alonwa

By the way, Hifiman offered an upgrade program whereby owners of the HE1000 could upgrade to v2 for $650 (not free, but also not $2999)

Regarding this question, you can test for yourself by adding a DAC8 device in the Harmony setup and seeing which buttons are supported for the DAC8 in the Devices sub-menu. You can do all that before owning an actual DAC8. Once you perform this test, you can remove the device if you don't want to keep it as part of the Harmony list

Also, why did they need to move to Windows? Couldn't they just use more powerful hardware (which they did) and add HQPlayer (which is available on linux)?

I have a question regarding the new SonicTransporter that can run HQPlayer + Roon. Does it also run LMS, MinimServer and BubbleUPnP server? For some reason, it doesn't yet appear in the list of products (but the direct link to it works). Are there competing ready-made products for HQPlayer apart from the v.v.v. expensive Sound Galleries server (not exactly competition, because it is also a player)? Thanks

Here's why the WAF is harmed. In the Harmony "world", you define activities, for example, "watch dvd", "play CD", "play squeezebox", "watch streamer", etc. For each of these activities, you define which devices need to be turned on and which input is to be selected in each of the devices. Since the stereo set is not used just for computer audio, and the DAC serves more or less as preamp in the sense that it's the main device used for selecting inputs, essentially each of its inputs is used for one of the activities, of which there are quite a few. So, the ladies (that also includes my daughter) currently don't need to know that the squeezebox is connected to COAX2 but the CD is connected to OPT1, etc - they just select the activity and everything just works without memorizing the connectivity chart (which is a bit complex here, as you can imagine). So the Harmony remote is very convenient in that sense - it's not about aesthetics, but more about convenience. Now, the reason it works is that almost all devices in the world exist in the Harmony database, so that the remote code sequences for selecting inputs are known by the remote or can be uploaded into the remote once it's connected to the computer. That includes all the Brooklyn competitors, but the Brooklyn is not in the database. All that needs to be done from Mytek is to add single remote control codes for selecting each of the inputs and to communicate them to Logitech so that the Brooklyn is added to the database, but apparently there isn't enough demand from customers, so it has not been done.

But you first need to select the menu for the volume and that depends on menu context, right? In other words, there's no single remote control code sequence that always works to increase/decrease volume. Is that correct? I'm not an owner, so my information is based on what I understand from the info spread around, so I'm not sure about this.

Speaking of the remote, it would be even cooler if the remote control receiver identified discrete codes for the different inputs, so a single remote command code switched to any input. This would make the Brooklyn usable with universal remotes such as the Logitech Harmony remotes. Should be easy to add codes for that (and for volume up and down) in a firmware update. If that was available, I would probably be a Brooklyn owner now - without that, the Brooklyn won't pass the WAF criterion.

On headphones you could already switch phase by using the right jack (left in phase, right out of phase). I suppose for balanced you could switch phase by swapping the two jacks.

I sent them a detailed question, mentioning that the best is to have discrete remote codes for specific input selection, that all their competitors support that and that I believe manufacturers take the initiative to add their products to the Harmony database. I also mentioned that the Brooklyn is not in the database, whereas the Stereo192 DSD-DAC is in the Harmony database, though its configuration there contains only raw commands and not input switching. Actually the 192 was (partially) added following an effort by a CA member. They did answer eventually (after I asked twice to remind), but the answer was that they assume that if the 192 was added by Harmony, the Brooklyn will also eventually be added. My interpretation is that they show no interest, probably because most of their users also don't care about it, which is legitimate. I assume they would act if more users or prospective users cared and asked about it.

I think you can't select inputs directly (i.e. with one button press) no matter which remote you use. I thought and suggested it could be easy to implement in a firmware upgrade (which would be cool for users of a Harmony remote), but Mytec show no interest.

I'm aware of this RC5 compatibility, but this is not good enough. With the universal remote, you can manually send the basic commands as if you used the original Mytek remote, but in order to switch between inputs you would need to manually inspect the state of the Brooklyn menus and press the correct sequence and there's no fixed sequence that makes sure that a specific input (e.g. USB or OPT) is selected. The Harmony remote environment is designed differently. You define activities, such as "Watch TV", "Watch DVD", "Listen to mRendu", "Listen to CD" etc. For each of these activities, you define which device in your system controls volume and which input to select for each of the devices that allow different inputs (e.g. pre-amps, DACs, TVs, etc). The remote then sends all the remote codes to the different devices so that each of the devices will be configured with the correct input. The vast majority of devices are pre-defined in the Harmony database, so that the database already contains the remote control codes that allow this input switching. You then just choose the devices and define the activities and everything just works. The Brooklyn is not in the database. Competitors (e.g. Oppo, T+A, Benchmark, W4S, Auralic, ...) are in the database. I believe most companies work with the Harmony people in order to make sure that their products are in the database.

Does anyone use the Brooklyn with a universal Harmony remote? It seems like it is not supported, which for me is a deal breaker. It should be easy for Mytek, I believe, to update the firmware with new discrete codes for switching between the different inputs, but it doesn't seem like the Mytek people think that it is important or useful (I wrote to them, but they didn't seem to care). All the competitors are supported on the Harmony remote, so I think it should have been a priority.

You do need 7.9.0 for DSD/DoP. You can install 7.9.0 quite easily by enabling beta packages (open Package Center and press on Settings, then check the box in the Beta tab). You should then see that it will offer you to install 7.9.0.

In the context of the discussion above, it seems to me to be a good idea to have a way to test each flow (or output mode) for being bit perfect (of course, assuming that it is supposed to be bit perfect - this does not apply to HQP with up-sampling). I borrow the idea from Audiolab, which implemented such a test on their M-DAC. The idea is simple. You can download a specific file from their site (there are two files - one redbook, one hi-res). You then feed the file through your specific flow after telling the DAC to enter bit perfect test. The DAC checks what is fed to it and tells you whether it's equivalent to the original. Since in many flows there are many components and settings that could affect whether playback is bit perfect, this is very useful for verifying that the flow operates as expected. I think it would be cool if a similar procedure could be implemented by sonore on the mRendu output, which is one step upstream from the DAC. So here's how it would work. You would download a file on the sonore site and would feed it to the mRendu in each output mode you would want to test. The mRendu would run the output mode and would test on the final USB output stage whether its output is the file it expects. It might even disable the output itself and just do the test if that seems more elegant. This way we would be able to know whether our setup is configured as we expected, at the least in the modes that are expected to be bit perfect.

Thanks - another question about the Brooklyn. If you use the hard USB adaptor for connecting the mRendu with the Brooklyn, is any of the other inputs in the back of the Brooklyn blocked? Thanks