Using a dragonfly DAC

[447563]

So i just got a Dragonfly and it doesn't seem to recognise formats properly.
The Dragonfly doesnt change colour whether I play a 16bit CD\FLAC or a 24bit track.
 
If I set the Sound Default Format to 24\96000 - it stays Magenta whether its a CD or a 24bit HiRes file
 
If I set it to 24\44100 it stays Green no matter what type of file I play.
 
I know that the system software sets the data rate, the DF will not change it automatically, but is there anyway to change this?
Im still very new to all this so excuse my ignorance.

I also wanted to ask if changing that rate would actually affect the quality of the music? 

 

[buke9]

So i just got a Dragonfly and it doesn't seem to recognise formats properly.
The Dragonfly doesnt change colour whether I play a 16bit CD\FLAC or a 24bit track.

If I set the Sound Default Format to 24\96000 - it stays Magenta whether its a CD or a 24bit HiRes file

If I set it to 24\44100 it stays Green no matter what type of file I play.

I know that the system software sets the data rate, the DF will not change it automatically, but is there anyway to change this?

Im still very new to all this so excuse my ignorance.


I also wanted to ask if changing that rate would actually affect the quality of the music? 

Don't have the Dragonfly but just make sure you disable your internal sound card. If that doesn't help you might try contacting Audioquest.

 

[StewartL]

Your dragonfly is acting as it should.
The colour changes according to sample frequency. Bit rate, flac, cd do not change it. quality is most often determined by kbps not sample freq.
Green is: 44100 hz which is native for cd and as flac is taken from cd, the sample remains the same.
Blue is: 48000 hz
Amber is: 88200 hz
Magenta is:96000 hz
Red is standby.
The dragonfly does not put out sample frequencies higher than 96 khz.
As far as sound quality, I find it best to stick with the native rate of the source. Upscaling can reduce quality.

 

[447563]

yes, exactly, shouldnt change according to the file? What if i play a 96khz file instead of a 44khz, shouldnt my pc recognize it as such and switch it to that (as in from green to magenta)?

 

[StewartL]

If the sample frequency of the source changes the Dragonfly should change colour to reflect the input. There are some exceptions to this that I have found. Like with Android unless you use a player like UAPP - tidal or Spotify for instance, the Dragonfly will stick to Magenta and upscale everything to 96khz. When playing tidal through uapp it turns back Green for 44.1khz. as far as pc goes, I have no idea why it isn't changing for you. Maybe it's a driver thing

 

[447563]

Let me explain it in a different way. In the sound options in the control panel you can choose the default format. It isnt automatic.Depending on the format (44, 48, 88, or 96) the color of the dac changes. Let's say i have it set to 96 and its magenta. It stays magenta whether im playing a 130mb flac file or a 3mb mp3 file. Shouldn't the format (and thus the color) change automatically with the song instead? Or is this what it should normally do?

 

[447563]

 Like with Android unless you use a player like UAPP - tidal or Spotify for instance, the Dragonfly will stick to Magenta and upscale everything to 96khz. When playing tidal through uapp it turns back Green for 44.1khz. as far as pc goes, I have no idea why it isn't changing for you. Maybe it's a driver thing

I am using a samsung note 3 and when i connect it it directly turns to magenta. But as soon as i play music from spotify or just from the stock music player it turns blue, so i dont know what to get from that. Also, if it is a driver thing on pc what can i do?

 

[StewartL]

I believe when connected to pc the rate is selected by the user and doesn't change automatically

 

[447563]

I believe when connected to pc the rate is selected by the user and doesn't change automatically

exactly, cant i change that?