I have DFB which I have been using for some time as an OTG Dac off my mobile for use with Spotify (Paid).
I've been happy with the improvement in sound - never previously used it with my PC as I have other DAC's which I use.
Today, I just so happened to plug it into my work PC to stream off Spotify Web Player (which I believe is a lower quality bitrate compared to downloaded music on the app). To my surprise there is a noticeable increase in soundstaging (particularly depth) and separation.
I'm puzzled by how this is possible - surely this should be the same as the OTG?
Anyone experienced similar?
As an example; the song Sweet Suburban Sky by Paddy Casey -> In the song there is background detail which can easily be glossed over where it seems like his lyric is playing before he sings it. I don't know if this is a mastering issue or it's coming from his monitors and is getting picked up by the mics. With OTG you have to listen quite hard to hear this and it get's masked by midrange bloom in his voice. However, when listening direct off the PC it is much clearer and sounds like there is more air between the detail and his actual sung lyric - this comes back to the greater perception of depth direct from the PC as if there is more air between the layers of music which increases the quality of separation.
Spotify doesn't do bit perfect audio through USB on Android, actually it doesn't do it at all. Also, there are a ton of other variables at play when trying to compare mobile audio versus PC audio. So trying to compare the two is difficult.
The increase in soundstaging you might be hearing is the difference in volume while on PC as compared to being on mobile. I use Roon on my PC and can hear a HUGE difference compared to listening through UAPP/OTG on my phone. Yet, I know a lot of different variables come into play so the comparison might not be valid.
I have DFB which I have been using for some time as an OTG Dac off my mobile for use with Spotify (Paid).
I've been happy with the improvement in sound - never previously used it with my PC as I have other DAC's which I use.
Today, I just so happened to plug it into my work PC to stream off Spotify Web Player (which I believe is a lower quality bitrate compared to downloaded music on the app). To my surprise there is a noticeable increase in soundstaging (particularly depth) and separation.
I'm puzzled by how this is possible - surely this should be the same as the OTG?
Anyone experienced similar?
As an example; the song Sweet Suburban Sky by Paddy Casey -> In the song there is background detail which can easily be glossed over where it seems like his lyric is playing before he sings it. I don't know if this is a mastering issue or it's coming from his monitors and is getting picked up by the mics. With OTG you have to listen quite hard to hear this and it get's masked by midrange bloom in his voice. However, when listening direct off the PC it is much clearer and sounds like there is more air between the detail and his actual sung lyric - this comes back to the greater perception of depth direct from the PC as if there is more air between the layers of music which increases the quality of separation.
Windows can do bit perfect, Android cannot. Android's built in audio is actually rather crap on the software side of things; that is why most people would recommend using UAPP for listening through external DACs on Android. iOS does not have this problem. Unfortunately, for listening to Spotify on Android there is no option but to use the inferior system audio. You can alleviate the problem somewhat by setting the usb_device section in /etc/audio_policy.conf to "44100" instead of "dynamic" for the sample rate, but there are still some issues with noise and software volume.
I bought the DragonFly Red which I use with my Samsung S8. I have some questions:
1. What can I do to solve the low volume issue?
2. What does mean that the music is upsampled to 24/96? Is this for the sound quality "good" or "bad"? If it is bad, can I prevent the upsampling?
Unfortunately you have to keep your music running through the app. They said the driver cannot work for all of Android, just their app. Tidal is the only streaming program they mention can run through it, that I've seen. They have a thread, maybe more info can be found there.
Sorry people are a little behind. Step one, go to Audioquest website and download the software to update your dragonfly. You need to be on the latest software to be able to effectively change the volume. Step two, you need an app that can take control of the Red internal volume control to change it. Android natively defaults it to 40 when there are actually 64 steps on the Dragonfly red volume. USB AUDIO PLAYER PRO is definitely able to adjust the volume. The way it works is in the UAPP app you hit the 3 do menu button at the top of the screen, select hardware volume, and raise the volume slider to say 80% or so. You then continue to press the back button on uour Android device and UAPP will exit. With the DRAGONFLY UPDATE the volume level of the Red will remain at the level you set and you will now be able to use the Android media volume to adjust the 15 steps on Android for use with Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, or whatever else you may want. So in summary, YES you can use the dragonfly red to listen to an audible volume level on any headphone while doing any app. You just need to update the Dragonfly first, and use an app such as UAPP to adjust the Dragonfly volume.
I bought the DragonFly Red which I use with my Samsung S8. I have some questions:
1. What can I do to solve the low volume issue?
2. What does mean that the music is upsampled to 24/96? Is this for the sound quality "good" or "bad"? If it is bad, can I prevent the upsampling?
Now, as far as upstreaming. Android, Apple, etc.run the audio through device drivers before the signal is sent to the DAC. This is the whole reason you are able to adjust volume using the device volume toggle. It's not bit perfect. On Android, unfortunately, the system defaults the music to the highest available sample rate of your DAC. Upsampling is far from optimal, but even with it, your heaphones, car audio or whatever else will sound better than it will coming straight from your phones headphone jack, just simply not the best it could coming from the dragonfly if say the audio was being sent straight to it.
Now, as far as upstreaming. Android, Apple, etc.run the audio through device drivers before the signal is sent to the DAC. This is the whole reason you are able to adjust volume using the device volume toggle. It's not bit perfect. On Android, unfortunately, the system defaults the music to the highest available sample rate of your DAC. Upsampling is far from optimal, but even with it, your heaphones, car audio or whatever else will sound better than it will coming straight from your phones headphone jack, just simply not the best it could coming from the dragonfly if say the audio was being sent straight to it.
Ok, but how big is the difference while upsampling? How much "worse" is the sound quality compared to the normal resample? Sorry for these noob questions...
Can't quantify it like that. Doesn't sound bad. It's a by comparison sort of thing. Simply not optimal. That's just the nature of the Android operating system. Honestly, your music is still going to sound more detailed through the red than through the S8 headphone jack. Your headphones will make the biggest difference anyway. You get more power to drive whatever headphones you will use. No sense in making a big fuss over something you simply can't change. Just update and get your volume issue set, and you'll be able to enjoy what you do hear.
I’ve had exactly the same problem. I’m convinced there is some major problem with the Windows desktop app. When I connect the DFR to my wife’s 2011 MacBook Air (Core 2 Duo with only 2GB of RAM) it will play MQA for hours with no problem. But Windows always has a problem. Even disabling MQA decoding (and letting the 24/48 FLAC go directly to the DFR) drops the stream after a song or two. I’ve tried wire and wireless, different PCs, even connecting through my LTE phone as a hotspot.
I spoke too soon. Once the Mac Tidal app recognized the DFR as a separate device, it stopped working properly. The music now plays either too fast or too slow, depending on the setting. I do hope they get the Windows desktop app fixed.
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