrum comes to rest, however briefly, against the adjacent string as the note is played—giving that note a distinctive attack."

Most audio specifications are obsessed with frequency and spectrum, which is the defining characteristic of vowels or their musical equivalents, tones. Frequency spectrum implies a continuous, repetitive waveform idealized as superposition of sinusoids. (Fourier math only works if you integrate time from negative infinity to positive infinity, have infinite resolution and keep the complex phase space information intact)

Music, like speech, devotes 95% of the time and energy to vowels/tones; but the signalling information content of the other 5% is at least as important. These sounds are the consonants: how the tones start, stop and transition. Accurate reproduction of the musical expression means getting the waveforms and timing of the consonants correct, even when they are a fraction of a millisecond.

It is in this relatively un-explored area that many audio debates fall: analog vs. digital, SS vs. Tube and metal vs. fabric domes, high order vs. low order crossovers. Anti-aliasing makes it nearly impossible to follow musical consonants to the limits of hearing resolution digitally (around 3 microseconds). This is where over-sampling and ultra-low jitter come in, plus any other mathemagic discovered at Mytek, dcs, etc.

OTOH, CD aficionados have trained their hearing to pre-ringing and other digital artifacts that are "impossible to hear" according to the prevalent machine model of hearing, which has been distorting audiological research for 150 years since Helmholtz declared the cilia acted like tuning forks.

For that matter, every knob, function and plug-in that changes the sound of the signal inherently introduces temporal distortion. All processing, whether analog or digital, has to conflate more than one point in time of the original microphone signal and changes the waveforms of consonants. This is temporal distortion.

Audiophiles learned to by-pass tone controls, and yet practically all recordings use equalization, dynamic modification or delay operations (reverb and echo). All of these distort the musical consonants.

In fact, the act of mixing two microphone signals together or splitting one signal into left and right (panning) distorts the consonants and any natural reverb present in the recording; so mixing and mastering are distortion.

Kudos for escaping this vicious circle! Have to check out that recording.

X