While with high impedance headphones, the AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt has acceptable subjective performance, it fails in so many other ways that I cannot recommend it.Īs always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. Whoever designed the headphone amplifier in this product needs to go back to engineering school or pay attention to what the competitor is shipping. And it must be said, it is a bit of a head scratcher at first as there appears to be no difference between it and the Black, which is 180 cheaper. What do you get for the extra coin All three DragonFlys feature Gordon Rankin's StreamLength asynchronous USB code, which allows the DAC chip to control the conversion timing of the samples fed via the USB bus, reducing word-clock jitter. To make this review even more exciting I decided to. Hi-Fi Choice The Cobalt is designed to augment the existing Black and Red (HFC 414) members of AudioQuest’s DragonFly family of DACs. costs 299.95 compared with 199.95 for the DragonFly Red and 99.95 for the Black. If you want a brand name, get the THX Onyx which washes the floor with it. I thought it would be both interesting and logical to compare the. Details Manuals Reviews Overview DragonFly Cobalt is a portable, plug-and-play USB DAC (digital-to-analog converter), preamp, and headphone amp that connects to laptops, tablets, and smartphones to deliver clean, clear, naturally beautiful sound to headphones, powered speakers, or complete audio systems. AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt USB D/A-headphone amplifier. You can buy plenty of products at one third of its price that way outperform it. Experience more beauty at home and everywhere you listen. Unfortunately it then proceeds to deliver a highly distorting product that has little ability to drive low impedance headphones. The AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt is a USB DAC, Pre-amp and Headphone Amp. At max volume, the output was severely distorted and unusable.Īs the category leader, AudioQuest takes advantage of their market position to price the Dragonfly Cobalt sky high. Turning up the level beyond a whisper would cause the bass notes to distortion. Switching to Ether CX headphone though, was a completely different situation. There was not much to complain about in the context of a portable dongle. The Cobalt had no trouble driving my Sennheiser HD-650 to good levels of loudness and authority. DragonFly Cobalt, our new flagship DAC, takes what music lovers around the world have come to expect from the. The Onyx produces 132 milliwatts compared to just 26 for Cobalt and does it at far lower distortion. Compare the 26 milliwatt to recently r eviewed THX Onyx.
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