[Father Schu]

I just picked one of these up to try it out.

The complete USB portion through the 3.5mm jack moves slightly (wiggles).

I plan on inquiring with Audioquest as to why it was designed this way and will give it a listen.

 

[Tenashus1]

I just picked one of these up to try it out.

The complete USB portion through the 3.5mm jack moves slightly (wiggles).

I plan on inquiring with Audioquest as to why it was designed this way and will give it a listen.

They told me it wasn't an issue.

I just picked one of these up to try it out.

The complete USB portion through the 3.5mm jack moves slightly (wiggles).

I plan on inquiring with Audioquest as to why it was designed this way and will give it a listen.

 

[Condocondor]

The more I listen to this little s**t......the more I like it. I think COBALT is a game changer.....

 

[Deftone]

So this is the first DAC I've owned that uses a minimum phase slow roll off filter, the benefit is no pre ringing at the expense of phase and distortion in high frequencies but I'm not hearing anything problematic at all, most of it must be above my hearing ability of 16.5khz. I'm really enjoying the way percussion sounds on the cobalt and music overal just having a tighter and more solid sound.



The older Dragonfly Black & Red are using short delay sharp.

 

[Sotiris]

Same Power as Red - Same OMP as Red
DAC chip is nothing special
cost +100 over the red over a different DAC chip

PASS

Totally agree... Just a newer and better dac doesnot mean better sound.There are many other parameters that if you change them eg 24 bit flac songs, that will make you think that you bought new DAC.Everything else is just marketing and reviews that what to make you buy it.After reading many reviews i think most of them are not objective and behind them are product companies...
Also i think DFR for its price has a veryyy good ratio of price/perfomance....Cobalt losses that battle.

I have DFR with jitterbug... but i dont use it together.. i prefer to use jitterbug on my NAS usb port....

Trust you ears not the reviewers, its their job so being their job , they get paid....

 

[Sotiris]

So this is the first DAC I've owned that uses a minimum phase slow roll off filter, the benefit is no pre ringing at the expense of phase and distortion in high frequencies but I'm not hearing anything problematic at all, most of it must be above my hearing ability of 16.5khz. I'm really enjoying the way percussion sounds on the cobalt and music overal just having a tighter and more solid sound.



The older Dragonfly Black & Red are using short delay sharp.

Shor delay sharp is better that short delay slow. Slow losses a lot of details.

 

[Deftone]

Shor delay sharp is better that short delay slow. Slow losses a lot of details.

Youre probably right but i cant hear it. I get all the detail i want from my headphones.

 

[Sotiris]

Youre probably right but i cant hear it. I get all the detail i want from my headphones.

Cayin Dap N6 has this option of sharp and slow and i always switch it to sharp....

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Totally agree... Just a newer and better dac doesnot mean better sound.There are many other parameters that if you change them eg 24 bit flac songs, that will make you think that you bought new DAC.Everything else is just marketing and reviews that what to make you buy it.After reading many reviews i think most of them are not objective and behind them are product companies...
Also i think DFR for its price has a veryyy good ratio of price/perfomance....Cobalt losses that battle.

I have DFR with jitterbug... but i dont use it together.. i prefer to use jitterbug on my NAS usb port....

Trust you ears not the reviewers, its their job so being their job , they get paid....

I’m not a paid reviewer, just a normal head-fier. The Cobalt clearly sounds better than the Red. I sold my Red after owning the Cobalt for one day and I regret nothing.

 

[Sotiris]

I’m not a paid reviewer, just a normal head-fier. The Cobalt clearly sounds better than the Red. I sold my Red after owning the Cobalt for one day and I regret nothing.

Also i tried Cobalt and i find worse that Red so i sold it and stayed with Red. So whom readers will believe since it seems both to tell truth?

A lot of times i have brought product based on 'simple' guys like me who happens to review a product just for fun and their poor perfomance has nothing to do with these 'true' reviews which descibe a perfect product.

Also its too suspicious when a product come to life ,automatically rave reviews appear everywhere....

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Also i tried Cobalt and i find worse that Red so i sold it and stayed with Red. So whom readers will believe since it seems both to tell truth?

A lot of times i have brought product based on 'simple' guys like me who happens to review a product just for fun and their poor perfomance has nothing to do with these 'true' reviews which descibe a perfect product.

Also its too suspicious when a product come to life ,automatically rave reviews appear everywhere....

Then why are you even on Head-fi if you don’t care what others have to say? This is a discussion forum. 95% of the people on here who have bought the Cobalt are very pleased with it. There’s nothing suspicious about the Cobalt getting good reviews. Every one of the Dragonfly’s has been hailed as a good product. They all produce fantastic sound for such a small form factor and Audioquest is not some new, fly-by-night company. They’ve been around for quite a while. Maybe you need to chill out with the conspiracy theories. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. I love it. And I’m not making a dime for saying that. I paid $299 for mine just like you did.

 

[Condocondor]

Also i tried Cobalt and i find worse that Red so i sold it and stayed with Red. So whom readers will believe since it seems both to tell truth?

Totally respect your opinion....BUT, I question how that could be? DACs do need time to break-in and so I wonder if you allowed sufficient time for that? And could it be that your DFR was very well broken-in? Could you also have had a defective COBALT unit? Clearly, DFR being superior is a minority report.

Also, can you imagine how stupid (and brazen) it would be for Audioquest to come out with a new model that is 50% MORE expensive but only questionably or minutely better? It would be marketing suicide for Audioquest. So, with all due respect for your opinion, it doesn't add up. What do you think could have happened, if in fact, Cobalt was better but somehow you failed to hear the difference?

 

[Tenashus1]

Totally respect your opinion....BUT, I question how that could be? DACs do need time to break-in and so I wonder if you allowed sufficient time for that? And could it be that your DFR was very well broken-in? Could you also have had a defective COBALT unit? Clearly, DFR being superior is a minority report.

Also, can you imagine how stupid (and brazen) it would be for Audioquest to come out with a new model that is 50% MORE expensive but only questionably or minutely better? It would be marketing suicide for Audioquest. So, with all due respect for your opinion, it doesn't add up. What do you think could have happened, if in fact, Cobalt was better but somehow you failed to hear the difference?

Loving my DFC. Absolutely no regrets. Already got at least $100 worth of enjoyment out of it, and it only gets better. Life is too short to quibble.

 

[JohnNick]

Totally agree... Just a newer and better dac doesnot mean better sound.There are many other parameters that if you change them eg 24 bit flac songs, that will make you think that you bought new DAC.Everything else is just marketing and reviews that what to make you buy it.After reading many reviews i think most of them are not objective and behind them are product companies...
Also i think DFR for its price has a veryyy good ratio of price/perfomance....Cobalt losses that battle.

I have DFR with jitterbug... but i dont use it together.. i prefer to use jitterbug on my NAS usb port....

Trust you ears not the reviewers, its their job so being their job , they get paid....

Reviewers give us the idea that with the emergence of DFC the acclaimed DFR looks like bad equipment and totally obsolete. Funny that.

 

[JohnNick]

I ended up stopping on this topic to try to find out if it really pays to pay an extra 100 usd for cobalt, but it's hard to decide. I just want to improve the sound of my in ears, for portable use with the phone (galaxy S9).