That wasn’t streaming precisely, or not within the present sense, as a result of the information wanted to be downloaded, saved regionally, then both performed out of a pc or loaded onto a transportable participant, however from that time ahead it was a gentle march to the streaming-dominated current.
By no means thoughts Napsterthe primary subscription audio “streaming” service was one you in all probability would not consider: Audible, the audio e-book service now owned by Amazon, which began up in 1995. I did beta testing and modifying work for early-days Audible, and round that point, I began loading up home-ripped MP3 information on a pocket-sized Rio MP3 participant (which by then had changed Audible’s proprietary participant), utilizing it rather than a transportable CD participant. This led to experiments with a PC music library/participant operating Linux, managed by a Handspring PalmOS machine related to the stereo system through a Sound Blaster 16 card.
Within the Nineteen Nineties, downloading a CD’s value of knowledge would have taken without end, and storing a giant library of lossless tracks required a critical funding in arduous drive storage. Over time, web service acquired sooner and storage acquired low-cost sufficient that lossy compression was now not essential. Over the previous couple of years, I’ve constructed up an enormous digital library of CD rips, content material from HDtracks and different obtain companies, and my very own HD digital transfers from LPs and tapes.
Then got here lossless and high-rez streaming. To my considering, this new world, which gives entry to most (however not all) of the music ever recorded plus my very own assortment, all accessible on-demand through my cellphone and performed again in excessive constancy, is a dream come true. I do not suppose the younger mea card-carrying member of the Nineteen Eighties Walkman Technology, saving my cash to purchase information, placing up with commercials and FM DJs’ questionable tastes, and prowling the LP stacks at native libraries for home-taping alternativesmay have imagined this world of near-limitless, near-instantaneous musical exploration.
Many software program and {hardware} choices can be found in the present day to the avid streamer. Roon is on the forefront of music-server software program, however till I began this evaluation, I hadn’t tried it. Options exist: Audirvana, BluOS, HEOS, JRiver, Volumio, and proprietary methods produced by server producers to be used with their very own streaming home equipment. An instance of the latter is Mosaic, from dCS. I personal a dCS Bartók streaming DAC and routinely use Mosaic, which, whereas not as feature-rich as Roon, makes it straightforward to seek out and play information saved on my NAS and streamed from Qobuz.
Which brings us to the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge II Roon Core, a self-contained, advanced music machine able to a variety of connectivity and listening choices and with a small footprint. Present it with an web connection and a Roon account, and loads of air flow (it runs scorching), and the huge music world is open for exploration.
By “self-contained,” I imply that, to the in depth function set provided by Mytek’s unique Brooklyn Bridge, which has been discontinued for some time, the BBII provides server performance, particularly the flexibility to function the core of a Roon-based system. It may possibly handle the movement of music from its personal inside storage, regionally and network-attached storage, and streaming companies, offering an information-rich surroundings and sending it on to music-endpoint gadgets in any room in your own home (or, through Roon ARC, exterior the home). Like the unique Brooklyn Bridge, it affords a high-quality headphone output and even a phono preamp. A line enter permits you to play your tapes or join a tuner. And so forth.
That is the promise. The truth is near that, with just a few caveats.
Description
“The Brooklyn Bridge II is mainly … a Brooklyn DAC with a Roon core connected. … You may consider it as a self-contained system that may do all of the capabilities of a Roon core, Roon Nucleus, and extra,” Michal Jurewicz, Mytek’s founder and designer, says in a video on-line. It is also a full-featured DAC with USB connectivity, to be used with computer systems, in addition to coaxial S/PDIF and (TosLink) inputs (footnote 1). “You have got a pc contained in the field,” Jurewicz stated. Later, he informed me the pc is an Intel NUC boardthe center of a compact PC, much like that present in Roon’s personal Nucleus. The BBII runs a Mytek-customized model of Ubuntu Linux known as MytekOS. The NUC board runs the person interface, the software program that controls the capabilities of the DAC and preamp, the Roon-core server software program, and the Roon playback/interface software program. The system is highly effective, versatile, and upgradable. Mytek sends out common system updates: The BBII up to date thrice throughout the time I had it right here for audition. These updates repair the occasional bug and may add significant performance: new preamp capabilities, DSP (room correction, equalization), or graphic visualizations (degree meters and so forth) on the BBII’s small high-resolution show.
“Basically, that is the one piece of kit you’ll want to play music,” Jurewicz stated. “You may add an amplifier and audio system and have a really good stereo system.” There’s one hitch: Even after you’ve got paid for the product, to make use of all of the BBII’s capabilities, you want an web connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) and a subscription, at the very least to Roon. You will additionally desire a subscription to at the very least one of many streaming companies Roon works withat present Qobuz and Tidal, with extra to come back if the rumors are true.
With the BBII as with every Roon server, Roon integrates native information with streaming subscriptions for seamless search and playback. You may management some capabilities from the entrance panel, however apart from setup, you would not need to. It is a significantly better expertise on a pill, smartphone, or laptop computer pc operating Roon’s Distant app. The BBII may act as a Roon Prepared endpoint in case you have Roon core operating on one other machine (for example a PC together with your digital information on an inside or connected arduous drive).
So, the BBII is a tool for the digital-centric audiophile whose music assortment is totally on a tough drive or server or whose musical life is streaming-centric. Or each. Customary DAC capabilities are right here in case you nonetheless have a foot on the planet of bodily digital media or wish to play music out of your pc. With its TosLink enter, you may join the audio output of a flatscreen TV for higher sound to accompany video. I nearly forgot to say the Bluetooth 5.0 receiver, which helps you to ship music out of your cellphone. And remember the phono preamp, these analog inputs, and on and on.
A helpful mind-set of this machine is as a twenty first century built-in preamp on steroids, the place Roon (plus streaming companies) is the brand new tuner (footnote 2) and a option to play information, with the potential of infinite future enhancements through software program updates.
Setup
The very first thing I did after unpacking the BBII (then ready just a few seconds for it besides up) was join the unbalanced outputs to my workplace system (a McIntosh MA6500 built-in amplifier and Amphion One18 audio system near-field to my desk) and check out the Bluetooth connection. With out RtFM (footnote 3), I simply navigated to Bluetooth setup on the BBII’s touchscreen and shortly paired it with my iPhone. In one other few seconds, I used to be having fun with music streamed from Qobuz.
Subsequent, I plugged the BBII into my workplace pc through a USB cable. Home windows 10 acknowledged and loaded drivers for the BBII routinely; in lower than a minute, it was related and prepared. Now I may play tunes from both my NAS or the grasp library mirrored on the NAS, which is instantly related to my workplace pc.
Mytek offered me with a Roon account, which took me a while to determine; skilled Roon customers will not have any issues. After getting the BBII signed into my LAN through Wi-Fi, I set it up because the Roon core and put in the Roon app on my cellphone and pc desktop. All these gadgets discovered one another. I may now management what was taking part in from both my desktop or my cellphone. I linked my Qobuz account to Roonstraightforward. Now, streaming and file search and playback have been built-in. I by no means was in a position to get Roon to acknowledge my NAS, however I did not go too deep into it for concern of screwing up the NAS’s seamless integration with my dCS Bartók and the house community normally (footnote 4). As a substitute I opted to direct-connect my music-library backup drive to one of many two USB sockets on the again of the BBII. The Roon core software program “noticed” the drive instantly and commenced the prolonged strategy of integrating its contents into the searchable database, which lives on the identical machine because the Roon core (footnote 5).
Probably the most highly effective function of Roon is its common search; you kind a search time period similar to the music you are searching for, and if it is accessible in your library or at a streaming service you subscribe to, it locates the music, usually in a number of variations, then affords them up in accordance with your priorities as acknowledged within the Roon settings: most well-liked streaming service, format, and so forth. A “Variations” tab exhibits all of the completely different iterations you’ve got entry to. An instance: I’ve HDtracks downloads and rips of some older MoFi gold CDs on my NAS (and the regionally related backup drive). Each have been provided for playback alongside no matter variations exist on Qobuz.
This all requires a strong database, one of many causes Roon wants a full-fledged pc. (One more reason is Roon’s DSP choices.)
As for MytekOS, Jurewicz says the software program is continually evolving, and the corporate is focused on person suggestions. Listed below are some solutions. The touchscreen and menu tree for setup wants work. Higher nonetheless, there needs to be an app to manage all of the machine’s capabilities à la dCS’s Mosaic. (Roon settings help you management some issues, however not all the things.) The touchscreen is simply too small for man-sized fingers, and there are too many submenus. The touchscreen swipe-scrolls too slowly, making it straightforward to the touch the improper digital button or change. To show the BBII off or reboot requires an excessive amount of scrolling.
The BBII doesn’t at present show the pattern fee and bit depth for music performed through a USB connection; that needs to be straightforward to repair with a future software program replace. I am additionally hoping Mytek gives degree meters and a spectrum show for the display screencool eye sweet at the very least, and helpful in some circumstances (footnote 6).
Downstairs
Downstairs, with my desktop system, I seen some low-level noise and hash, the type that may typically leak by a pc soundcard, and in addition some hum. The hash was not audible from the balanced or headphone outputssolely the unbalanced. At regular listening ranges, with no music taking part in, the hash was audible however low in degree. Additional investigation, together with consultations with JA1 and JCA, revealed the hash supply: RFI from my Linksys Mesh Wi-Fi community leaking into the audio, possible by the BBII’s Wi-Fi receiver. After I navigated by the Community menu, disconnected from my Wi-Fi community, and related through hard-wired Ethernet, the hash disappeared. The hum remained, nonetheless (footnote 7).
Footnote 1: This Mytek picture particulars all the things packed into this small chassis.
Footnote 2: Talking of radio: Recall that Roon affords web radio, and in addition Roon Radio, which streams music out of your assortment and streaming companies chosen based mostly on music you chose.
Footnote 3: Learn(ing) The effing Handbook.
Footnote 4: My community has advanced over a few years and could also be extra eccentric and tough to configure than ranging from scratch in a typical house community.
Footnote 5: Roon retains monitor of your information in its personal database, honoring no matter submitting system you employ; it doesn’t rearrange your music.
Footnote 6: I am positive the outdated Mytek DAC+ has this function, and I feel the sooner model of the Brooklyn Bridge (a streaming DAC with out a Roon core) did, too.Jim Austin
Footnote 7: Word, on the one hand, that Tom has by no means heard such hash earlier than in his methods with every other element. Alternatively, when JA1 and I attempted the BBII in our personal methods, neither of us heard it, and Mytek says they’ve had no stories about this within the subject. A little bit of analysis results in the conclusion that mesh router methods could also be at fault, particularly at shut vary. So, this noise might be uncommonlikelihood is you will not hear ithowever apparently, one thing concerning the BBII’s design or execution makes it inclined.Jim Austin