[Kojaku]

I have my hopes up since the galaxy s3 can reportedly power the odac.

The odac is bus-powered, right?

Kojaku

 

[recca]

Yep I think so.

 

[bobeau]

Quote:

I would like to know about your impressions, comparison between these two combos, Dragonfly + C421 and ODAC + C421. I have already known that Jude said the amplifier of Dragonfly is just so so not good or not bad when he compared to some low-end amplifiers. What I am truly interested in is about the quality of the DAC of Dragonfly. Thanks!

 
So this is interesting... I tried out the Dragonfly -> O2.  Oddly enough, I'm not finding quite as much difference as I was expecting vs the Dragonfly by itself.  As in I don't know if I could really pass a blind test.  This was both with the EPH-100 and Thunderpants, which today trying out they seem more palatable than initial impressions... now they don't really seem to be lacking with those.
 
I'm just going to let these this little guy continuously burn-in for awhile driving the TP1s and try to put at least 50 hours on it before commenting further.
 
EDIT: A note on power draw.  I guess this thing is specced to power up to 125 mw or is that actual draw?  In any case, I'm pleasantly surprised to find it has a fairly negligible impact on my 11" Macbook Air.  When driving my Thunderpants it appears to add about a 12% or so load (about 4 bars from max volume) vs. driving at a similar volume from the headphone out.  Driving my EPH-100 I'm getting a small reduction in load, maybe about 8-9% or so at about 4 bars from the bottom.

 

[kiteki]

Not sure if you'll get the optimal voltage from a smartphone, i.e. anything less than 3.3V.  You can try, but an ultra tiny laptop with USB and a nice media player seems like the higher quality choice to me.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

So this is interesting... I tried out the Dragonfly -> O2.  Oddly enough, I'm not finding quite as much difference as I was expecting vs the Dragonfly by itself.  As in I don't know if I could really pass a blind test.  This was both with the EPH-100 and Thunderpants, which today trying out they seem more palatable than initial impressions... now they don't really seem to be lacking with those.

 
I had much the same experience plugging it in as a source to my L3. While the L3 makes a significant difference used with my Fostex HP-P1, it didn't seem to do anything for the Dragonfly.  However, with complex music the situation might be different, as the Dragonfly can get a bit blurry with, say, dramatic orchestral works.

 

[bobeau]

Quote:

I had much the same experience plugging it in as a source to my L3. While the L3 makes a significant difference used with my Fostex HP-P1, it didn't seem to do anything for the Dragonfly.  However, with complex music the situation might be different, as the Dragonfly can get a bit blurry with, say, dramatic orchestral works.

 
I've spent a few more hours with it today and I go back and forth.  The O2 definitely has a a bit of an edge with the Thunderpants, but it's not as large as I first thought... I do feel that this guy might have a rather high (10 ohm?) output impedance that with my IEMs fairly complex or bassy passages there is congestion and lack of snap in the bottom end.  It's odd, because tonality of a drum or snare whack sounds accurate, but it lacks bite.  The pluck of the bass strings are somewhat lost in the mix.  That's just for my 16 ohm EPH-100s, the 50 ohm Thunderpants don't seem to suffer from that, if anything they're just a tiny beat lean in the bottom, but the dynamics are there.
 
Just tried the ferrite USB cable from my ODAC on the E17, believe it or not I'm thinking I prefer that for my IEMs vs. the Dragonfly.  Overall the DF sounds better, smoother... but it's just lacking a snap to the sound and perhaps better separation.
 
Alright, I just broke my promise to not lend further impressions.  I'll try to hold off for now

 

[LoveKnight]

Thanks bobeau. Has anyone tried to use the Dragonfly with a console yet? In this commercial video, it writes that you can use the Dragonfly for gaming too. Is it truth?

 

[longbowbbs]

According to the Audioquest web site you can use it as long as there is a USB port that the audio out can be directed through.

 

[Chefano]

Ive just received mine!!
Im simply loving this little thing!! 
Quick tested some headphones here, and it sounds so good!! 
IMHO the macbook air heaphone out is crap, now using dragonfly is a diff. history.
Tested so far, 
IE80, FX700, PortaPro, ESW9, ES7, K701.
All sounded good, except k701.
 
I could measure the output impedance. Anybody could help ( should it be done turned on, off, playing ?)

 

[longbowbbs]

Quote:

Ive just received mine!!
Im simply loving this little thing!! 
Quick tested some headphones here, and it sounds so good!! 
IMHO the macbook air heaphone out is crap, now using dragonfly is a diff. history.
Tested so far, 
IE80, FX700, PortaPro, ESW9, ES7, K701.
All sounded good, except k701.
 
I could measure the output impedance. Anybody could help ( should it be done turned on, off, playing ?)

Have you tried any Hi-Res files? I get a kick out of the color indicating the rez....I am enjoying a lossless file at 96K and the Dragonfly is Magenta....I like it.

 

[Chefano]

Quote:

Have you tried any Hi-Res files? I get a kick out of the color indicating the rez....I am enjoying a lossless file at 96K and the Dragonfly is Magenta....I like it.

Not yet, so far just 16/44. 
Tomorrow I plan to listen to some music from HDTracks.
Just one question, If you play a "silent" track and change the volume, can you hear some clicks? Im asking that because I can, dont know if its an issue or its just fine.

 

[ellenico]

How does it compare with Fiio E10 or NuForce Udac2 ?

 

[LordDantalion]

I have both now. Likethe dragonfly a lot better on all aspects for laptop use. I had a lot of issues with my udac2 on Windows 7 64-bit

 

[longbowbbs]

Quote:

Not yet, so far just 16/44. 
Tomorrow I plan to listen to some music from HDTracks.
Just one question, If you play a "silent" track and change the volume, can you hear some clicks? Im asking that because I can, dont know if its an issue or its just fine.

I am not noticing any popping. I do get a ding from the system tones as I adjust volume, but when I disable it, there is not popping sound for volume changes.

 

[bobeau]

Alright, with 20 hours under my belt of listening I'm shipping this guy back.  I'm not getting the changes to the signature I was hoping for.
 
To be clear, it actually sounds pretty fantastic with my Thunderpants... not quite to the level of O2/ODAC - it's just a bit lean/flat by comparison, but just a bit, which is pretty outrageous considering it's entirely USB bus powered and barely drags down the battery on my power thrifty MBA.  The DAC portion to my ears outshines the ODAC and running the Dragonfly -> O2 is absolutely stellar - very detailed, lack of digital hash, dynamic, tight, crisp... a dynamite pairing, both with the Thunderpants and EPH-100.  The DAC implementation here is crazy good for the price and convenience.
 
But that's not what I bought it for, and with its headphone out -> my 16 ohm EPH-100, which to be honest are warm by their nature, it just pushes things into an unsavory territory descending into mush on more complex or bassy music.  If I were rocking a leaner and/or higher impedance BA IEM I'm sure it would be sublime, but I am rather attached to a minimal setup and find the EPH-100 a very good match for my sonic preferences.  With it I even prefer the headphone out of my Macbook Air to the Dragonfly, and doing some research I now understand a bit more why.
 
Just to be clear - I think this is a fantastic product, a real game changer.  If like with the Dacport there were a $100 option for lowering the impedance to 1 ohm I'd be all over it.  With the right cans you're probably bumping up close to the point of quickly diminishing returns for something that is the size of a typical thumb drive.  The build quality is awesome, the analog volume control is slick and works as advertised.