Article: AudioQuest DragonFly Red & DragonFly Black Review

[The Computer Audiophile]

You can view the page at http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content.php?r=714-AudioQuest-DragonFly-Red-DragonFly-Black-Review

[The Computer Audiophile]

Good questions. Here are my guesses.

 

1. Android is the wild west. There are bound to be issues. Not sure about Windows phones but I've never seen it even suggested that the new DFs could support that OS.

 

2. I'd be very surprised if MQA support made it into the DFs.

 

3. Not that I know of.

 

Thanks for sharing your concert experiences. I'd have loved to see Rage! I saw Nine Inch Nails at Woodstock '94 :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

Read your article and the literature... doesn't clarify if the new dragonfly models are USB 2 or USB 3. Can you confirm that they are still USB 2?

It actually doesn't matter.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thought it was a simple fact question.... why so defensive?

you lost me. What am I defensive about?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks @perolator

[The Computer Audiophile]

@miguelito No. That's the beauty of the new Microchip USB controller in the DF Black & Red!

[The Computer Audiophile]

As a long-time visitor, this review prompts me to comment on a trend I've noticed--reviews increasingly seem like they quote untested information from the manufacturer. Your readers look to you for independent thought. I now read the info here more skeptically, and since your subjective comments rely on your readers' trust, this is a big loss. Worst examples from this review:

 

1. "The new Black and Red units only serve to improve upon the original and improve our enjoyment of the greatest music in the world.". Since the review invites us to look at other sites for information on any use case but an iPhone streaming Tidal, this statement is completely without any foundation in the review itself. It sounds like a quote from a marketing blurb, particularly everything after the word "and".

 

2. "The new products deserved so much more than a simple numerical model number increase, that AudioQuest named them the DragonFly Black and DragonFly Red." The name/version of the product doesn't affect performance; again, it's just marketing

 

3. "This thing just oozes quality." Appearance doesn't prove quality, performance and durability are what matters.

Hi Tom - Thanks for being a long-time visitor. With 2 posts in four years, you're in the camp of 98% of CA readers. Most just read without commenting. Thus, I take it you felt a strong need to comment in this review, based on your perception. I like nothing more than to read honest comments, both good and constructive.

 

Let's dive into your constructive criticism to see if we can turn this into something good for the CA community.

 

First, the words in this, and all my, reviews are 100% my own and reflect only my experience with the product. When I am jazzed by a product, I write much more enthusiastically about the product than when a product is ho-hum. Please let me know if something seems untested in this review. I test everything I about which I write. When it comes to independent thought, I think it's pretty clear that this review contains nothing but independent thought. I don't know of another HiFi site that would focus a review solely on the use of a product with an iOS device. i wanted to do 1) something different that all the other sites, and 2) relay to the CA community exactly how I use these devices and how they may benefit from using the devices like me. it would have been far easier to connect the Flys to my main system and A/B compare them to my $100,000+ setup. That would have bored me and likely the readers and taught the community nothing. In this review I also included an educational piece that tells how to use the DFs with an iOS device. You may have already known about the options, but I can guarantee you most people were unaware. Writing about a device unlike most other publications, educating people, and offering my honest opinion, is pretty independent in my book.

 

1. That sentence is 100% sincere. I am a music lover who loved great quality sound. I truly believe and wanted to get the point across to the CA community that the new DFs do indeed improve the quality of our music on the go. If better sound quality doesn't increase your enjoyment of your favorite music, then so be it. Nothing wrong with that. I've found that most people at CA have increased enjoyment of their favorite music when they use a component capable of delivering better sound quality. I don't see how you connect the dots between my statement and lack of a foundation etc... The statement if 100% fact. If the DFs improve our enjoyment of music, what's wrong with the statement? I hope you can clarify your thinking on this one. Maybe I'm a bit slow, but I just don't follow the logic.

 

 

2. I can't your your opinion is wrong because it's just an opinion, but I do disagree. Suggesting you know about all names for all products and the reasons for them is a bit disingenuous. I believe names can be both marketing and indicative of a performance change or such a dramatic change for the consumer that a simple increment in numerical value doesn't do it justice. Going from the DragonFly 1 to 1.2 was a fairly small change and not a change at all with respect to the USB controller that enables iOS / Android usage. Calling the new DFs 1.3/1.4 would undersell the nature of the change.

 

 

3. Again, we see things quite differently. Looking at a new Rolls Royce Serenity Phantom (LINK) with its lush custom interiors, I can easily say "this thing oozes quality." The adjective, "oozing quality" is taking creative license to describe what I see and feel. In the audio world, just like the automobile world, product can ooze quality. In this instance, the new DF red oozes quality. To suggest something oozes quality means exactly that, it looks and feels like a high quality product. High quality products usually offer good durability and I believe the DF Red is no exception. Oozing quality doesn't necessarily mean anything about specific performance metrics. If anyone was mislead into thinking the DF Red has great "performance" based on my statement that "This thing oozes quality," and in context of its look and feel, then that's unfortunate. My comments about performance are elsewhere in the review.

 

Anyway, thanks again for your patronage of CA and for the constructive criticism.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Chris,

 

I also have the Sennheiser HD600 headphones. I love them and have tried other headphones and I can see why Head-fi.org still ranks the HD650s tops and the HD600s 2nd. Did you try the Sennheiser HD600 headphones with the black and did the black drive the Sennheiser HD600 headphones sufficiently?

 

Thank You,

 

Jeff

Hi Jeff - Good to see another reader enjoying oldies but goodies. The Sennheiser HD6xx series is fabulous. IN my experience the Red is required for the HD600 to reach all its potential.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks for the review, Chris. I picked up a Dragonfly Red at Gig Harbor Audio on Friday. Works great with my iPhone and the USB Camera Adapter.

 

I was very happy that the Dragonfly can be powered by the phone. I have a Meridian Explorer 2, and was disappointed that it can't be powered by a phone or an iPad. I told the shop owner he may sell a lot of these if the iPhone 7 really comes with no headphone jack.

I'm with you. When the next iPhone comes out without a 3.5mm output, the DragonFlys are literally going to fly off the shelves.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris ... Surely thats only an "if" ... or at most an "if as expected".

 

Until Apple actually show the iPhone 7 (or whatever its called) surely you know better than to report rumours (especially Apple rumours) as fact!

Life is an if, but on this one I am talking about it as a certainty because even Apple leaked the info way early on to get people used to the idea.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Would it be reasonable to expect the next iteration would be thunderbolt rather than USB. Isn't the PCIe bus (I understand thunderbolt to be PCIe) a "quieter" computer interface?

Dunno...just a dummy.

I doubt there will ever be a thunderbolt version. The market for Thunderbolt is tiny. The PCIe bus is much higher speed and much noisier than USB or a PCI bus.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thunderbolt will be gone long before USB. There are so many mobile devices that use micro and mini USB and peripheral devices that use USB that it isn't going anywhere soon.

 

Thunderbolt may may have a technical advantage but that doesn't mean much.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris, best.

But your reply tells me....is this, forgive my age, a BetaMax/VHS argument....this lessor technology is still resident despite the superiority of another format.

Is PCIe a less noisy format?

Hi @wdw The VHS thing is what I was thinking about when I wrote that but had to run before I could write more. Thunderbolt could very well be a better technology and interface than the USB protocol, but it may not matter in the end. With respect to audio I've been told thunderbolt is electrically extremely noisy due to its high speed. I've been told the same thing about PCIe as opposed to PCI. I can't absolutely confirm this by running tests and conducting a longitudinal study, but I've anecdotally confirmed it with my ears as have others I respect.

 

P.S. I used to think a lightning version of the DragonFly would be great, but I'm not so sure anymore, for various reasons.

[The Computer Audiophile]

The best way to make the connection from the Red or Black DAC is through your car's 3.5 mm analog jack. That way you are using the Red or Black as the DAC, not the car's audio processing. I have done this, and the sound is better this way compared to connecting straight out of the 3.5 mm analog jack of an iPhone or iPad without the Red or Black DAC.

 

If you somehow connect to the USB port on your car, you would then be using the car's audio processing which usually sounds inferior to the Red or Black DAC.

 

It is important to turn down the volume on your iPhone or iPad to maybe halfway. Then you can use the car's volume control.

 

The first time I tried my Red DAC with my iPad Pro 9.7 and my car audio system, it sounded awful. A week or so later, I tried it again and it sounded good. I am not sure what I did wrong the first time.

My car turns all analog signals into digital for processing. It has time correction so the driver's seat sounds like it's right in the sweet spot.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Great Article. Enough so that I purchased one from Amazon along with a camera adapter for my iPhone 6. Demoed with my MacBook Pro, the DragonFly Red provided clarity and bass presence through my Sennheiser 280HD Pros that I'd been missing previously. In a word: Impressive.

Great to read Art.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris- what happens to your setup with iPhone 7 and no headphone jack? How does Apple expect one to listen 'wirelessly' in a car or on a plane?

My contract for the iphone 6 is up in oct-I think i will opt for the small iPhone 2015 which will still have a headphone jack and costs 100's $ less

Also will a Schiit FULLA work the same way as the DF RED?

bobbmd

Hi Bob - Nothing changes with respect to the DragonFlys. They use the Lightning adapter. In fact, the DF is now a requirement for good sound!

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi @doug2761 - Happy to hear you like it as much as I do :~)

 

Which DragonFly did you purchase, Red or Black?

 

The volume level thing is strange. I'll plug a DF into my MacBook Pro when I get home to see if I can duplicate it.

 

I love Etymotics. Had two pairs of er4-p over the years.

[The Computer Audiophile]

OK @doug2761 - I think I figured out your issue. Switch to System Volume rather than Internal Volume. Here's a screenshot:

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi, thanks for this detailed review.

Do you think the DF black has enough power to drive a 54 ohm sennheiser hd380 ?

Thanks in advance

The Black should be just fine with those headphones.

[The Computer Audiophile]

This does not work for me with a new iPad Pro and an older Dragonfly black. Sorry if I missed it reading through the posts. We were discussing this on another forum (AudioKarma). I can't figure out why I get no sound. I have a variety of headphones and ear buds but no sound. The Dragonfly turns on the green light. Etymotics, PSB, Grado, Sennheiser, HiFiman.

 

 

Older DF Black requires too much power.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Wow, thanks. I will get the new red one. I guess my HRT HeadStreamer uses too much too.

 

New Black or new Red work great.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I got a DragonFly Red. Using it with my MacBook Air running JRiver and my IEM's I don't have enough gain. With volume at 100 it's still quite low. Any ideas? I've been though all the setting in JRiver but there isn't anything that's changing it.

 

My guess is it's a volume control issue somewhere. Try it with some other apps and also open the Mac sounds / volume settings to adjust it. I just want to make sure it's possible to get it louder before digging deeper.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I've tried that everywhere I know. Nothing. Same thing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

 

Did you try the volume setting here, by selecting the DF and sliding the level at the bottom?