- Thread Starter
- #81
$20K streamer? Good grief....
They make some *heady* claims on their website, albeit replete with grammatical errors. Maybe you could reach out to them to test a sample?$20K streamer? Good grief....
Empire Streamer DAC is the best DAC Mytek ever made and most likely the best DAC ever made.
Ah, but can it challenge a $XXX hundred dollar Topping DAC ???Empire DAC easily challenges all top DAC contenders in $XX thousand price range on the market today.
Not those, they were unimpressive as you pointed out. There's something brewing for a long time ;-)https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ds/topping-pa3-review-stereo-amplifier.20085/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...opping-tp60-and-fx-audio-fx502spro-amps.5025/
Is there new ones in the pipeline? Those are unimpressive.
You know that from reliable source?Not those, they were unimpressive as you pointed out. There's something brewing for a long time ;-)
They make some *heady* claims on their website, albeit replete with grammatical errors. Maybe you could reach out to them to test a sample?
(My apologies about the bold typeface below—that’s how it copied from the page.)
https://mytek.audio/shop/empire-streamer-dac-1#attr=9
Empire Streamer DAC is the best DAC Mytek ever made and most likely the best DAC ever made. Empire uses two ES9038PRO 8 channel chipsets, one chip per channel in dual mono fully balanced configuration. ES9038PRO is the world highest performance DAC chipset with 140dB Dynamic Range performance in balanced mono mode. No other DAC on the market today, including FPGA based DAC, achieves the 140dB Dynamic Range performance the Empire DAC. This extraordinary resolution combined with ultra transparent balanced analog stage originally designed for mastering engineers, reveals everything in the recording with unparalleled fidelity. Empire DAC easily challenges all top DAC contenders in $XX thousand price range on the market today.
Not worth the effort and hassle I suppose. People who can afford this stuff won't be on forums browsing anyway. Quoting the DAC chip spec is a bit silly thoughMaybe you could reach out to them to test a sample?
Rumour has it, I have been waiting on it patiently anywayYou know that from reliable source?
So round, so firm, so fully packed.
Mytek broke with their assembly house and redesigned the entire line. New models to replace the old ones are slowly coming out.
Apparently the old assembly house is continuing to produce the old models, so if you want to buy, make sure you are buying an actual Mytek.
Wait... don't tell me that you don't have a thermal imaging camera?!? Or at least an IR thermometer?The top at least was at room temperature during my testing. Heat may be dissipated on the bottom. I forgot to check that.
But yes, if you don't need an amp to be small, there is no reason to get one with everything stuffed in a little box.
To quote "Hawkeye" Pierce's comment when he was doing emergency surgery on "Radar" O'Reilly's pet rabbit on the Amurrican sitcom version of M*A*S*H
Dr. Pierce was quoting a cigarette ad of approximately the same era (the '50s, that is, not the '70s).
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Ooh, I hate it when that happens.
Well the 140 dB have been used twice, once for the spec of the chip, but the second sentence is quite bold: "No other DAC on the market today, including FPGA based DAC, achieves the 140dB Dynamic Range performance the Empire DAC." That is rigorously true, about the others, now we will see about theirs, if they can meet this promise it is Indeed heck of an achievement. however (un)useful this is.Not worth the effort and hassle I suppose. People who can afford this stuff won't be on forums browsing anyway. Quoting the DAC chip spec is a bit silly though
Will you add these figures to the review, @amirm?Ah, my guess as to the failure reason was right. Owner gave me permission to open it. I found the ribbon cable crooked in one channel. Pushed it all the way in and it now works!
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That’s why I think Amir should reach out to them and obtain one to test.Well the 140 dB have been used twice, once for the spec of the chip, but the second sentence is quite bold: "No other DAC on the market today, including FPGA based DAC, achieves the 140dB Dynamic Range performance the Empire DAC." That is rigorously true, about the others, now we will see about theirs, if they can meet this promise it is Indeed heck of an achievement. however (un)useful this is.
Well, we are not exactly on speaking terms. One of the first ever DACs I tested was from Mytek. It did very poorly. The message got to Gearsluz forum and exploded there. Next thing I know the designer sending me a nastygram saying a) I am not running standard tests and I should read the Audio Precision manual and b) the reason they did poorly is because the MQA data path is being used for all playback formats and it was overflowing at 0 dB. So it wasn't their fault.Maybe you could reach out to them to test a sample?
An update. I received a message from Michal Jurewicz (member alias mehow), the designer of Mytek Brooklyn, with some remarks on my measurements. I wish I still had the Mytek to verify what he is saying but I am going to go ahead and provide his data regardless.
On the clipping, he confirms that it is the MQA decoder that causes the clipping. Disabling MQA decoder, eliminates the problem (graph in red):
The question I sent him which unfortunately he has not responded to, is why enabling MQA decoding impacts non-MQA content which I used for my testing.
It seems that they have a new dsp pipeline that includes MQA decoding and it is that new pipeline that now clips on non-MQA content. So to fix that, also means to give up on MQA decoding just the same!
That's not good. They should go back and properly integrate MQA into their decoding pipeline so that it doesn't impact non-MQA content. A simple check of the content flag for MQA should enable them to do this without a user switch to turn MQA on and off.
Of course it would be unfortunate if it overflows on MQA content but at least let's get the 99% answer right (i.e. non-MQA content).
On the second harmonic clipping, he says this is due to the attenuator (volume control) circuit which was intended to have a "warm" sound. Shutting off the volume control makes most of the second harmonic distortion to go away (graph in blue):
I guess this is their attempt to create the "tube" sound with those high levels of second harmonic distortions and at any rate, cater to subjective audiophile needs this way. Not my cup of tea. I want my volume control to be fully transparent and not inject gobs of second harmonic distortion into the path. If I want to distort it, I will do it elsewhere, thank you very much.
Above all, they should document all of this. People may for example choose to not use their volume control if they knew it acted as we have discovered.
Anyway, I appreciate the reach out and more information. My conclusion now is that the DAC is of higher quality the original stated within the constraints that these modified settings provide.
Maybe they would relish the chance to show the world how much of an improvement they have made since then.Well, we are not exactly on speaking terms. One of the first ever DACs I tested was from Mytek. It did very poorly. The message got to Gearsluz forum and exploded there.