AudioQuest DragonFly 24/96 Asynchronous USB DAC / Headphone Amp

[Sumflow]

iTunes volume should be at maximum, and then you adjust with the variable output mode with the main volume control.

How it works: DragonFly Sound...

[Sumflow]

As I read the brochure

AudioQuest did not understand what an advanced device they had commissioned. The original brochure is wrong, and has been revised. Thanks for listing your source.

Dragonfly revised

 

you can use the volume control in iTunes or Amarra.

Ammarra suggests setting the Amarra Volume to full volume if you do not want to lose any sound bits.

If you are using an external device, we recommend resetting Amarra’s volume to full and use your external device’s volume control to adjust volume level output.

 

Amarra FAQ

 

First, in terms of pure digital sound, bits of resolution and "dynamic range" are pretty much the same thing. The number of bits of resolution you have determines the loudest sound you can have; the "quietest" is fixed at "1 bit". The range between them is "resolution" or "dynamic range" or whatever you want to call it. When you use a purely digital volume control you make things quieter by making the numbers smaller (to cut the volume in half you divide the numbers by half). This makes the biggest number smaller, which makes the resolution (aka dynamic range) smaller, since the smallest number remains 1. (Since you can't have 1/2 as a number in binary, when you divide 1 by half it just disappears...)

 

Normally, on a computer, BOTH the system volume control AND the volume controls in most players work this way, and you lose resolution with both. What you get is an increased "grain" in the sound, which bothers some people more than others, and, of course, a reduction in the maximum dynamic range available.

 

When you have an amplifier with a potentiometer (analog rheostat) volume control you don't have this because the digital audio remains at full resolution, and you are lowering the level after it is converted to analog. (When you turn the analog volume control down to half, both the biggest AND the smallest number are reduced by half - so the distance between them - in dB - remains the same... which is your dynamic range.)

 

What the Dragonfly (and the HRT Headstreamer) do is really cool. They hijack the computer's system volume control. Once their driver takes over, the system volume control NO LONGER WORKS AS A DIGITAL VOLUME CONTROL. Instead, it controls the volume control in the DAC, which is an "analog resistor ladder network" (a bunch of resistors that work like a stepped ANALOG volume control).... so it's just like the computer's system volume control is moving a rheostat inside the Dragonfly (or HeadStreamer).

 

The volume control in the PLAYER, however, remains, like always, a DIGITAL volume control... so you should ALWAYS use the system volume control and not the player volume control (actually, some few players {I think jRiver is one} are smart enough to tie their volume control to the system control, in which case it doesn't matter which you use.) However, if the two controls aren't tied together you should always use the SYSTEM volume control and leave the player at full.