Shortly after the opening of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, a rumor started circulating around the city that the bridge was in fact unstable and likely to collapse. To prove the engineering marvel was indeed safe for public passage, P. T. Barnum marched a twenty-one elephant parade (with media present) across the span of the Brooklyn Bridge, and back.

The Story

The Mytek Digital Brooklyn DAC+ was on exhibit in the halls of the Florida Audio Expo. We’ve covered that model in terms of exhibition and specs, but never really spent a good chuck of time with it for a listen. That is about to change.

Change in the way that this was my chance to spend some real time with at debut of  Mytek’s new Brooklyn Bridge listening. The new Brooklyn Bridge is based sonically (and electrically) on the Brooklyn DAC+. Where the Brooklyn Bridge builds on the Brooklyn DAC+ is in terms of including an isolated Network Streamer. Overall the inputs carry over from the Brooklyn DAC+, however now include the necessary Ethernet, USB (for storage) and wireless (Wi-FI) connectivity antenna. The Brooklyn Bridge (like the DAC+) also embraces our favourite analog standard inputs like a line-in (RCA), and phono preamplifier input (RCA), along with line-out (both RCA and Balanced). This new Brooklyn Bridge is a full-fledged system centerpiece.

Headphone power is rated at six watts (500mA) across two headphone outputs. Digital to analog conversion is rated to serve PCM at 32bit/384khz, Native DSD (up to DSD256) and DXD. Ethernet works with PCM as well, but only serves 24bit/192khz and DSD64.

The Sound

I did get the chance to try out the Brooklyn Bridge with Audeze headphones, but the VPI Cliffwood that was at the end of the table. With the available digital nutrition there was nothing else like the Brooklyn Bridge at the show. Even though a proper “headphone jam” was not part of the Florida show, there were at least three exhibit rooms also running active headphone systems as part of their show display. The Brooklyn Bridge and Audeze combination oozed an organic power and finesse. Tonal balance and speed were the name of the game. Absolutely brilliant performance from the Brooklyn Bridge, along with the ability to share the experience via it’s two headphone outputs.

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