Hi everyone. I note that a lot of people have viewed this thread, and that 4 more Transporter SE's have been bought from the source I mentioned since my original posting.
Obviously I can't say for certain that this a result of my heads-up, but it does represent a dramatic rise in the seller's sales trend. If any of you have followed my lead, I hope that you'll be as delighted with your purchase when it arrives as I was with mine. However the main reason for posting again is to relate that I have just today received a Mytek Brooklyn DAC which I got for a substantial discount bidding in an eBay auction. Just like my dear departed Mum I do love a bargain... Anyway, using cables sourced from Canford Audio who supply all manner of studio leads at sensible prices, I connected my Transporter using the AES XLR digital output into a corresponding AES XLR digital input on the Mytek, and also linked up the Brooklyn's 0.8ps jitter word clock to the Transporter's word clock in (BNC lead). The Transporter's own clock with 20ps jitter has in the past been hailed as exceptional, and essentially reducing jitter to an inaudible level. But less can be more, and using the Mytek FemtoClock as master certainly won't do any harm to the fidelity. It took less than 30 minutes to adjust the Transporter settings through the Windows GUI and to optimise the DAC settings. Turned my amp on low volume to be careful, and then went for it... It worked straight off, and the sound is totally stunning. I thought my system was pretty good before but I'm astonished by the improvement. It's like the best of analogue sound but with the noise floor and extension of digital at both the top & bottom frequencies. The staging can only be described as rock solid, and suddenly my subwoofer has become more natural and totally controlled. Vocal and instrument timbres are much more nuanced and the background is pitch black. Yet again I find myself hearing low-level details on familiar recordings that I've never heard before, as I did when I got my present amp & speakers (and s/hand Slim Devices Transporter with knob) about 7 years ago. I strongly recommend anyone considering a high-end DAC to check the Mytek Brooklyn out. Even at full price (around £1600) it's a steal because it also incorporates an MC/MM analogue phono equalising amp for vinyl fans and a separate headphone amp designed to drive even the most demanding cans. There are two headphone jack sockets in opposite phase to each other on the front panel that can be used in combination to drive balanced headphones. With appropriate input it can handle PCM up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD up to 256. The cherry on the top is that is at present the only non-Meridian hardware to incorporate MQA decoding for Bob Stuart's recent hi-res innovation. I believe that Warner have acquired the rights to use MQA for their entire music catalogue, and it has certainly received very positive reviewers who seem mostly to have remained bemused how such "magic" could possibly work. As far as I can establish, it's done with a combination of complex maths and a healthy measure of neuroscience. I think you'd have to take Bob out and get him drunk to learn the full story! All that ultimately matters to me is how engaging the musical end product is - my ears are always my only reliable guide. Of course it's nice when equipment measures well in the lab (the Mytek does that too) but there remains a subjective element to musical enjoyment that still seems elusive to current measuring capabilities and of course the need for synergistic components throughout the audio chain is essential. The interface between the listening area and the speakers can often be the most dominant factor. My next project will be to sound-treat my own listening room which is not too small at around 4.3m square, but of course square is not ideal, and I also have a concrete floor (covered by generous underlay and a thick pile carpet). The worst aspect is the beam-and-concrete ceiling just over 2.4m above the floor and currently highly reflective on the shortest parallel and therefore highest resonant frequency for the room. Fortunately my upstairs neighbour is out quite a lot during the day, and comes down for my personal cinema club almost every evening. This buys me considerable goodwill! These are just my initial impressions of this DAC which I just fired up around 8:30pm tonight: so far I've only put 16bit/44.1kHz recordings through it and it's now too late to test out my 24bit/96kHz stuff without causing a public nuisance. I'll report again when I'm fully familiarised with the Brooklyn. But it's got my vote for both significant addition to my gear and for bargain of the week (maybe even year). Happy listening all, Dave :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Golden Earring's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=66646 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=107045
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