[Dmytro Gorobets]

Hello, I tried the DAC today and I liked it but there was nothing else in the store to compare it too. I wonder if its a good product compared to its competition and how does it compare to other stuff in its price point?. What are your thoughts about it?

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I have the same question. There is surprisingly little feedback on this device. I think maybe it is lost between the low-priced Chifi gear and the mid-tier European gear.

The 1000 USD price range for DACs is a very bad price range to be in since RME came out. RME doesn't do MQA, but it is a monster at the price.

If you heard it, your opinion would be helpful, including what the entire chain was.

 

[Dmytro Gorobets]

I have the same question. There is surprisingly little feedback on this device. I think maybe it is lost between the low-priced Chifi gear and the mid-tier European gear.

The 1000 USD price range for DACs is a very bad price range to be in since RME came out. RME doesn't do MQA, but it is a monster at the price.

If you heard it, your opinion would be helpful, including what the entire chain was.

I will copy paste what I replied on another forum. Hope it helps.

About what I heard in Liberty, I tested it side to side with my K5 Pro and Mojo for 2h with pure goal of spotting differences. I didn’t find Mojo interesting enough or worth the money in SQ improvement over 5k Pro but liberty sounded noticeably cleaner and more accurate compared to other 2.

-There was a little more texture to already easily noticeable detail that I could spot in all of the amps. 8%

-Separation between what’s on left and right was more obvious, liberty was more dynamic than other 2 (I’m pretty sure its not in my head, it was very noticeable in Double bass, Cello or Violin sound). ~12%

-Because of cleaner sound, localization of instruments in sound stage and imaging were more readable in a way and something like a basic drum hit had its own space in X and Y axes. 10%?

-Liberty sounded flatter and a bit brighter than other 2 combos which made it sound lite its more detailed just because treble was more upfront in a way it didn’t sound exaggerated. Its like a super small EQ. 8%

I tried to be as pessimistic as possible with my conclusions and things I heard like for example If I would suspect that something can be just miss match in volume I would give the worse amp a little volume advantage and see if it was actually true. Differences I couldn’t spot repeatedly I would just not count or consider them so minor that it cant be relevant. I used 5 same songs I picked just for testing because I found out that in a lot of songs there is barely barely or no difference.

All my observations were based on my personal experience and listening skills. I don’t have more experience with other gear in that price range or in the middle so my % depend from song to song and should be taken with a bag of salt. Now that I know that 750 euro Liberty DAC is better than my K5 Pro by around 10% I can see the law of diminishing returns in its full its strength. I’m not looking for people to convince me to buy Liberty, I just want to know if this kind of gains are about what I should expect from a 550 euro upgrade. Price to performance I see no reason of spending more than maybe Topping X30, Atom or Schiit stack that I never heard but if it sounds better than K5 Pro I would stop there. In the end even tho Liberty offer minimal sound quality gains I think I will still get it for the reason that I love sound stage, imaging and detail in music above all and Liberty increases all of these. Maybe I could buy something clean sounding like Topping X30 stack and just EQ a bit my HD800s but
I will see.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Liberty is 750 Euros in Portugal? It's 1000 everywhere else I saw.

The Mytek DACs principle is to be very resolving from what I read in the Brooklyn design notes article linked from the Mytek site. I have to say I agree that he matched his goals on the Brooklyn. I didn't hear the Liberty so I don't know. It seems like your impressions are similar.

Considering value for the money you can also consider what kind of service you'll get if something goes wrong. Liberty is built in Europe and it's easier for us to get service and advise than for most Chinese products. It has been out for some years.

It is 2X the price, maybe 3X but if your Liberty cost 750 maybe the Brooklyn DAC+ is lower in price also. I can definitely recommend it if you like resolving DACs. It is beautifully made, very useful UI, and lots of connectivity.

But at the 1000 Euro price point RME ADI-2 DAC FS is a better value than the Liberty and it is probably more musical.

 

[Dmytro Gorobets]

Liberty is 750 Euros in Portugal? It's 1000 everywhere else I saw.

The Mytek DACs principle is to be very resolving from what I read in the Brooklyn design notes article linked from the Mytek site. I have to say I agree that he matched his goals on the Brooklyn. I didn't hear the Liberty so I don't know. It seems like your impressions are similar.

Considering value for the money you can also consider what kind of service you'll get if something goes wrong. Liberty is built in Europe and it's easier for us to get service and advise than for most Chinese products. It has been out for some years.

It is 2X the price, maybe 3X but if your Liberty cost 750 maybe the Brooklyn DAC+ is lower in price also. I can definitely recommend it if you like resolving DACs. It is beautifully made, very useful UI, and lots of connectivity.

But at the 1000 Euro price point RME ADI-2 DAC FS is a better value than the Liberty and it is probably more musical.

I travel a lot and like to take my audio setup to work so I need something smaller and a 2 in 1. Liberty is 3.5k pln, shop dropped 250 PLN for me. And yeah, my warranty would be in my country so it's nice.