Mytek Digital Stereo 192 DSD /// Silver FULL Featured with variable analog RCA out and great Headphone section and tons of features:

Compact and value packed:

Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC review

by


John Darko

8 years ago:

Designed in USA, Made in Poland.
Founder and chief designer of New York’s Mytek Digital – Michal
Jurewicz – has been designing digital audio products for twenty years.
After graduating with a Masters degree in electrical engineering in
Warsaw, Jurewicz initially moved to the USA to work at the Hit Factory
recording studio.  He then founded Mytek Digital in 1992 – a NYC-based
company that draws on Polish manufacturing talent for mass production of
the Stereo192-DSD. Director of Marketeting Chebon Littlefield describes
it as a place where “costs are low but talent is high”. With
Jurewicz being a Polish native the need for an interpreter is
eliminated. This sums to an easier life when maintaining production
quality.

You can read more on Jurewicz’s background and design philosophy here.
 In that same .pdf  you will also find a thorough breakdown on how to
adjust the output gain on the Stereo192-DSD DAC using internal jumpers.
And therein lies the heart of Mytek’s formidable success with their
first domestic hi-fi DAC: CHOICES.

Enter Doug Stanhope.  Here’s his humorous rant on why the USA is the greatest country in the world:

…it
comes down to choices. LOTS of choices. You want some eggs? How do you
want them done? We can do ‘em ten different ways. Do you want French
toast? Do you want waffles? Pancakes?

Even before you plonk down
your US$1595 on a Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC, you have choices: do you want
the “Black-Pre” or the “Silver-Pre” (no LED metering) or do you want
the pro-targeted “Black Mastering” version that swaps out the analogue
inputs for SDIF connectivity; used to bridge computer and SACD player?

Home users will likely opt for the Black-Pre version. That’s the model under consideration here.

Rugged glory.
This review unit journeyed from Los Angeles to Sydney in my hand
luggage wrapped in nothing but a plastic bag. I mention this not to
fluff the story but to highlight the Mytek DAC’s relative immunity to
rough and tumble. The Mytek unit wears it pro-audio roots on its sleeve.
Little is conceded to aesthetic niceties with the casework here being
pure utilitarianism. If you want show pony hi-fi, look elsewhere.
Talking of which…

First drinks. Ordinarily,
comparisons with other DACs usually take place once deep into review
territory. I bucked the trend with the Mytek to get one thing out of the
way early: the difference between them isn’t enormous but the Mytek
doesn’t sound quite as accomplished or refined as the AURALiC Vega
(US$3500). It doesn’t look as polished either.

Getting past this
(predictable) comparative result very early on in the review process
meant that I could relax and soak up all that the Mytek Stereo192-DSD
has to offer. And boy does this DAC offer a lot – they’ve thrown the
kitchen sink into this design and come up trumps. Remember: Mytek give
you choices.

The
menu system is an options overload that becomes significantly easier to
digest once you make the switch from the physical roll-and-press of the
control wheel to the infra-red detachment of an Apple remote.

Both
the older white plastic and newer slimline aluminium version are a
cinch to pair with the Mytek DAC. This seemingly convoluted navigation
procedure for remote pairing only needs to be done once and the user is
unchained from the initial tyranny that rides sidesaddle with so many
choices.

Press menu

Roll wheel to “remote”

Press wheel

Roll wheel to “enable”

Press knob

Roll wheel to “on”

Press menu button

Roll wheel to “mode”

Press wheel

Roll wheel to “apple”

Press wheel

Address set should appear on screen

On the apple remote press center silver button, the DAC screen should flash

Now the remote is paired

Press menu on remote to back out of remote menu

The
first option I toyed with was PCM up-sampling. Go bit perfect or have
everything pimped to 192kHz for an ever so slightly burnished treble; a
boon for the aluminium-tweetered KEF LS50 currently serving time in my
listening space. Amplification during the majority of the review process
was provided by a Weston Acoustics EL34 Topaz and a REDGUM RGi60.
Occasional USB-S/PDIF conversion came via Resonessence Labs’ Concero.
The Zu Soul MKII were wheeled out for second opinion.

Source
sample rates are displayed on screen. This is not to be undervalued.
Knowing if data is reaching your DAC is pivotal to ascertaining if
binary flow is damned upstream. The absence of bit-rate display is a
super-minor quibble if ever there was one. Level meters show us proof of
life of the decoded stream – any ensuing silence can then be attributed
to downstream hardware (settings).

Head-high-five.
The Mytek packs a headphone amplifier and this headphone amplifier
packs a mighty punch. More than enough to extract full guts and glory
from the notoriously more challenging AKG K 702. No, they’re not HifiMan
or Audez’e but still – a win is a win.

Clocking.
Mytek call it Double Jitter Rejection. An internal oscillator
asynchronously handles incoming USB and FireWire audio streams – it
generates the sampling frequency clock based on the number requested by
the playback software (44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz
for PCM and 2822.4 MHz for DSD and 5644.8 MHz for double DSD). This
‘welcome’ clock is used to ready data for the ESS Sabre 9016 DAC chip,
which uses its own master clock for the conversion process.

With S/PDIF inputs you get more menu options, more choices:

“When
S/PDIF or AES input is used the data is fed using the synchronous clock
from the incoming source. If this source is slaved to the Mytek
internal clock, S/PDIF/AES clock behaviour is comparable to asynchronous
USB/FireWire. In most situations however the source does not offer
external clock options and its clock is used to feed the Mytek DAC
input.  To eliminate the influence of incoming synchronous data the
Mytek DAC is equipped with the best jitter rejection in the industry, a patented JET PLL (™) system developed by TC Electronics originally intended for use in professional recording industry.”, explains Michal Jurewicz.

Alternatively, you can outsource data timing to an external word clock.

DSD?
This might be why you’re reading this review. After all, when Mytek
formally launched the Stereo192-DSD at 2011’s RMAF, it made a big splash
in the collective audiophile consciousness for then being the cheapest
way to get DSD playback into your life. In the intervening two years the
sub-$2k price bracket has seen contenders spring up from North Star
Designs, Benchmark, Chord Electronics and Sonore. At time of writing,
both Resonessence Labs’ Concero HD (CA$850) and TEAC’s UD-501 (US$850)
are the cheapest entry points into the narrow world of DSD listening.
That’ll hold until Schiit Audio drop their own DSD bomb next month.

Playing back both DSD and Redbook versions of Peter Gabriel’s Shaking The Tree
(remaster a 2003 vintage) revealed the former to sound smoother, more
relaxed and effortless. A shade more detailed too. But really: how many
of you will have a DSD rip of this album? That’s not a look-at-me boast;
it’s a clean stab of the reality knife. Such DSD rips are a) tough to
get hold of and b) of questionable legality.

Instead, I chose to
call out the Mytek’s sonic characteristics based almost exclusively with
Apple Lossless rips of CDs. Due to a paucity of source material, DSD
playback is the coffee at the end of a very fine Redbook meal; a tasty
bonus but not essential to one’s enjoyment of the Mytek unit.

USB 2.0.
A common experience with DACs at this sort of price point (and below)
is that their USB input doesn’t sound quite as resolved or stress-free
as the neighbouring S/PDIF input fed by any number of USB converters
and/or re-clockers. The USB often sounds comparatively bleached.

I
don’t know if it’s their custom driver or the Double Jitter Rejection
tech or their power supply filtering but USB audio on the Mytek DAC
sounds excellent. The delta between it and S/PDIF is more qualitative
than quantitative: yes, it’s more strident but there’s also better
separation. A Resonessence Labs Concero-charged S/PDIF is smoother, more
relaxed but it exacts the tiniest of blows to micro-dynamics.
Downstream components and system balance will determine which option is
best for you.

If you don’t want to get messy with drivers – which
are a must for USB 2.0 connectivity – Mytek covers your fearful ass with
a USB 1.1 input, across which PCM is limited to 96kHz sample rates and
DSD is a no-go zone.

Moving in the other direction, super-geeks
will prick up their ears when they learn of the FireWire input (for
which another driver install is required). That’s Mytek’s pro-audio
roots breaking surface soil once again. There is a school of thought
that swears by keeping DAC and file storage on separate buses; at 2012’s RMAF Chris Connaker revealed himself to be a proponent of such thinking. This ‘ere Mytek DAC opens the door to FireWire audio gumshoes.

My
investigative results poured down in the following order of preference:
1) Audiophilleo2 + PurePower 2) FireWire with $30 Belkin cable =3)
Resonessence Concero S/PDIF and =3) USB with WireWorld Starlight USB
cable. The FireWire input serves up a quieter background, better spatial
cues and a presentation that feels broadly speaking more natural. The
battery powered AP2 brings more elasticity and finer detail to the table
but (remember!) it will run you almost as much as the Mytek
Stereo192-DSD DAC itself. The AP2 + PP is the idealist’s choice,
FireWire the pragmatist’s.

An additional benefit of FireWire
connectivity here is it frees the user from the tyranny of choice in the
burgeoning USB-S/PDIF converter space. The only way forward for OCD
tweakers is the FireWire cable itself. I’ll be springing for something
from Furutech or Audioquest soon enough.

Relatively uncommon to
DACs in this sticker zone is an analogue input. Holding fast to the
choices mandate, Jurewicz include one here…

…and the analogue
connectivity might’ve been all for nowt had he not also given end users
the choice of digital or analogue volume attenuation. The former sounds
leaner and more incisive than the latter – digital offers additional
overtones of cracked pepper and instant coffee. Analogue mode brings
more connective tissue and softens transients.

Better than 0db in
the analogue domain is ‘bypass’ mode; it extracts the very best from the
Mytek when used as a standalone DAC (and where volume attenuation is
carried out downstream). July’s firmware revision (1.7.5) demands that
bypass mode be selected and then confirmed, after which a relay clicks
to circumvent ALL volume attenuation circuitry.

Analogue input
coupled with analogue attenuation means we find ourselves with a VERY
attractive pre-amplifier solution on/in our hands. For me, this is the
Mytek Stereo192-DSD’s killer blow. A DAC/pre that doesn’t alienate vinyl
heads or those with a (justifiable) aversion to the bit-stripping
side-effect of digital attenuation.

Last orders.
Playing the AURALiC Vega off against the Mytek Stereo192-DSD once again
reminds us that judging on chip choice is for chumps. I still see
people wince when I mention Sabre-toothed decoders. They’re stuck on
preconceptions of sibilance and brightness brought to public
consciousness by lesser implementations. Both the Vega and Stereo192-DSD
deploy ESS Sabre silicon but their artistic styles differ.

If we
think of the Metrum Hex’s presentation as a Picasso (abstract
expressionism), the AURALiC Vega might be seen as a Monet (beautiful,
vivid). The Mytek? Francis Bacon. It’s physical, gutsy and heavy –
altogether more confronting but never annoying. It’s not as finessed as
the AURALiC. It’s a shade more opaque, particularly up top – but no less
enjoyable.  The gap between the two narrows when the Mytek is FireWire
connected. It grips music and never lets go; it offers far more musical
conviction than (say) a Rega DAC,
compared to which the Mytek is a few degrees cooler on the tonal front
and nowhere near as cuddly. That’s not to say the Mytek sound is
strident. “Not A” does not imply “B”. Instead, we hear “C”.

Owners
of already bright-ish systems will likely prefer the Mytek to the
AURALiC. Without a ladder-to-the-sky treble, the Mytek instead hones in
on midrange meat – think diluted golden treacle with crisp-clean edges.
Transparency with vocals, percussion, acoustic guitars and strings is
the New Yorker’s trump phonic card. If you found the Metrum Octave too
thin or reedy, the Mytek could be more your bag.

The idealist’s
slant on the Mytek will see it as not quite as keenly resolved or
grandiose as the AURALiC Vega; it lacks the broader elegance of the
opulently-cased contender from Hong Kong. Enter the pragmatist to remind
us that the Mytek is $2k cheaper – not insignificant coinage. US$1595
for all that the Mytek offers in features alone would see it considered
for award assignation: headphone amplifier, FireWire connectivity,
analogue input and analogue volume control are mere highlights in a pool
of options that runs considerably deeper than the competition. The
Mytek Stereo192-DSD’s diaphanous midrange lands the knockout blow. If
you were to take away every other DAC tomorrow, I would continue to
listen with total satisfaction, untroubled by what I no longer owned.
 DAR-KO award.

================================

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