AudioQuest DragonFly DAC USB Digital Audio Converter - Black

Disclaimer: I bought this product at the advertised price and am providing an unbiased and honest review voluntarily. Throughout this review I would ask you to refer to any images I might have taken during the unpacking of the product and any itemised images taken. When this review was written on 30 July 2016, the price for this item was £89.00. I bought the Audioquest Dragonfly Dac Black to use with my 27" iMac and my Harman / Kardon Sound Sticks and from the moment I inserted the USB, plugged the Sticks into the Dragonfly, and adjusted the system settings, my house filled with sound. What an absolutely incredible sound! It makes me wonder what I was listening to before. The sound is crisp, bright, defining, full of depth, rich, with rounded notes, clear vocals. Dear me, I could go on to try and describe what a difference it made to my playlists. I'm a music anorak, so why haven't I heard of this company before. Do you know I can't telly how I came across them. I just did. It might have been in a forum somewhere when I surfed for headphone amplifiers etc., and people swore by them. Which is great because usually if I buy something that somebody else glorifies, I usually swear at them. But no! On this occasion, they were spot on. Beautiful, beautiful sound. And now as I'm writing this I'm beginning to wonder what the red version sounds like. Another day. For now this little beauty is making me very happy. By the way, for those among who had the same question as I did, which is, can I use this with my iPhone 6s Plus to power up one of AKG sets? The answer is, absolutely, as long as you have the Apple Camera adapter kit - a lightning connector to USB Female socket. You will not believe the sound quality and volume that comes out with this 'beaut'. For those unfamiliar with the Audioquest Dragonfly Dac Black. Using this is a very simple process. As I said earlier, plug it into your computer's USB, plug into the Audioquest a set of external speakers, or in my case my AKG K702 set and listen to those heavenly sounds. The outlay is really worth the listening pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to read my review, I hope you have found it helpful. If you have, or not, then could you please tick the Yes or No box. I would greatly appreciate it if you could, so my position as a reviewer can move up the rankings. Please Note: None of the images have been enhanced by using any Photo Enhancement application. Once the images are taken they are immediately transferred to the review in Amazon. Finally, please understand, I AM NOT an employee of this company, but simply a volunteer reviewer trying to provide a service. I do not get paid in any way. So if you have any questions about this product, please don’t hesitate to ask, either me or someone else will try and provide you with an answer. Thanks again.

Wasn't sure about this purchase, but I'd heard so much about it, I had to give it a go. It's an extra bit of bulge for my Pocket as I have bought it to connect It to my iPhone and that's a consideration, plus you have to pay for an apple cable to get it to work. But, when it arrived I was delighted. Firstly, it boosts volume massively. You'd go deaf quickly if you kept me phone's volume at the point it was used before connecting the Dragonfly. And sonically, it transforms the quality of every note by a big margin. I am wondering whether I should have bought the Dragonfly red and squeezed even more out of my iPhone, but that comes at a price I can't really afford right now. So, would I recommend you buy one too? Sure as hell yes! But, you had better have *great* headphones too or you'll hear no improvement in quality, just volume. I use £160 ear phones which have to capacity to deliver the sonic upgrade to my ears. So, don't rely on your cheap ones. The total outlay to upgrade my iPhone supplied buds and Dac upgrade was £255. That's not to be sniffed at, but you get what you pay for. My dream set-up is the Dragonfly red and Westone's w60 earphones, coming In at nudging £800 - We can all dream! Until I'm able to spend that, I'll stick with The Dragonfly black and my JVCs.

I bought the Dragonfly based upon a number of positive reviews in a number of Hi-Fi magazines. I've used it to drive a set of AKG Q701 headphones and it has also been tested with a pair of Grado SR80i headphones (which are of lower impedance and so possibly more suitable to being driven through a non-dedicated headphone amplifier such as this one). I'm comparing the unit to the headphone out on a 2012 Macbook Air. By comparison, the delivery from the Dragonfly is much smoother, the bass response is greatly improved and the soundstage feels larger. I'm not such a fan of the smooth delivery: it feels a little too smooth; perhaps slightly artificial and I do slightly wonder if there is something missing in the mid-range. I'm not entirely sure what I'm describing: it might be a lack of detail due to smoothing by the Dragonfly or it might simply be that the Macbook introduces some distortion. I don't know, but the sound feels less textured. It's hard to call it a flaw: some may prefer the silkiness but I'm not such a fan (I think I prefer a warts and all delivery). Perhaps this is a tubes vs. transistors type of question... The only obvious flaw is that the Dragonfly is prone to amplifying ambient electrical noise. The main culprit here is noisy USB ports and noise from your computer's motherboard. It may be possible to eliminate some of this by using a USB extension cable (probably shielded) to move the Dragonfly away from the source of the noise but I haven't tried it and I can't be sure that it'll work. The extent to which you'll be affected by this noise will depend entirely on your machine and how much other noise there is in your locale (it's a minor issue on my Macbook but more of a problem when plugged into an old USB hub). I've tried it with an older Mac and found it to be a substantial improvement on the on-board audio and I'd expect it to be a great improvement over most stock sound-cards on old or cheap computers. The difference is noticeable but less pronounced when compared with my recent Macbook Air. Over all, it probably *is* an improvement over my Macbook Air but potential buyers are advised not to expect miracles and are urged to listen before they buy: there's little notion of absolute performance in audio and most decisions ought to be based on personal taste. I feel that it's little overpriced but it's a nice (and very portable) little unit that could potentially turn a cheap Netbook into a fully fledged Hi-fi. You'll probably get the best sound out of it if used to drive an external amplifier or low-impedance headphones (types that are marketed as being particularly suitable for use with portable devices).

No descubriré nada a los audiofilos con mi comentario. Seguro que habrá Dac USB mejores o que gusten más. Que tengan mejor relación calidad precio seguramente ya no. Para los usuarios normales que como yo dudan de hasta que punto merece la pena la compra de uno de estos: Produce una mejora significativa en la calidad de sonido con respecto a tarjetas de sonido integradas y/o sencillas. Esa diferencia puede ser abismal si lo comparamos con portátiles básicos o tarjetas de sonido usb económicas... y se reduce si comparamos con dispositivos que incorporan chips de sonido de calidad, como pueden ser tarjetas de sonido dedicadas decentes, placas base de gama alta o algunos mac. Por la diferencia de sonido... puede no merecer la pena la compra. Dependerá de las exigencias de cada uno, de con que lo comparemos, a que lo vamos a conectar, tipo de archivos que vamos a escuchar y de nuestro presupuesto. Obviamente, es tontería comprarlo si no es para combinarlo con unos altavoces o auriculares decentes. La mejora en sonido ya se nota si escuchamos archivos mp3, pero se vuelve más interesante para escuchar archivos sin perdida y sonido de alta definición. Yo reconozco que podría vivir sin él pero me lo he quedado. De hecho, compré también un Fiio K1, que cuesta la mitad, pero que sí he devuelto para quedarme con el Dragonfly.

Ancienne installation: ampli Rotel/CD Teac/enceinte Castle Trent II.... On remet un coup de jeune aux géniales Trent/Quobuz/Ampster BT II/ Nuc Intel sous Linux Mint et.... cette petite chose de Dragonfly. 600 euros, ramener en franc = 1/4 de mon ancienne installation. 1 Premier test sans le dac Wouha ... les enceintes respirent les aigus sont un peu trop présent mais humm de bonne basse précise et langoureuse. 2 Le Drangofly Plus de voie 😋... magique ... magnifique Tout est la, équilibre, finesse, espace , puissance. Mais le Drangofly reste en 16bit/44000. Pulse audio bloc ma sortie 😖 Avantage de Linux!!! on modifie les paramètres d’échantillonnage....Et le dac s’éclaire direct en violet. COOL 3 Le test ultime Purple Rain en 24bit/192. J’en pleure encore. Prince est ressuscité. 6 minutes de pure hypnose. 🙏 Alors les vieux, jeter votre vieux matos, et kiffer 😉le numérique. Et merci à Audioquest pour cette petite pépite.

Uitstekende prijs- kwaliteit verhouding

Instant increase in audio quality. I could not stop listening to music the first time I plugged this in. I am not an audiophile nor will I pretend to be... But everything just sounds... Better? More detailed? For $99, the audio quality on. my desktop gaming PC became more refined and well worth the cost of this little DAC. Definitely recommend. Plug and play, driverless (which is a big deal to me). Works with 3.5mm audio so very standard and easy to use.

Using good headphones (NAD Viso HP50) the sound quality blew me away - better than I expected. Reduced noise I didn't even realise was there and really improved sound clarity and detail. Sound stage and imaging also much better now. Treble clarity improved but not sibilant, mids more are detailed and better separated, bass extends deeper and is more controlled. However, this all depends on your headphones - cheap ear buds won't improve much, while higher end phones will probably sound much better. Build quality is really good as well - it feels nice and solid, and the rubberised coating prevents fingerprint smudges. It connects snuggly to your USB port and holds the 3.5 mm plug tightly. Be aware that with easy to drive headphones (like the HP50) you will need to keep the volume really low - on laptop with Windows 10 I keep the volume between 3/4 out of 100 - any higher is probably dangerous to your hearing for long term use. These phones really don't really need volume amplification but the dragonfly black cleaned the source sound incredibly well. Absolutely worth every penny. The dragonfly red (which I haven't heard) is supposed to further improve clarity, but I doubt it will be very noticeable. The red version has better amplification, and is probably only worthwhile if you have more difficult to drive head phones like the beyerdynamic DT 770s at 250 ohm. Also be aware that the dragonfly (black or red) may or may not work with either your android or iOS devices for a variety of reasons. For iOS, it requires the right lightning to USB cable for your version of iOS - there are a combination of unsupported cables based on differences in the version of iOS, leading to problems ranging from crackling, popping, and no audio. I don't use apple devices so I can't comment further on this other than it's an apple problem, not an audioquest problem. For your android device, you will need an OTG USB cable, and it might not even work natively with your android device. There are two reasons for this: 1) some providers seem to have native android USB audio disabled despite that android natively supports USB audio since 5.1.1 (why, I have no idea), and 2) Android defaults the built-in hardware volume of the dragonfly to such a low level that you might not hear the music, and there is no external volume control to adjust this. The first problem cannot be fixed without rooting your phone and applying a custom kernel. However, you CAN use a 3rd party app to play music that uses it's own USB driver like USB Audio Player Pro (UAPP) or Hibymusic. Unfortunately, these don't support streaming services other than Tidal, so it only lets you play music you've already downloaded to your phone (e.g. mp3s or FLAC). I much prefer the interface for the free Hibymusic app, while UAPP is a paid app with a terrible user interface IMO. Now if your issue is quiet volume, you can adjust the internal hardware volume using the 3rd party app, exit the app, and keep the higher hardware volume. This doesn't seem to work for everyone though, so you may be stuck with using the app only and not have access to streaming services. Otherwise, this is a fantastic portable device that can't be beat for the price. If you're stuck between black and red, I'd select strictly based on amplification need - for easy to drive headphones (most 16-64 ohm headphones), the black will be absolutely enough. For more challenging phones (e.g. Senheisser HD600, Beyerdynamic DT 770), the red will be necessary.