Dragonfly COBALT vs.............Discussions
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Otto Motor
Headphoneus Supremus
No dongle is universally good. It depends what you are using it for.
The DF Cobalt is designed for low current draw from your phone. It therefore supplies limited power. The company does not recommend to use it for iem/headphones below 24 ohm impedance (as they suck too much current and then the bass sounds muddy).
Amir used the Cobalt with insensitive headphones - his analysis is completely useless. He is just an opinionated ideolog.
Other dongles supply more power but this drains our phones very fast, or they don't work with iPhone at all. An excellent example is the Questyle M15.
The DF Cobalt sounds excellent, but is of limited use as described above. The Questyle M15 uses more power and is also excellent, but drains your phone faster...and is therefore also of limited use. There is no ideal dongle (without a battery).
These are the two I personally recommend. But to answer your question: yes, the Cobalt is worth buying if it fits your purpose. And yes, the countless cheap Chines dongles do not sound as good.
As to the age of the Cobalt (2019)...the excellent Apogee Groove is from 2015 and still top notch...but it does not work with phones and hybrid iems at all.
Here my measurements of current draw of selected dongles. Anything above 100 mA does not work with iPhone.
Here some reading on the technologies:
https://www.audioreviews.org/dongle-dilemma/
https://www.audioreviews.org/dongles-portable-dac-amps/
https://www.audioreviews.org/headphone-dac-amps-guide-jk/
https://www.audioreviews.org/dacs-amps/
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Hubert481
500+ Head-Fier
So the DFR seems to be the better choice for iOS?
Otto Motor
Headphoneus Supremus
They all work but I'd not go above the Earmen Sparrow at 490 mA/3 hrs.So the DFR seems to be the better choice for iOS?
Think a DF will be perfect for me.No dongle is universally good. It depends what you are using it for.
The DF Cobalt is designed for low current draw from your phone. It therefore supplies limited power. The company does not recommend to use it for iem/headphones below 24 ohm impedance (as they suck too much current and then the bass sounds muddy).
Amir used the Cobalt with insensitive headphones - his analysis is completely useless. He is just an opinionated ideolog.
Other dongles supply more power but this drains our phones very fast, or they don't work with iPhone at all. An excellent example is the Questyle M15.
The DF Cobalt sounds excellent, but is of limited use as described above. The Questyle M15 uses more power and is also excellent, but drains your phone faster...and is therefore also of limited use. There is no ideal dongle (without a battery).
These are the two I personally recommend. But to answer your question: yes, the Cobalt is worth buying if it fits your purpose. And yes, the countless cheap Chines dongles do not sound as good.
As to the age of the Cobalt (2019)...the excellent Apogee Groove is from 2015 and still top notch...but it does not work with phones and hybrid iems at all.
Here my measurements of current draw of selected dongles. Anything above 100 mA does not work with iPhone.
Here some reading on the technologies:
https://www.audioreviews.org/dongle-dilemma/
https://www.audioreviews.org/dongles-portable-dac-amps/
https://www.audioreviews.org/headphone-dac-amps-guide-jk/
https://www.audioreviews.org/dacs-amps/
X Gonna use it with 32ohm HP`s
X low current draw
X nice color
X made in US
X possible to update firmware
X no tiny USB, more robust
X driver less, work with anything
X can us it as DAC with 2V out
Apogee looks like a good dongle. but 20ohm output impedance
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Hubert481
500+ Head-Fier
There has never been any fw-update for DF - B or R or C
yes, I updated my DFB in 2016/2017
not? what?
Otto Motor
Headphoneus Supremus
Yes, because your Campfires have way too low impedance and therefore way too high power consumption.I got some new campfire IEMs and they are unusable on the Cobalt on the iPad due to crazy minimum volume from sensitivity of them.
On MacBook I can use midi setup to reduce master volume of the cobalt which helps on MacBook.
Is there anyway to do the same on the Cobalt on iPad as at moment it’s unusable with my campfire IEMs
Cheers
Kev
KevinJB
New Head-Fier
I’ve ordered a iFi cable attenuator so hopefully will fix the issue 
Kev
Kev
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What are some more affordable well-regarded usb dac/amp alternatives to the cobalt? I’m planning running an akg n40 and noble x.
1nilla
New Head-Fier
Hidisz s9 pro. Yeah it's a lot cheaper than Cobalt but can't think of any with remarkable sound and compact size.
E1da 9038d or 9038s
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