DAC/Streamers Under 10k - Mytek, PS Audio...

I own  an Exogal Comet Plus DAC and  am patiently waiting for it's companion streamer  the Vortex X1 to be released in the next couple of weeks. I really like the Exogal sound, and it's quite affordable gear.

Hi all... Just took delivery of a Manhattan II with network card (no phono preamp as yet... likely upgrade soon). Note that I am coming from a PS Audio DS and before that, an Auralic Vega. My setup, real quick, is running the Manhattan as preamp to BMC M2 mono amps which power a pair of Focal Utopia Scala (v1). Most of my music is stored in a Sony HAP-Z1ES server connected via usb to the Manhattan.

All in all, I am blown away. I cannot speak to Lumin or Aurender, but I cannot imagine resolution, tight bass and overall dynamism to get better than this. $7K is a lot of money but you get what you pay for. As someone said, the PSA DS was a bit softer... great if you have a bright system. For me though, the Manhattan hit the sweet spot. The Vega was good too but somewhat less sophisticated and mature compared to the Manhattan’s sound signature. Michal at Mytek has hit a home run. My only suggestion to Michal moving forward would be a better quality network card. Mine quits working every now and then.

sourojit, its been 2mos + since your last post on the Manhattan dac and was curious as to the overall experience since the last update? I have the PSA DS DAC II and Luxman 900u and 700c combo with ML 15's and am looking for an upgrade believe it or not..?  Another mirage perhaps..  I had the Brooklyn and loved it but fell into the PSA camp and have really enjoyed a broad range of their products, all excellent! Leaning hard towards the Manhattan now..what you say!?

Did they fix the network card in the Manhattan II? I'm in the same boat looking for a DAC/network streamer and my own assessment is to keep the network streamer and dac separate opening up more options in the future.

I’ve had the Manhattan for a while now and the network card has worked flawlessly. That said, I’m pretty annoyed they advertised AirPlay support and then seemed to not deliver it. It’s a small company, but it’s a pretty egregious example of false advertising.