[Dobrescu George]

As an OG Brooklyn owner, I'm definitely looking forward to hearing any impressions of the Brooklyn Bridge.

I personally haven't heard any difference between XLR and SE connections, but I'm only running 1M interconnects. I do like the solid click-lock connection made by XLR connectors versus RCA connectors. XLR are supposed to be much better over longer runs.

I'm also using short connections, about 1 meter or so

using RAMM cables for the RCA connectors seem to be working well for me

 

[486930]

Could someone give an estimate of how much the SBooster MKII PSU increases SQ? Is it 2% or 10% or?

 

[grigorianvlad]

Could someone give an estimate of how much the SBooster MKII PSU increases SQ? Is it 2% or 10% or?

First off, you can't estimate an improvement in percentages. That is a flawed methodology. Secondly, even if there was a way to subjectively calculate that somehow, the number would have been largely dependent of many factors:
1) Your other gear. What preamp do you have? What power amp? What speakers? What sort of cabling? The improvement will not be the same if your DAC is connected to a $199 receiver with a $150 pair of monitors and a $150,000 high end resolving system.
2) What sort of music do you listen to? If it is death metal or hip hop, then you dont need an Sbooster. You will never hear a difference. If you listen to jazz or classical with a wide dynamic range swings then you should entertain the possibility of getting an external power supply.
I was going to buy an Sbooster for my Mytek, but they kept delaying the release so many times that I lost patience and bought a Keces P8 external power supply. It does the same thing, but with more versatility because it has several power adjustable power zones to power multiple devices. In any case the only effect an ultra low noise external power supply will have in a good system is some instruments will gain more weight (palpability) and some (but not all) bass passages will come with a bigger slam. That is only in some tracks, where notes are not all scrambled and instruments are not mish mashed together when you cant tell one from the other. There is no night and day difference.
I am afraid Mytek Brooklyn is such an excellent device, that even its internal power supply is good enough for most setups. Let me tell you this. My Keces external power supply has a display that shows how much voltage and current is being consumed. We are concerned only with the Amperes here. The Keces can pump 4 Amperes into each device. No matter how hard I drove the planar headphones, the Mytek never consumed more than 1.0Amp. So, it never had a need to dig into Keces current reserves for the remaining 3Amp, it never used them.
Of course, there are other considerations - the quality of the capacitors, transformer, internal wiring, etc.
Anyway, I feel I still have not answered your question

Could someone give an estimate of how much the SBooster MKII PSU increases SQ? Is it 2% or 10% or?

You are considering buying an Sbooster, but you want to know if it makes sense to spend that kind of money on a device that will offer just 2% or 10% of improvement, but costs 1/5th of the Mytek. You want the percentage. Well, if you have all other gear in order, I'd say there is a 2%-3% improvement on some tracks, but it will subjective. If someone will do a blind test you will not tell a difference. This applies to any external power supply. Others will disagree, no doubt, but you asked for an opinion and that is what this is.

 

[grigorianvlad]

Could someone give an estimate of how much the SBooster MKII PSU increases SQ? Is it 2% or 10% or?

One more thing, if you are looking for a better bang for the buck, consider a good USB reclocker/conditioner (not a cheap one, those will only make things worse). That improvement is much more profound than an external power supply. Mytek would not acknowledge that because it would imply that their DAC does a poor job with its internal clock and at removing jitter.
No, it does a good job, much better than many other DACs, but still there is a room for improvement

 

[AlanU]

Could someone give an estimate of how much the SBooster MKII PSU increases SQ? Is it 2% or 10% or?

I would strongly suggest a linear PS since the switching power supply in the mytek does not have high filtration and noise seems to be introduced.

You should experience more finesse and flow of the music.

I do find the Mytek products “not” offensive to the ears with nice balance in detail. I will still take tube or vinyl for more organic analog life to the music genre I listen too.

Music is subjective but adding “improvements” to clean power can usually reap better results.

I love my astron power supply. Seems to have great combo with my cheap Mytek liberty dac. I also use power conditioning. My power conditioner is substantially more expensive than the Mytek Brooklyn.

Audio is fun nice to have so enjoy the money Pit hobby.

 

[AlanU]

One more thing, if you are looking for a better bang for the buck, consider a good USB reclocker/conditioner (not a cheap one, those will only make things worse). That improvement is much more profound than an external power supply. Mytek would not acknowledge that because it would imply that their DAC does a poor job with its internal clock and at removing jitter.
No, it does a good job, much better than many other DACs, but still there is a room for improvement

In my particular case I did not hear any sonic improvements using an uptone regen. Results may vary.

 

[grigorianvlad]

In my particular case I did not hear any sonic improvements using an uptone regen. Results may vary.

No, the Uptone Regen will make things worse. That is why I wrote "not a cheap one". The Regen is designed to improve signal from DACs that are so inherently bad, they have not been even invented yet.

 

[grigorianvlad]

In my particular case I did not hear any sonic improvements using an uptone regen. Results may vary.

There are three major reclocker/conditioner makers:
iFi Audio
Uptone
SoTM
I use the last one . It is 3 or 4 times more expensive than the first two, but it takes the Brooklyn to a whole another level. This review explains why that happens. It is not about a Mytek, but an Ayre, but the principle is the same.

 

[Dobrescu George]

There are three major reclocker/conditioner makers:
iFi Audio
Uptone
SoTM
I use the last one . It is 3 or 4 times more expensive than the first two, but it takes the Brooklyn to a whole another level. This review explains why that happens. It is not about a Mytek, but an Ayre, but the principle is the same.

I have some iFi budget conditioners coming in to test with Brooklyn DAC+ and will report back on my results

 

[486930]

Thanks for your replies. I think the methodology is just fine. Rather than a long spiel sometimes a brief estimate is preferable. We all know the caveats that goes along with any subjective estimation, be it well articulated or numeric.

I have the Brooklyn Bridge so I don't need to worry about USB or any other source. It's just full st(r)eam ahead...

If I keep the Bridge I will definitely buy an SBooster. I talked with Mytek yesterday and they recommended just that.

I basically just wanted someone elses view, expressed numerically, of what kind of improvement the SBooster will provide.

 

[grigorianvlad]

I have the Brooklyn Bridge so I don't need to worry about USB or any other source. It's just full st(r)eam ahead...

If you are implying that network has no digital jitter or even has lower jitter than any other route (USB, SPDIF, COAX, etc.) you are sadly mistaken.
A lot of people make the same mistake.
To quote from the link above:

"... both USB and Ethernet inputs have their own separate clocks. The USB clock is a multiple of 12MHz and the Ethernet clock is a multiple of 25MHz - neither related to the digital audio master clock frequencies that are multiples of either 44.1kHz or 48kHz (two separate crystals used)."

Even if you add a $12,000 atomic clock to the Mytek (I am not sure if the Bridge has an external clock input), it will still be behind in terms of SQ of a pure analog signal that was used in mastering. The network card was added mostly for convenience and demand, because so many other DACs have a network interface.

 

[Topmounter]

If you are implying that network has no digital jitter or even has lower jitter than any other route (USB, SPDIF, COAX, etc.) you are sadly mistaken.
A lot of people make the same mistake.
To quote from the link above:



Even if you add a $12,000 atomic clock to the Mytek (I am not sure if the Bridge has an external clock input), it will still be behind in terms of SQ of a pure analog signal that was used in mastering. The network card was added mostly for convenience and demand, because so many other DACs have a network interface.

Some USB sources are better than others, so ymmv.

Only Mytek's Manhattan supports world clock i/o.

 

[exdmd]

One more thing, if you are looking for a better bang for the buck, consider a good USB reclocker/conditioner (not a cheap one, those will only make things worse). That improvement is much more profound than an external power supply. Mytek would not acknowledge that because it would imply that their DAC does a poor job with its internal clock and at removing jitter.
No, it does a good job, much better than many other DACs, but still there is a room for improvement

I owned a Brooklyn DAC+ for a year, and added both a Schiit Eitr and Sbooster LPS. My impression was that the Eitr made more of a difference than the Sbooster, certainly more bang for the buck. The combination of the Eitr and the Sbooster together did however elevate the sound quality of the DAC+ with better imaging, sound stage and bass punch. A worth while improvement for about $500 at the time. I bought the Brooklyn for the MQA only to find Tidal plagued with dropouts on MQA tracks at the time. I own a Yggy now and use Qobuz instead of Tidal. I consider the DAC+ an expensive experiment as I much prefer the Yggy A2.

 

[Topmounter]

I owned a Brooklyn DAC+ for a year, and added both a Schiit Eitr and Sbooster LPS. My impression was that the Eitr made more of a difference than the Sbooster, certainly more bang for the buck. The combination of the Eitr and the Sbooster together did however elevate the sound quality of the DAC+ with better imaging, sound stage and bass punch. A worth while improvement for about $500 at the time. I bought the Brooklyn for the MQA only to find Tidal plagued with dropouts on MQA tracks at the time. I own a Yggy now and use Qobuz instead of Tidal. I consider the DAC+ an expensive experiment as I much prefer the Yggy A2.

I ordered the mk ii Sbooster last week for my OG Brooklyn (haven't decided yet on whether I'll replace it with the DAC+ or Bridge). I also have an Eitr, but (so far) still prefer my µR+LPS-1 feeding the Brooklyn from Roon+HQPlayer at DxD/DSD. Roon is doing the first MQA unfold because it can, but have MQA disabled in the Brooklyn. Regardless, the benefits of MQA never outweighed up-conversion to DxD/DSD to my ears (caveat being this is to my 2ch speaker rig and not HPs). The Eitr did result in a tremendous improvement for the Metrum Amethyst I recently acquired relative to its USB input (there is an Onyx or Jade in my future). Someday I'll get around to trying an Yggy.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I owned a Brooklyn DAC+ for a year, and added both a Schiit Eitr and Sbooster LPS. My impression was that the Eitr made more of a difference than the Sbooster, certainly more bang for the buck. The combination of the Eitr and the Sbooster together did however elevate the sound quality of the DAC+ with better imaging, sound stage and bass punch. A worth while improvement for about $500 at the time. I bought the Brooklyn for the MQA only to find Tidal plagued with dropouts on MQA tracks at the time. I own a Yggy now and use Qobuz instead of Tidal. I consider the DAC+ an expensive experiment as I much prefer the Yggy A2.

That's interesting, beause the only yggy I heard sounded waaaay off from DAC+, like DAC+ had ten times or more the clarity, definition and detail...

BTW, right now I'm using DAC+ with Tidal and the highest settings on Tidal, and I'm getting no issues. Using an Optical cable from my motherboard's Optical output.