DragonFly Black, the most affordable model of the award-winning DragonFly family, has been praised by Darko.

DragonFlys Black, Red, and Cobalt support Tidal Masters (MQA) playback from iPhones and Android smartphones.The process is very simple, both for Windows and Mac; download the updater, run it, plug your Dragonfly in, and hit “Update”.

This manifests itself as a little too much bite with brass instruments, and a somewhat steely edge to cymbals, and contributes to the occasionally “tense” or “strained” feeling to the unit’s top-end. Little-known fact: Digital-to-analog converters are used in all digital devices that have the ability to send an audio signal or play music. To use it with newer laptops featuring USB-C connectors, you’ll need an adapter - and again I’d recommend one of the short cable-style adapters vs.Finally, to easily accommodate the increasing number of electronic devices that feature USB-C ports, DragonFly Cobalt comes with AudioQuest's USB-A to USB-C adaptor.

The HD660S are marginally easier to drive, with only a slight increase in sensitivity - but having half the impedance of the HD6XX/HD650 means the Dragonfly Black can push further before running out of voltage; this is immediately apparent when they’re compared back-to-back. One interesting aspect to DACs that only support MQA rendering, is that you can do back-to-back comparisons feeding them MQA content that has, or has not, been through the decoding phase - simply by turning that option off in your player.That's fine with me because music with higher rates barely exists on the market and even when we find it it's usually just over-sampled BS. Also, my admittedly limited experience does include my beloved HT Omega eClaro, which I've reviewed on this site.

The output of the DAC chip is fed into a dedicated headphone amplifier that features a 64-step digitally controlled analog volume control. kHz), most of which comes from CD rips; an initial playlist for my audition listening can be found here. Asynchronous DAC does this by definition, the “Streamlength” implementation achieves it without having to comply with UAC2 - which makes it driverless even with earlier (pre -Windows 10 - “Creators Edition”) versions of Windows.Further, in Gordon's monoClock ® technology, a single ultra-low-jitter clock generated from the ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip runs the ESS chip functions as well as all microcontroller functions. Note: In our tests, Apple's Lightning-to-USB 3 Camera Adapter (with charging port) sounds better and is more reliable than Apple's less expensive Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter, while also providing the ability to charge during playback. There is no mobile or desktop control app — all feedback comes in the form of a multicolor LED on the top of the unit.