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Thread: Dragonfly Black v1.5

  1. #1
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Birmingham

    Posts: 6,772
    I'm James.

    Default Dragonfly Black v1.5

    I have been evaluating a Dragonfly Black v 1.5 which is a second generation version of this USB DAC.
    image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

    The Dragonfly is a micro DAC as you can see from the pics and just plugs straight into either a laptop USB or into a phone using various connectors, I used the apple camera kit.

    So the sound off the iPhone via the Dragonfly was very good indeed albeit at a reduced bit rate as Apple reduce the size of the files on the phone automatically at 256 Kbps . However that said the sound was very acceptable and a big improvement over the headphones straight out of the iPhone. Comparing the two showed that via headphones out of the phone the sound was mushy and compressed and thin. Via the Dragonfly the space between the instruments and the layering in the tracks of information opened up with much greater clarity and air. The soundstage was bigger and the dynamics were much better with some great and weight especially compared to the iPhone's internal DAC.

    Switching to the MacBook Pro with the Dragonfly allowed me to hear the full uncompressed recordings at CD bit rate. The whole experience was at a different level to the iPhone and was very listenable indeed with all the benefits I had heard via the DAC on the phone greatly enhanced. Even more weight and dynamics and bigger soundstage and excellent detail. Once you hear what this DAC can do to you music listening off the laptop you would never want to go back to simply plugging a pair of headphones into a MacBook. It was night and day and I could listen all night without fatigue! Brilliant.

    Final evaluation was using the MacBook Pro with Dragonfly Black straight into linestage of my Croft preamp to drive my system. I used the MacBook just running on battery. Now I could really assess what this little DAC sounded like and what it could do with digital music. It just about delivered enough power into the preamp to drive it although I had to add plenty of gain. I listened carefully and it played digital music with a number of the horrors I associate with it. Tonality was thin and the glass like top end and hardness started to make itself present. I have heard much better DACs driving my system and I would never use this to deliver digital into a main system. Yuk. Could not wait to pull it out.

    That all said it was great with the phone and laptop, easily beating the internal DACs and very acceptable which I suppose really what it was designed for. If you consider the price of DAPs out there from Sony and Astell and Kern then the Dragonfly solution is cheap as chips. If you can get you phone to accept larger files and the more modern phones can do 24bit then you will have a very cheap solution that will compete with these magabucks devices.

    I particularly liked it out of the laptop and tried it using Spotify which sounded very good. Tidal would be fabulous I am sure.
    Main system : VPI Scout 1.1 / JMW 9T / 2M Black / Croft 25R+ / Croft 7 / Heco Celan GT 702

    Second System : Goldring Lenco GL75 / AT95EX / Pioneer SX590 / Spendor SP2

  2. #2
    Join Date: Oct 2016

    Location: Lisbon, Portugal

    Posts: 105
    I'm Luis.

    Default

    I have one. Dont find it really an upgrade over my phone (htc 10) or over my macbook. It i just a bot better but maybe in a blind test I would not tell them apart. It is an upgrade over samsungs, my work laptop, and all the rest in general. Apple just does it very well regarding music.

    Just to add that I also cannot tell an 320k mp3 from a FLAC (me and almost everyone in a consistent and reliable way).

    It is, anyway, a good dac.

    Enviado do meu SM-A320FL através do Tapatalk

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