Gazjam
03-05-2013, 08:23
Well, had a Dac comparison today and a very good day it was too.
Didn't get the chance unfortunately to hear the Weiss (or the Dacmagic) but we compared the Mytek to the Young.
Using both units strictly as a Dac only, source was my home brew Music Server/Jriver playing a mixture of 16/44, 24/192 32/384 and DSD tracks into my valve amp and Rega RS3 speakers.
Cabling was TQ Black speaker and Interconnect, home brew Lapp/MK mains leads.
The Young didn't do DSD so no comparison there, but let the Young bring its party piece with some 32/384 files I had. Different thing, but letting it show what it can do.
Honestly...quick version?
We felt the Young was a more enjoyable, musical listen.
Don't get me wrong, the Mytek was bloody good and it ticked all the Hifi boxes...it had a very clear, precise presentation - particularly with DSD.
But we felt it played more to the head than the heart though - to me its more of a precise digital swiss army knife than something that steps aside and let's the music flow.
A great description of what we were hearing came from my mate:
After playing the Young for a while he said he had been thinking about how to describe the sound of what he was hearing and he laughed that he couldn't...
"It just got out of the way, I was listening to music not the equipment".
With the Mytek he said he instantly went in to "Hifi mode" and thought about the bass, decay, treble energy etc, not the music being played.
We swapped between the two playing the same test tracks and the difference in the two Dacs became more obvious. The Young just got out of the way, the enjoyment was all about the song, its meaning...how dirty that old Les Paul sounded on Gregg Allman's "Country Blues" album, how on Livingston Taylor's "Ink" album you could almost "see" him adjusting his hands on the harmonica whilst playing it....that kind of thing.
The Mytek didn't draw us in the same way, it sounded like very (very) good Hifi, very detailed, precise...the bass was excellent, but missing the "organic" quality that made you feel like you were listening to real people playing in front of you.
For us the Young did all the various Hifi stuff just as well (we felt actually that the resolution down low was better, we were hearing micro detail that was missing with the Mytek), but worked to present all the hifi "stuff" in a way that combined to make what you were hearing sound REAL.
I could talk dynamics, stereo image and depth, room acoustic, resolution and transparency, but you know what there's no point really.
In comparison the Young just "did music" in a way the Mytek didn't.
Maybe if I tried the different filters on the Mytek it might have changed the flavour of it? My experience of filters is that they do change the sound, but very subtly...at least on my previous Rega Dac.
I tried to make sure it was as level a playing field as possible and took the filters out of the equation as the Young didn't have any.
Jriver playback software was set up for maximum sound quality for both Dacs.
Interesting that both Dacs had quite different Jriver "sweet spots" with buffer settings etc, maybe down to the Sabre Dac chip being different to the Burr Brown on the Young?
Didn't try the different filters, but I did explore the options in the Mytek USB driver.
I didn't find one that to our ears was just as - Right - sounding as the Young.
The Young had a level of refinement at the top end which was sublime, all the detail you could need and more but presented in an exciting yet organic style.
It's important to say that the Young was powered by a linear PSU, a Teddyclone made by Simon SQ...and this was no doubt a factor.
My experience is that a better PSU can make all the difference.
Important to state that we used the units strictly as a Dac in the comparison. The Mytek offers a lot more connectivity and features built in, where the Young just does its thing as a dac.
Of course the Mytek's killer feature is its Native DSD playback.
It did it very well and we played a mix of normal and DSD128 files. It sounded very very good and you could tell DSD playback was "better" and well worth having if you had an SACD library ripped to your server.
The same DSD tracks were played on the Young, albeit down sampled to 384 PCM format and you know what, the musicality of the Young more than made up for any perceived "on paper" reduction in quality.
We didn't feel anything was missing with the Young, even playing DSD.
Playing the same files at 32/384 resolution via the Young as just as enjoyable and in most cases better.
To sum up, both extraordinarily good Dacs, but very different in their intended use I feel.
The Mytek has a feature set that is way beyond what the Young offers and will be of fantastic value in the kind of system where its abilities will shine.
For straight musical playback and enjoyment we felt the Young nailed it.
The Dac just got out if the way, it didn't have a signature Hifi sound of its own, it just played music.
In my system to my ears (my mates ears too and it was more black and white to him) this was the case, with a linear PSU the Mytek maybe take on more of the organic quality I personally prefer, but for me in my system it's the Young every time.
Good times... :)
Didn't get the chance unfortunately to hear the Weiss (or the Dacmagic) but we compared the Mytek to the Young.
Using both units strictly as a Dac only, source was my home brew Music Server/Jriver playing a mixture of 16/44, 24/192 32/384 and DSD tracks into my valve amp and Rega RS3 speakers.
Cabling was TQ Black speaker and Interconnect, home brew Lapp/MK mains leads.
The Young didn't do DSD so no comparison there, but let the Young bring its party piece with some 32/384 files I had. Different thing, but letting it show what it can do.
Honestly...quick version?
We felt the Young was a more enjoyable, musical listen.
Don't get me wrong, the Mytek was bloody good and it ticked all the Hifi boxes...it had a very clear, precise presentation - particularly with DSD.
But we felt it played more to the head than the heart though - to me its more of a precise digital swiss army knife than something that steps aside and let's the music flow.
A great description of what we were hearing came from my mate:
After playing the Young for a while he said he had been thinking about how to describe the sound of what he was hearing and he laughed that he couldn't...
"It just got out of the way, I was listening to music not the equipment".
With the Mytek he said he instantly went in to "Hifi mode" and thought about the bass, decay, treble energy etc, not the music being played.
We swapped between the two playing the same test tracks and the difference in the two Dacs became more obvious. The Young just got out of the way, the enjoyment was all about the song, its meaning...how dirty that old Les Paul sounded on Gregg Allman's "Country Blues" album, how on Livingston Taylor's "Ink" album you could almost "see" him adjusting his hands on the harmonica whilst playing it....that kind of thing.
The Mytek didn't draw us in the same way, it sounded like very (very) good Hifi, very detailed, precise...the bass was excellent, but missing the "organic" quality that made you feel like you were listening to real people playing in front of you.
For us the Young did all the various Hifi stuff just as well (we felt actually that the resolution down low was better, we were hearing micro detail that was missing with the Mytek), but worked to present all the hifi "stuff" in a way that combined to make what you were hearing sound REAL.
I could talk dynamics, stereo image and depth, room acoustic, resolution and transparency, but you know what there's no point really.
In comparison the Young just "did music" in a way the Mytek didn't.
Maybe if I tried the different filters on the Mytek it might have changed the flavour of it? My experience of filters is that they do change the sound, but very subtly...at least on my previous Rega Dac.
I tried to make sure it was as level a playing field as possible and took the filters out of the equation as the Young didn't have any.
Jriver playback software was set up for maximum sound quality for both Dacs.
Interesting that both Dacs had quite different Jriver "sweet spots" with buffer settings etc, maybe down to the Sabre Dac chip being different to the Burr Brown on the Young?
Didn't try the different filters, but I did explore the options in the Mytek USB driver.
I didn't find one that to our ears was just as - Right - sounding as the Young.
The Young had a level of refinement at the top end which was sublime, all the detail you could need and more but presented in an exciting yet organic style.
It's important to say that the Young was powered by a linear PSU, a Teddyclone made by Simon SQ...and this was no doubt a factor.
My experience is that a better PSU can make all the difference.
Important to state that we used the units strictly as a Dac in the comparison. The Mytek offers a lot more connectivity and features built in, where the Young just does its thing as a dac.
Of course the Mytek's killer feature is its Native DSD playback.
It did it very well and we played a mix of normal and DSD128 files. It sounded very very good and you could tell DSD playback was "better" and well worth having if you had an SACD library ripped to your server.
The same DSD tracks were played on the Young, albeit down sampled to 384 PCM format and you know what, the musicality of the Young more than made up for any perceived "on paper" reduction in quality.
We didn't feel anything was missing with the Young, even playing DSD.
Playing the same files at 32/384 resolution via the Young as just as enjoyable and in most cases better.
To sum up, both extraordinarily good Dacs, but very different in their intended use I feel.
The Mytek has a feature set that is way beyond what the Young offers and will be of fantastic value in the kind of system where its abilities will shine.
For straight musical playback and enjoyment we felt the Young nailed it.
The Dac just got out if the way, it didn't have a signature Hifi sound of its own, it just played music.
In my system to my ears (my mates ears too and it was more black and white to him) this was the case, with a linear PSU the Mytek maybe take on more of the organic quality I personally prefer, but for me in my system it's the Young every time.
Good times... :)