[Deni5]

  Similar problem for me. My Grado PS500e sounds clean and detailed using FIIO E7 but blurry and confused with Dragonfly 1.5 black. Any idea why?

 
kovacs: "The Grado SR80 on the other hand sounds terrible in combination with the Dragonfly, lots of hiss, pops and clicks, really unlistenable. Anyone know why ? I tried to connect the Dragonfly to a Jitterbug to see if this was something the jitterbug could help with, but it didn't change anything. The Grado sounds fine on my iPod touch's headphone port. Is it the low impedance of the Grado ?"
 
I haven't heard Dragonfly 1.5 (have the Red) but it sounds a little strange that the Fiio E7 is more clean and detailed. I have an old Fiio E7 with the Wolfson DAC (if that is what you have?) and that is not that detailed. For me it's typical Wolfson signature: warm, treble roll-off, sub bass roll-off, nice/liquid mids. I quite like that signature when pairing with Grado headphones (or other very treble-happy phones where I need to tame the treble to be tolerable) but nothing much else. I never liked Grado headphones out of ODAC/O2 amp for example. I would say Dragonfly Red follows that signature as in being very neutral leaning a little to detailed without the glare/harshness (Sabre signature done well).
 
From what I have read it seems like people using brighter phones are not happy with the results using the newer Dragonfly's - but that depends a lot on what you are trying to gain/what you expect. Many have found them quite good when pairing with neutral to darker headphones. You might try different pads or tape mod and such (it does change the signature - it did on my Grado's).
 
iPhone/iPod DACs usually have a some treble roll off - that is why you might find it better paired.

 

[Torq]

In getting ready for a long-ish trip, in which I wish to travel as light as possible, I gave the Red a try with a pair of Bose QC20.
 
Normally I'm an "anything but Bose" kind of guy.  I could easily take my Shure SE846 instead of the QC20, and the Shure's with the Red are a VERY satisfying combination.  But on a 10 hour flight the ability to shut out the noise, even if I don't want music or a movie, is very welcome ... and here the Bose' noise-cancellation beat the isolation of the SE846 AND are more comfortable for protracted use.
 
I have to say the Red with the QC20 is actually a very listenable pairing (fed form an iPhone 6S w/ Offline TIDAL files).  Much more so than I expected ... to the point that the Shure's are staying home this trip.  I wouldn't call it "accurate" by any means, but it is FUN.

 

[simonecosta75]

Hello
any of you have tried it or knows how does the dragonfly Red headphones with 300 ohm?
works well ?
thank you
in this moment i use DFR whit S7 edge and Audiotechnica mx50 , but today i want upgrade the headphone whit a Senn hd600 and i am worried for 300 ohm of this headphone
 
thx

 

[WhiteNoises]

Hello

any of you have tried it or knows how does the dragonfly Red headphones with 300 ohm?

works well ?

thank you
in this moment i use DFR whit S7 edge and Audiotechnica mx50 , but today i want upgrade the headphone whit a Senn hd600 and i am worried for 300 ohm of this headphone

thx

I'm using it with both the HD600 and HD650 just fine. And my iPad itself powers both just fine too actually. With the DF Red the HD600 is too bright with voices. It pierces my ears. With the HD650, which is a slightly darker headphone, I don't have this fatigue.

Both are excellent headphones, with acoustic and jazz music and all that I prefer the HD600, but anything with singing or harsher sounds I need to go to the HD650. For example, Dreams by Beck. Sounds great in many ways on both, but on the HD600 I just can't keep listening to it. When I play it out of the headphone jack on the iPad, the HD600 is much more endurable/bearable in that way, as it's not as strong in the treble.

Of course, this can be adjusted with an equaliser.

 

[simonecosta75]

I'm using it with both the HD600 and HD650 just fine. And my iPad itself powers both just fine too actually. With the DF Red the HD600 is too bright with voices. It pierces my ears. With the HD650, which is a slightly darker headphone, I don't have this fatigue.

Both are excellent headphones, with acoustic and jazz music and all that I prefer the HD600, but anything with singing or harsher sounds I need to go to the HD650. For example, Dreams by Beck. Sounds great in many ways on both, but on the HD600 I just can't keep listening to it. When I play it out of the headphone jack on the iPad, the HD600 is much more endurable/bearable in that way, as it's not as strong in the treble.

Of course, this can be adjusted with an equaliser.

i like the voice improved but it is more i change for hd650 o similar .
the sound of akg 701Q is better or similar at hd600 ?

 

[daros71]

   
kovacs: "The Grado SR80 on the other hand sounds terrible in combination with the Dragonfly, lots of hiss, pops and clicks, really unlistenable. Anyone know why ? I tried to connect the Dragonfly to a Jitterbug to see if this was something the jitterbug could help with, but it didn't change anything. The Grado sounds fine on my iPod touch's headphone port. Is it the low impedance of the Grado ?"
 
I haven't heard Dragonfly 1.5 (have the Red) but it sounds a little strange that the Fiio E7 is more clean and detailed. I have an old Fiio E7 with the Wolfson DAC (if that is what you have?) and that is not that detailed. For me it's typical Wolfson signature: warm, treble roll-off, sub bass roll-off, nice/liquid mids. I quite like that signature when pairing with Grado headphones (or other very treble-happy phones where I need to tame the treble to be tolerable) but nothing much else. I never liked Grado headphones out of ODAC/O2 amp for example. I would say Dragonfly Red follows that signature as in being very neutral leaning a little to detailed without the glare/harshness (Sabre signature done well).
 
From what I have read it seems like people using brighter phones are not happy with the results using the newer Dragonfly's - but that depends a lot on what you are trying to gain/what you expect. Many have found them quite good when pairing with neutral to darker headphones. You might try different pads or tape mod and such (it does change the signature - it did on my Grado's).
 
iPhone/iPod DACs usually have a some treble roll off - that is why you might find it better paired.

I compared a bit more Fiio E7, Realtek HD and Dragonfly 1.5 black after matching as good as i can the volumes... probably this low end devices are qualitatively almost the same or the difference are not noticeable to me even with a resolving headphone like the Grado PS500e. The previously mentioned blurriness was probably my brain together the expectations of improvement i had. Still, the 100 euro of the DragonFly 1.5 Black are not worth to me. 

 

[AJTSin]

If you look at earlier posts in this thread, Steve Silberman has posted about this issue.  My 6s has the same problem. Nothing has worked so far, but the Audioquest folks responded promptly to my email, including Mr. Silberman.  The Audioquest people said that this is a known issue with the Red and some Apple devices, and Audioquest and Apple are working to get it resolved.  Like you, I tried it with my old iPhone and my 9.7" iPad Pro and they worked together beautifully.  I also tried the 6s with Apple's lightning to 30-pin adapter dongle(that has a built in DAC) going into a headphone amp and there was no noise.  It could be an IOS issue specific to the 6s since some other third-party devices seem to be affected.

Are you referring to the post below?

DragonFly Black/Red is exhibiting pops, clicks, and intermittent distortion when connected to an iPhone/iOS device.
Pops and clicks from iOS devices can be attributed to one or both of the following:
•   Defective Camera Connection Kit: We have had experiences with a few defective camera kits. Apple has been proactive in replacing any defective units. You can simply return a defective adaptor to any Apple store for an exchange. Be sure to purchase genuine Apple CCKs. There are a number of counterfeits on the market.


•   On a few occasions, while listening to any app, such as iTunes, Tidal, or Netflix, I’ve experienced intermittent clicks. I’ve found that shutting down the iOS device (iPhone or iPad) and rebooting the unit solves the issue.


Regards,

Steve Silberman
AudioQuest

 

[canali]

Dragonfly red up for review on uk site 'what hifi'
http://www.whathifi.com/audioquest/dragonfly-red/review
The writer also compares the red with a black.

 

[kovacs]

Just tried my Grado SR80 with the Dragonfly Black again and somehow got rid of the cracks and pops ( don't know what happened before because I tried it multiple times, with different headphones inbetween ). The Dragonfly certainly doesn't pair as well with the Grado's as it does with both the V-Moda M80 and the Sennheiser HD595. It makes the Grado's sound a bit muddy and slow, it loses some of the PRaT-factor ( Pace, Rhythm and Timing ) that I love so much with the Grado's, bass certainly is more extented though. I'm a bit surprised that the V-Moda seems to be the one that has the best synergy with the Dragonfly, doing direct A/B comparisons is a bit hard though because the V-Moda's sound louder and so much more forward than the HD595. I'm now thinking about buying a Dragonfly Red for desktop use and keep the Black for mobile use with my iPad, still need to find a better open headphone to pair with the Red because the HD595 is a bit too laid back for me and the V-Moda is not comfortable enough for longer listening sessions at home...
 
The Dragonfly certainly has awoken the audiophile in me again, never read so many reviews and forum posts as these last two weeks... RIP my wallet

 

[Kyle K]

That's the one, although more info was received through email. You might want to contact Audioquest and provide them details of the problem, what you did to try to resolve it, and the ios version and build installed on your phone. They will forward the information to Apple.

 

[kovacs]

That's the one, although more info was received through email. You might want to contact Audioquest and provide them details of the problem, what you did to try to resolve it, and the ios version and build installed on your phone. They will forward the information to Apple.

 

If you are referring to me, this happened with the Dragonfly connected to an iMac running OSX El Capitan via a powered USB hub, it's possible that the drivers on OSX and iOS are similar though. Occasionally I've also had a similar problem with my B&W MM-1 USB loudspeakers ( which also use a built-in DAC ) but I think this was addressed on OSX in one of the latest updates, before that I sometimes had to switch outputs or turn the speakers off and on again to get rid of the distortion... Let's hope this is something a firmware update can help with.

 

[tekwrx]

Does anybody have an LG V10? I was considering the DFB to use when out of the house. I am pretty happy with how the V10 sounds with my Sony XBA-A2 IEM, but I must use the "aux mode" trick to get it loud enough for me.  If anybody has experience with the V10 and the Black, let me know if it is worth it.   For home listening have the Sony MDR-Z7 and I know the Red would be a better choice for those cans, but I have a Fiio E12 that I use so I can just use the DFB line-out to feed that amp. I would just get the Red to use in both situations, but money is tight right now and I'm hoping the Black will be all I need. When I use the Z7 at home, I feed the E12 amp with the FiiO Q1 DAC. I like that the DFB is much smaller than the Q1.
 
Am I being dumb? Should I just keep using what I have for now?

 

[simonecosta75]

Today is arrive from Amazon the my new headphones . I have buy the sennehiser dh600
Ok i think the dh600 need more time of,burning , but the music volume is low ..
Whit same equipe and audiotechnica mx50 i dont need put at maximum , whit dh600 at maximum is more low
The problem is burning o 300 ohm of impedence?

 

[kovacs]

Today is arrive from Amazon the my new headphones . I have buy the sennehiser dh600
Ok i think the dh600 need more time of,burning , but the music volume is low ..
Whit same equipe and audiotechnica mx50 i dont need put at maximum , whit dh600 at maximum is more low
The problem is burning o 300 ohm of impedence?

Do you have a Dragonfly Black or Red ? One has an output of 1.2V the other an output of 2.1V, should make quite a difference with 300 Ohm headphones like the Sennheiser HD600 I guess. Don't have either so I can't test, but I would love to hear from members that have...

 

[simonecosta75]

I have the Red 2,1 v
I need put one amp after the DFR ?
Or need only burning the hd600?