Audioquest Dragonfly Usb Dac Version 10 Black Review
DragonFly Series
USB DAC + Preamp + Headphone Amp
From MP3 to MQA and High-Res: Naturally Beautiful Sound at Your Fingertips—
Whenever and Wherever You Want It
DragonFlys Black and Cerise
DragonFly Black, the near affordable model of the award-winning DragonFly family, has been praised by Darko.Audio equally "the quintessential everyman hi-fi product," while its more sophisticated sibling, DragonFly Red, combines significantly improved functioning with yet exceptional value. The ESS 9010 DAC chip in Blackness and the higher-operation 9016 chip in Cerise employ minimum-stage filtering for naturally detailed audio.
While DragonFly Blackness uses a high-quality headphone amp and analog volume control, DragonFly Scarlet includes a more advanced ESS headphone amp and a fleck-perfect digital volume control that resides on the 9016 DAC chip itself—a sophisticated implementation that gives Red a unique combination of power and grip over the music. DragonFly Black outputs 1.two volts—enough power to successfully drive all preamplifier input circuits and a broad range of today's efficient headphones. With its higher 2.1-volt output, DragonFly Red is compatible with a wider range of headphones, including power-hungry, depression-efficiency models.
Encounter Cobalt: The Most Cute-Sounding DragonFly Nevertheless!
DragonFly Cobalt, our new flagship DAC, takes what music lovers around the globe have come to wait from the multi-award-winning DragonFly family—naturally cute, seductive audio—and strips away fuzz and fog that weren't even noticeable until Cobalt removed them.
How is this possible? Like the critically acclaimed DragonFly Red, Cobalt has the robust ii.1-volt output to bulldoze almost whatsoever headphone, uses a bit-perfect digital volume command for outstanding signal-to-noise ratio, enables seamless compatibility with Apple and Android devices, and is an exceptionally competent and affordable MQA Renderer.
Review: AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt USB DAC Headphone Amplifier
Cobalt'due south precedent-setting performance is made possible by multiple significant upgrades:
- New, more than advanced ESS ES9038Q2M DAC scrap with a minimum-phase ho-hum scroll-off filter for more natural sound.
- Microchip's superb PIC32MX274 microprocessor draws less electric current and increases processing speed by 33%.
- Improved power-supply filtering that specifically increases immunity to WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular noise.
- Includes a form-fitting DragonTail female USB-A to male USB-C Adaptor.
All DragonTails use AQ's Carbon-level USB cablevision.
AudioQuest, Gordon Rankin: A Beautiful Partnership
Like all previous DragonFly models, Cobalt uses Gordon Rankin's precedent-setting StreamLength® asynchronous-transfer USB lawmaking. Farther, in Gordon's monoClock® technology, a single ultra-low-jitter clock generated from the ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip runs the ESS fleck functions also as all microcontroller functions. This superior clock enables DragonFly Cobalt to provide greater resolution and clarity than DACs with multiple clocks.
Streamlength and monoClock are registered trademarks of Wavelength Audio, ltd.
Why the "Deadening Roll...?"
Cobalt employs ESS'due south new flagship ES9038Q2M DAC chip. While the chips used in DragonFlys Black and Ruddy are unbeatable for the cost, the minimum-stage tedious roll-off filter in the 9038 results in naturally expressive sound that is always emotionally engaging and never fatiguing—a beautiful combination of warmth and detail that nosotros detect equally exciting and soothing.
Killing the Dissonance
In Cobalt, we've taken what we've learned from our recent enquiry and development in noise dissipation to use power-supply filtering specifically designed to dramatically reduce the increasingly prevalent noise from WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular signals. Successfully combating this noise is absolutely crucial to the preservation of the lowest-level musical details, specially when it comes to high-res sound—and peculiarly when applied to a portable-audio device such as DragonFly.
Bit-Perfect Volume Control and 2.one-Volt Output
Cobalt features the aforementioned ESS Sabre 9601 headphone amp and bit-perfect volume control that give DragonFly Red its unique combination of power and grip over the music. This solution ensures maximum fidelity, thrilling dynamic contrast, and first-class signal-to-racket ratio. The two.1-volt output makes Cobalt and Reddish compatible with a wide range of headphones, including power-hungry, low-efficiency models.
Firmware Upgradeable
DragonFlys Blackness, Red, and Cobalt are firmware upgradeable via our complimentary Desktop Device Manager. In today's fast-paced digital world, longevity in a hello-fi component is increasingly rare—at whatever price. AudioQuest believes that today's digital devices should evolve as technology itself evolves, thereby delivering musical pleasure for many years to come. Our Desktop Device Manager will also allow you to identify your DragonFly'due south serial number and software version to ensure that the device is upwards to date. Click here to download the latest Device Manager available for your operating system.
Beautiful Sound in a Smaller Package...
and now with a Tail
All this goodness is packed into a sleek new case that measures just 2.26" ten 0.73" x 0.47" (57.5mm ten 18.6mm x 11.9mm), making the latest DragonFly 10% smaller and even a scrap more pocket-friendly.
Finally, to easily accommodate the increasing number of electronic devices that feature USB-C ports, DragonFly Cobalt comes with AudioQuest's USB-A to USB-C adaptor.
The Rest of the DragonFly Fleet:
DragonFlys Blackness and Ruby
While the original DragonFly created a new category of portable DAC, its USB power draw fabricated information technology uniform with computers merely. Blackness and Red answered the call of music lovers everywhere for DragonFlys that could exist used with Apple iOS mobile devices and Android smartphones and tablets. These DACs proved for once and for all that convenience and operation need no longer exist mutually sectional.
All electric current-product DragonFly models contain 32-bit ESS Sabre DAC fries.
The DAC chips we've selected are remarkably powerful and sophisticated, yet nosotros've intentionally express DragonFly's processing capabilities to 24-scrap/96kHz resolution. This makes using DragonFly equally simple as it's always been: All models are fully uniform with PCs without having to download and install new drivers. Most importantly, DragonFly is designed to honor the music you already own and love. Whether you're listening to Spotify, YouTube, Tidal, Qobuz, ripped CDs, or country-of-the-art high-resolution files, DragonFly volition deliver a more than emotionally compelling and enjoyable experience.
Stream Tidal Masters Everywhere
DragonFlys Blackness, Red, and Cobalt support Tidal Masters (MQA) playback from iPhones and Android smartphones. MQA'south applied science folds high-resolution files into smaller files that tin can be streamed on the become. Equally MQA Renderers, DragonFlys Blackness, Red, and Cobalt complete the unfolding process, allowing music lovers to enjoy a wider selection of high-res music. Click here to learn more near how MQA works.
Stream QOBUZ's Vast Catalog Of Outstanding HI-Res Music
DragonFlys Blackness, Red, and Cobalt support Qobuz loftier-res playback from iPhones, Android smartphones, and MacOS and Windows computers. Qobuz streams and downloads music in bit-perfect FLAC, the most widely used format for mastering and archiving, at resolutions of up to 24-scrap/192kHz. With DragonFlys Blackness, Red, and Cobalt, listeners tin savour more than xl meg tracks in lossless 16-bit CD resolution and over 2 one thousand thousand hi-res files. Click here to learn more about how Qobuz works.
Naturally Beautiful Sound is Right at Your Fingertips
Whatever music turns you on, wherever you are, an AudioQuest DragonFly USB DAC delivers inspiring, dynamic, and beautiful audio to earbuds, headphones, powered speakers, or complete audio systems.
With a DragonFly, music appreciation and exploration are limitless: Plug into an Apple or Windows® calculator or connect to an iOS® or Android mobile device. Play YouTube or Vimeo videos. Go hunting on Bandcamp or SoundCloud. Explore playlists on Spotify or Pandora. Stream high-res sound from Tidal or Qobuz. No thing the choice of musical pleasance, DragonFly delivers beautiful sound, unraveling the emotional expression and nuance that makes music and movies so enjoyable.
Now, more than ever earlier, naturally cute sound is correct at your fingertips—still you want it, whenever you want it.
DragonFly Downloads
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Capabilities
- Plays all music files: MP3 to MQA and High-Res
- Compatible with Apple® and Windows® PCs
- Compatible with iOS devices (requires Apple tree Camera Adapter/Connexion Kit)
- Compatible with Android devices (requires DragonTail or other USB Adaptor for Android Devices)
- MQA Rendering
- Drives headphones straight
- Fixed output feeds preamp or AV receiver
- Asynchronous transfer ensures digital timing integrity
Specifications
- DragonFly Black and Red - Status/Sample rates supported (LED indicator colour lawmaking): Standby (Red), 44.1kHz (Green), 48kHz (Bluish), 88.2kHz (Amber), 96kHz (Magenta), MQA (Purple)
- DragonFly Cobalt - Status/Sample rates supported (LED indicator colour code): Standby (Red), 44.1kHz (Green), 48kHz (Blue), 88.2kHz (Yellow), 96kHz (Light Blue), MQA (Royal)
- Volume Control: Analog Volume Control (Black); 64-position, 64-scrap, bit-perfect (Blood-red, Cobalt)
- Output voltage: 1.ii (Black); 2.one (Reddish, Cobalt)
- Headphone Amp: Texas Instruments TPA6130 (Blackness); ESS Sabre 9601 (Red, Cobalt)
- DAC Chip: 32-chip ESS 9010 with minimum-phase fast roll-off filter (Black); 32-scrap ESS 9016 with minimum-phase fast roll-off filter (Reddish); ESS ES9038Q2M with minimum-stage ho-hum roll-off filter for more natural sound (Cobalt)
- Microcontroller: Microchip PIC32MX (Black, Red); Microchip PIC32MX274 reduces electric current draw and increases processing speed past 33% over DragonFlys Blackness and Red (Cobalt)
- Dimensions: 12mm H ten 19mm Westward ten 62mm L (Black, Red); 12mm H ten 19mm W by 57mm 50 (Cobalt)
Suggested Accessories
Note: In our tests, Apple tree's Lightning-to-USB 3 Photographic camera Adapter (with charging port) sounds meliorate and is more reliable than Apple tree's less expensive Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter, while also providing the ability to charge during playback. Your mileage may vary. Some users prefer the size of the smaller adapter, while others prefer the performance of the larger adapter. We encourage experimentation.
Partners
These outstanding companies brand beautiful music with DragonFly.
MQA and the Sound Wave Device are registered trademarks of MQA Limited.© 2016
Source: https://www.audioquest.com/page/aq-dragonfly-series.html
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