New Dragonfly Black and Red Discussion | Page 78 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

Rurouni · Jul 21, 2016 at 7:25 PM

pkcpga said:
I have the ie80 and recently demo'd the ie800 with my dfr, dfb and mojo. Both the ie80 and 800 don't mesh well with the dfb much too warm of a sound with recessed vocals. The dfr thins the sound of both the 80 and 800, sounds pretty good to me but you lose a decent amount of deep bass. With the mojo both sound drastically more detailed, separated and better bass with causing boom. But if the two df the red was better just lost a bit of the low end.

Thanks much for the info! When you mention that you lose a decent amount of deep bass with the DFR, did you notice any improvement in bass detail?

pkcpga · Jul 21, 2016 at 7:29 PM

rurouni said:
Thanks much for the info! When you mention that you lose a decent amount of deep bass with the DFR, did you notice any improvement in bass detail?

Not with the df's, the red just makes the bass more stockade style of rapid less deep sounds not really any more defined. The mojo brings out more layering in the bass and separates much better. But for the price it's not bad, I just had two faulty reds already and had to exchange the first than finally just returned the second and gave up.

JohannLiebert · Jul 22, 2016 at 10:42 AM

Why is the black less loud thab my plain s6 headphone jack? I cant drive my audeze sine like that

SpiderNhan · Jul 22, 2016 at 12:26 PM

johannliebert said:
Why is the black less loud thab my plain s6 headphone jack? I cant drive my audeze sine like that

You have to use USB Audio Player Pro to get full volume control of the Dragonfly. The app costs about $9, but you can find the trial link here:

http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/uapp-trial

CactusPete23 · Jul 22, 2016 at 1:44 PM

pkcpga said:
Not with the df's, the red just makes the bass more stockade style of rapid less deep sounds not really any more defined. The mojo brings out more layering in the bass and separates much better. But for the price it's not bad, I just had two faulty reds already and had to exchange the first than finally just returned the second and gave up.

Can you explain the problems with "the two faulty reds" above ? Had not heard of many (any?) others having "faulty" DFRs... So would like to understand problems you've seen. Thanks!

JohannLiebert · Jul 22, 2016 at 1:51 PM

spidernhan said:
You have to use USB Audio Player Pro to get full volume control of the Dragonfly. The app costs about $9, but you can find the trial link here:

http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/uapp-trial

Oh wow now it has some reserves! Sound opened up quite nicely but to need an app for this was not intended...money and some extra hassle... i will try with movies later if the volume control of the black works there...

JohannLiebert · Jul 22, 2016 at 3:07 PM

Ok now the app makes my headphonr shine, but no sound coming from other players and video. Only from usb pro player...

Torq · Jul 22, 2016 at 3:23 PM

johannliebert said:
Ok now the app makes my headphonr shine, but no sound coming from other players and video. Only from usb pro player...

You need to exit UAPP fully, not just switch apps. Otherwise it'll hold on to the connection.

pkcpga · Jul 22, 2016 at 3:41 PM

cactuspete23 said:
Can you explain the problems with "the two faulty reds" above ? Had not heard of many (any?) others having "faulty" DFRs... So would like to understand problems you've seen. Thanks!

If you read through the post you'll see there are a decent number of issues with the dfr not many with the dfb but my red worked great for a few week than it started to not connect so I had to disconnect and reconnect. Than it started to randomly disconnect in the middle of a song. I switched that one out and it was the first issue my dealer had. The second one had a constant hiss sound that wouldn't go away, when I brought that back two weeks later my dealer said the dfr has had about 1/3 back in returns or more now.

estreeter · Jul 22, 2016 at 7:44 PM

johannliebert said:
Why is the black less loud thab my plain s6 headphone jack? I cant drive my audeze sine like that

Are you sure you have the volume maxed into the DFB ? If I took the volume anywhere near 50% on my Lenovo tablet - even from the stock Android Music app - and handed you my Solo2 on-ears, I doubt that you'd even be willing to put them within 6 inches of your ears. Same goes for all of my IEMs including the SE425 - none of the above are hard to drive 'phones, but I dont consider the DFB a weak source into a portable headphone. Tyll's measurements seem to point to a reasonably efficient planar design compared to its larger cousins:

With 96mVrms needed to achieve 90dB at the ear, the SINE is modestly less voltage efficient than most headphones in this category, but a smartphone will drive these cans to solid listening levels.

Unless the S6 has some serious amplifier grunt onboard or I'm missing something here, I'd be inclined to return your unit and ask for a replacement.

mks100 · Jul 22, 2016 at 7:54 PM

Upgraded from the Black to the Red. Black was louder and warmer for sure. Red is more refined and nuanced. Would recommend the Black to anyone and everyone. The Red for those looking to pay 100% more for a 20% improvement in sound quality. That's me.

SpiderNhan · Jul 22, 2016 at 8:02 PM

estreeter said:
Are you sure you have the volume maxed into the DFB ? If I took the volume anywhere near 50% on my Lenovo tablet - even from the stock Android Music app - and handed you my Solo2 on-ears, I doubt that you'd even be willing to put them within 6 inches of your ears. Same goes for all of my IEMs including the SE425 - none of the above are hard to drive 'phones, but I dont consider the DFB a weak source into a portable headphone. Tyll's measurements seem to point to a reasonably efficient planar design compared to its larger cousins:

With 96mVrms needed to achieve 90dB at the ear, the SINE is modestly less voltage efficient than most headphones in this category, but a smartphone will drive these cans to solid listening levels.

Unless the S6 has some serious amplifier grunt onboard or I'm missing something here, I'd be inclined to return your unit and ask for a replacement.

I have an S6 and can confirm that Samsung's USB audio implementation of the Dragonfly is very quiet with stock apps. My phone's headphone out can get 40-50% louder on max volume than the Red using stock apps.

estreeter · Jul 22, 2016 at 8:28 PM

spidernhan said:
I have an S6 and can confirm that Samsung's USB audio implementation of the Dragonfly is very quiet with stock apps. My phone's headphone out can get 40-50% louder on max volume than the Red using stock apps.

OK - it appears that ZTE and Lenovo have implemented USB audio more successfully on their sub-$100 devices than Samsung have on their flagship phone - I stand corrected.

(by 'more successfully', I mean that when you give the source full volume, the DAC connected to the device reacts accordingly. Just seems odd, but in an era of litigation-happy consumers I guess it makes sense)

CactusPete23 · Jul 22, 2016 at 8:28 PM

pkcpga said:
If you read through the post you'll see there are a decent number of issues with the dfr not many with the dfb but my red worked great for a few week than it started to not connect so I had to disconnect and reconnect. Than it started to randomly disconnect in the middle of a song. I switched that one out and it was the first issue my dealer had. The second one had a constant hiss sound that wouldn't go away, when I brought that back two weeks later my dealer said the dfr has had about 1/3 back in returns or more now.

Thanks. Boy, you have had bad luck. Most "problems" that I've read seem to be with the DFR not working with Some Android Phones, and with Not working properly with stock Android Apps. I'd have guessed that most returns were because of the Android Issues and not an actual DFR defect. But your 2 bad for 2 DFR's tested is pretty poor...

estreeter · Jul 22, 2016 at 8:35 PM

mks100 said:
Upgraded from the Black to the Red. Black was louder and warmer for sure. Red is more refined and nuanced. Would recommend the Black to anyone and everyone. The Red for those looking to pay 100% more for a 20% improvement in sound quality. That's me.

Thanks for the feedback - seems to gel with a lot of the impressions given by those who have both. I'd like to hear both into a nice nearfield speaker rig, using the DAC section only but given that this is a headphone forum I'll leave it there.

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