Article: AudioQuest DragonFly Red & DragonFly Black Review

[stevebythebay]

I had the original DragonFly which was nice but died within a few months of usage. Eventually received the first version of the Geek Out which has held up, though is hotter than all get out -- so it lives on the back of my iMac. Since I'm getting tired of waiting for Larry & Co. at LH Labs / Light Harmonic to finally deliver the long promised Geek Wave DAP, I've been thinking of copying my extensive music library of just under 4 TB to a portable drive (LaCie P9927) and hooking up with my Macbook and an appropriate hub to its USB-C connector. Seems that the latest DragonFly Black would do well with my Westone W40 IEMs.

 

Any considerations re: heat or any other factors? I've had some issues with volume control management JRiver/MacBook's El Capitan (a bit cumbersome -- OS X doesn't want to "remember" that the sonic bitstream should be going to the USB device). Any hints/tips? I really like the DragonFly's form factor and overall simplicity.

[stevebythebay]

Hi Steve -

 

Sorry to read that your original DragonFly died. Did you send it back to us for a replacement? We would still honor the warranty if you haven't dealt with it yet, provided you still have the unit. Please email us at [email protected]

 

Regards,

 

Steve Silberman

AudioQuest

 

It died just past warranty. Went to e-waste heaven. Guess I'll give the new Black a go and see how well it fares. Just hoping it works well on long trips with MacBook and external drive. Certainly would be nice to have a battery drain simulator for the kind of setup I envision...