The DAC is advertised as direct-coupled and this is consistent with my findings.ĪudioQuest touts the USB power utilization as being very low with the new Dragonflies. Using a 20-ohm resistor at the output of the headphone jack, using a 1kHz sine wave, the calculated output impedance was 0.61-ohms (the Stereophile review says "<1 ohm"). In any event, good suppression of higher order harmonics about -60dB between 20kHz to 40kHz. Some 0dBFS overload as commonly seen in most DACs but I see the -4dBFS wideband noise curve isn't quite perfect either. There it is, the "Digital Filter Composite" based on the " Reis Test". The measurements I'm going to do is essentially the same as what I did for the SMSL iDEA DAC a few weeks back.
#REGEN USB ISOLATOR WITH SCHIIT GENERATION 5 BOARD MAC OS#
I did not have any compatibility issues at all running this device on Windows 10, Mac OS X, Android or Linux. It has been said that in order to maintain simplicity, the Dragonfly devices are asynchronous USB Audio Class 1 interfaces only, capable of a maximum 24/96 PCM audio. I did not see any specifications around total power for the headphone amp.
As a headphone amp, the Black is capable of lower output defined as 1.2V direct-coupled, while the Red can provide up to 2.1V. This is a low power device paired with the ES9010(K2M?) DAC in the Black, and the ES9016 DAC in the Red both of which are of course part of the ESS Technology Sabre family with the ES9016 having better dynamic range and distortion measurements of the two.
As you can see, the new Black and Red models use a Microchip PIC32MX microcontroller. Here's a handy comparison table that shows the difference between the Dragonfly models. There is of course the large dragonfly logo on top which changes color to show the sample rate: red= standby, green= 44kHz, blue= 48kHz, amber= 88kHz, magenta= 96kHz, and purple(darker magenta) = MQA rendering as of firmware 1.06. No buttons or any hardware control on the device. The SMSL iDEA is comparatively lighter weight which is consistent with it's tiny frame. The AudioEngine feels solid as well with its aluminum construction. There's some heft to it, unlike the more plasticky feel of the Geek Out V2's 3D printed case. There's a rubberized-metal solid feel to the device. Like the Dragonfly v1.2 before, the new Dragonfly Black 1.5 (and I would assume the Dragonfly Red) feels like a well made product. As you can see in the image above, I have tested a few others of these kinds of DACs already including the AudioEngine D3 measured in 2014, Light Harmonic Geek Out V2 in 2015, and also the previous revision Dragonfly v1.2 in 2014 which I don't have on hand any more (it was given as a gift to a friend). For example, a few weeks back, I showed the measurements for the SMSL iDEA which I thought performed objectively amazingly well for such a small device although I had some issues with seamless connectivity to Linux / Android.
I think it's useful to show these test results on the Dragonfly because AudioQuest clearly has a healthy advertising budget and promotes it quite heavily on audiophile sites with ads in magazines as well as such it's a bit of a "standard" even though a number of other alternatives exist. Long enough for me to listen and run some objective testing to see what the "deal" is. I'm actually borrowing it from a friend so it's not going to be in my possession for long. Four USB mini-DAC's (back to front): Light Harmonic Geek Out V2, Audioquest Dragonfly Black, SMSL iDEA, AudioEngine D3.Īs I showed a couple weeks ago, I have in my possession one of the Audioquest Dragonfly Black DACs for testing.
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