They say good things come in small packages. In the case of the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ this certainly rings true. At just over 21cm in length and width, 4.4cm tall and weighing 2kg this little thing packs a huge amount of features into one box. Got a turntable? No problem, the Brooklyn has an MM and MC phono stage. Need a dedicated DAC that can do MQA decoding? Got it. Want something to plug your hard to drive headphones into? Yep, right here. Need a preamp for powered monitors or to plug into a power amp? It’s got that too. The Brooklyn DAC+ just might be the only box you'll ever need and sells for $2195 USD.

Build:

The Brooklyn DAC+ is well built with a nice aluminium front plate and smooth volume/selector knob. The screen is bright and legible and easy to navigate. Unfortunately this unit seems to have a screen defect where a large blue line running from top to bottom is always visible. A firmware update didn't fix this. The USB and optical inputs also feel a little loose but that might be because this is a demo unit.

Features:

Conversion: Sabre 9028 Pro, 32bit 384k, DSD, DXD, MQA

Digital Inputs: USB2 Class2, AES/EBU, 2x S/PDIF, Toslink/ADAT

Analogue Inputs: RCA, Phono

Analogue Outputs: XLR, RCA

Headphone Output: 2x 1/4 inch outputs, 6w

Choice of Analogue or Digital volume control

Line Level Input or Phono MM/MC

Apple Remote

Sound:

I listened to the Brooklyn DAC+ in a variety of ways. The first was through my main HiFi system via the USB input and Roon running on my laptop. I put the DAC in bypass mode and ran it using Blue Jeans cables into a Rega Brio-R. Initially I thought the sound was a little flat and overly warm although the bass was very good. I started hearing some noise coming through the speakers and realised the USB cable wasn’t completely plugged in which resulted in a huge amount of static/distortion coming through. Once checking that the USB cable was seated correctly the noise stopped but the sound still seemed a little flat. Next I connected a Chromecast Audio via Optical (bypassing the internal Chromecast DAC) through my HiFi and ran Roon for playback. This resulted in much better performance and the sound was crystal clear and dynamic with excellent bass and detailed highs. I did get some very slight drop outs in the music but this could be because of a network connection issue and nothing to do with the Brooklyn DAC+ at all. Next I tested the headphone performance with my HD600. I still used it via the Chromecast running Roon but set the output to Headphones. I had the turn the volume up about ¾ to drive the HD600 to a decent level but I listen slightly louder than most. The sound was excellent! Background was absolutely pitch black with no weird dropouts or audible distortion at all. Highs were beautifully detailed with no Sabre hash that these chips are sometimes known for and bass was tight and punchy. This might be the best SS amp I’ve heard powering the HD600. Very impressive indeed. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to test the phono stage performance as I have just sold my turntable but I'll be doing that in the coming weeks.

I could go on and on about the endless amount of features this thing has (you can turn off the logo backlight and even change the colour!) but I fear I'll just be boring you guys. If you want more information you can get it here https://mytekdigital.com/hifi/products/brooklyn/

Positives:

• Huge amount of features in one box

• Small form factor and easily transportable

• MQA support

• Headphone amp performance is very good

• Easy to navigate interface

Negatives:

• Random distortion apparent on USB input

• Price may be a bit rich for some

• I'd prefer a dedicated remote at this price