Owner`s manual

154 July/August 2013 the absolute sound
exclusively for a week or so the logic of Mytek’s nested menu
options becomes second nature. The Stereo192-DSD-DAC also
supports a remote control, an Apple remote to be exact. Any
Apple remote can be coupled to the Stereo192-DSD-DAC, as
can an RC-5-style universal remote. Two of the small buttons
on the front panel are function buttons. They are both user-
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phase inversion select, a mono select, an L-R select, an M/S
decode, or for instant -20dB volume reduction.
Unlike many DAC/preamps which have their volume controls
for the headphone and main outputs ganged together, the
Mytek supports separate volume control adjustments from a
single volume knob. Merely push in the knob to switch from
headphones to line level. The front panel LED displays a -99 to
-0 volume scale, making it easy to see exactly what your volume
level is at a glance. It also makes matched-level A/B comparisons
easy and accurate. If you already have a line-level analog preamp,
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analog output.
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was the on/off switch. Every device needs an on/off switch,
right? True, but perhaps a smaller or rear-mounted on/off would
have been better. Why? Because when the Mytek is turned on
or off it emits a rather loud transient thump. Obviously, best
practices indicate that you should always turn your power
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will eliminate the possibility of the turn-on and turn-off noise
damaging anything downstream from the 192-DSD-DAC. But,
“things happen.” The DAC/pre’s in my desktop system are
situated below my desk at approximately knee height. Several
times during the review my knee came in contact with the on/
off switch. The results were loud and not pretty. Also, once
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exhausted its power reserves, generating a prodigious thump.
Knowing “best practices” and being able to employ them in the
real world are two different things.
Sound
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the lack of any additive harmonic colorations. Conversely, the
Mytek didn’t sound harmonically thin; instead there was a clarity
and speed to its presentation that gave everything played through
it the lucidity of live music. If your system relies on your DAC
or preamp to warm up or harmonically enrich the overall tonal
balance, the Mytek Stereo192-DSD-DAC won’t be much help.
Like the other two prosumer DAC/pre’s in this survey, the Mytek
DAC was created to be as neutral and transparent as possible.
And in my system, it achieved this goal.
Although the Mytek is extremely neutral, it does have more
than one sonic personality. The upsampling option, as well as
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the Mytek sounded. With lower-bit-rate sources, such as MP3s
and audio from video streams, upsampling delivered superior
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oversampling native rate. Sampling rates of 44.1 and higher
sounded more organic and analog-like. The same tracks with
oversampling activated were too tight and sounded overdamped.
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more program-material dependent than bit-rate dependent. The
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for DSD—50, 60, or 70kHz. Frankly I didn’t hear any appreciable
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but they were all recorded at 5.6MHz with the high-frequency
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On the few commercial DSD recordings in my library I did
notice some very subtle differences, which seemed to primarily
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once again was dependent on the source material.
Speaking of source material, I found the Mytek was among the
most dynamically mercurial DACs I’ve encountered. With low-
contrast, “volume wars” commercial pop, such as the audio from
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lacking in dynamic contrast. But when fed something with actual
dynamic contrast, such as my own live concert recordings, the
Mytek reproduced the recording’s full dynamic range and power
with ease. During especially high-dB passages, such as the peaks
on my recording of “A Woman’s Life” by Richard Danielpour
performed by the Boulder Philharmonic with soloist Angela
Brown, the Mytek did a superb job of delineating the penetrating
power of Ms. Brown’s impressive mezzo-soprano.
The Mytek’s headphone output proved to be up to the task of
driving the most power-hungry headphones in my collection with
no issues, including the Audeze LCD-2 and Beyer Dynamic DT-
990 600-ohms. High-sensitivity in-ear phones were also handled
well by the 192-DSD-DAC. The 16-ohm-impedance, 110dB-
sensitive Meelectronics A161P lacked any sort of additional
electronic noise or hiss, and had excellent bass and treble
extension. The Mytek dual volume control was especially handy
when I was comparing my Stax headphone rig with dynamic
headphones plugged into the Mytek’s headphone output, since it
allowed me to critically match the levels of the headphone with
the Stax being fed by the line-level outputs.
Is a Mytek Your Tech?
Although the Mytek is the least expensive of the three DAC/
pre’s in this survey, its combination of features and sound puts
it on equal footing with the other two units reviewed. If you
want or need a DSD-capable DAC with a FireWire interface
(which can be attached to any Thunderbolt connection via an
adapter) the Mytek is the only game in town, so far. For most
prospective buyers the blackface standard version with its analog
pass-through will be the most useful, but if you have a PC and
a hankering for 128x DSD and don’t need an analog input, the
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Benchmark DAC2 HGC
When Robert Greene reviewed the Benchmark DAC1 in 2009,
he concluded his review by saying, “The Benchmark DAC1
Pre is not only an excellent device for the money; it is excellent
compared to anything that I have encountered at any price. To
my mind, it is the beginning of a new era in audio, in which
the regeneration of the recorded signal has become a solved
EQUIPMENT REPORT - Three New DSD-Capable DACs