Dragonfly vs inbuilt Conexant SmartAudio HD

[hdo]

I recetnly acquired new laptop computer and found that my old dac driver does not work with Windows 10. It is discontinued. No driver available for Windows 10. That's quite terrible. My new laptop has inbuilt Conexant SmartAudio HD soundcards. The sound quality of the headphone jack of Conexant SmartAudio HD is not bad. There is no hiss or device-generated noise that I used to hear from older computers. It's quite good.

 

However, sound quality isn't perfect. It appears ultra-low frequency sound is truncated. So bass instrument sound gets truncated. Also output power is not enough. So I am considering to get new DAC. I checked a number of portable DACs. But mostly they filter out ultra low frequency sound, say, below 20Hz. Dragonfly and iFi iDAC2 support down to 0 or 3Hz. So I am considering them. If Dragonfly is not good, I may have to get iDAC2.

 

If your computer has Conexant SmartAudio HD and Dragonfly, you might be able to anser this. How much Dragonfly sound is better compared to internal Conexant SmartAudio HD? Is it significantly better?

[whoozwah]

I personally couldn't tell you if the DF is any better than your onboard sound. I can tell you that I've seen the DF in a few Best Buys so it's not that hard to try it and if you don't like it take it back for a refund.