I was curious for some time now to try it out. For me it's kind of nostalgic because original Dragonfly from 2012. was my first DAC ever - introducing higher quality music from digital files to me. But I changed it for better sounding DACs eventually. Fast forward 7 years later and we have Schiit, Topping, SMSL and so many contenders for the crown in the same price range. So let's get to it...
Build quality and functionality - is as great as I remember it. Heavy, sturdy and with nice soft touch finish. SMSL Idea for example has nothing on it. It doesn't need drivers because it's an USB 1.0 device but becaouse of that same reason it's capped to 24bit/96kHz. 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.
SOUND QUALITY - I'll talk about it in two stages:
1. Line-out with an external amp. It's decently clean, forward sounding with strong but loose bass. You also get decent sound-stage width but not that good depth or layering. Simply said, it's fine but there are much better choices for this kind of money - best of them being Schiit Modi 3 and Khadas Tone Board which are both in a different league, offering much more transparency and layering, better and faster bass, more air... Dragonfly just can't compete with them as a pure DAC in a serious room setup hooked to a good amp and speakers/headphones. It's more in line with the likes of FX-Audio DAC-X6 which is again better controlled in the bass and upper bass region but not as open in the top end. Personally I still prefer X6 for it's more neutral approach but I can imagine someone liking DF's punchiness more.
2. Headphone out. Hooked directly to any of my headphones (AKG K92, Takstar Pro 82, Samson SR850, Sennheiser CX300II, KZ ZSX...) it's a very different story. There's so much energy and excitement to the sound that I can immediately tell you I preferred it to my Cyrus 8vs2 headphone out, FX Audio X6 headphone out and even to Topping NX4 which was so far my favorite headphone DAC/AMP in this price range. Simply put, AudioQuest did something really good with this amp section making this dongle sound more powerful, muscly and alive than you could ever expect looking its size and reading useless measurement charts (yeah I said it). I don't have any high impedance cans at the moment with me, but with these price appropriate cans it really sounds great, combining both great clarity and energy. And with energy part so often missing on these kind of dongles (SMSL Idea, Sabaj Da3...) this was a really pleasant surprise.
To sum it up, I would give it 3 stars for SQ if it's used as line-out DAC but it easily deserves 5 stars if used as DAC/AMP for headphones. Now add to that low power consumption, size and fuss free operation without drivers and I think DF is still great choice in certain usage scenarios. I'll be keeping this one attached to my headphones so I can get great sound anywhere I go and to whatever I hook them to.
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You can check out my website for more in-depth reviews - iiwireviews.com
Build quality and functionality - is as great as I remember it. Heavy, sturdy and with nice soft touch finish. SMSL Idea for example has nothing on it. It doesn't need drivers because it's an USB 1.0 device but becaouse of that same reason it's capped to 24bit/96kHz. 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.
SOUND QUALITY - I'll talk about it in two stages:
1. Line-out with an external amp. It's decently clean, forward sounding with strong but loose bass. You also get decent sound-stage width but not that good depth or layering. Simply said, it's fine but there are much better choices for this kind of money - best of them being Schiit Modi 3 and Khadas Tone Board which are both in a different league, offering much more transparency and layering, better and faster bass, more air... Dragonfly just can't compete with them as a pure DAC in a serious room setup hooked to a good amp and speakers/headphones. It's more in line with the likes of FX-Audio DAC-X6 which is again better controlled in the bass and upper bass region but not as open in the top end. Personally I still prefer X6 for it's more neutral approach but I can imagine someone liking DF's punchiness more.
2. Headphone out. Hooked directly to any of my headphones (AKG K92, Takstar Pro 82, Samson SR850, Sennheiser CX300II, KZ ZSX...) it's a very different story. There's so much energy and excitement to the sound that I can immediately tell you I preferred it to my Cyrus 8vs2 headphone out, FX Audio X6 headphone out and even to Topping NX4 which was so far my favorite headphone DAC/AMP in this price range. Simply put, AudioQuest did something really good with this amp section making this dongle sound more powerful, muscly and alive than you could ever expect looking its size and reading useless measurement charts (yeah I said it). I don't have any high impedance cans at the moment with me, but with these price appropriate cans it really sounds great, combining both great clarity and energy. And with energy part so often missing on these kind of dongles (SMSL Idea, Sabaj Da3...) this was a really pleasant surprise.
To sum it up, I would give it 3 stars for SQ if it's used as line-out DAC but it easily deserves 5 stars if used as DAC/AMP for headphones. Now add to that low power consumption, size and fuss free operation without drivers and I think DF is still great choice in certain usage scenarios. I'll be keeping this one attached to my headphones so I can get great sound anywhere I go and to whatever I hook them to.
...
You can check out my website for more in-depth reviews - iiwireviews.com