1/17/2024 0 Comments Dragonfly cobalt reviewsDo read as many reviews as possible, focusing on the best-respected reviewers of portable audio gear, especially DACs and headphone amps. Don't place any unusual trust in my review, since the music you play and many other factors could net out the differences. 3) Those who won't hear the differences immediately, but who trust AudioQuest to put into the DAC what they say they put in. 2) Those with good enough hearing and experience to appreciate the differences. I also incorporate listening with the AudioQuest JitterBug in my sample music tracks below, but I'll recommend the DF Cobalt straightaway for these users:ġ) Perfectionists. The wrong headphone could change all that of course, which is why I give attention to adjusting the different headphones' frequency responses with a modicum of EQ. My overall impressions of the DF Cobalt are mainly the greater realism - the palpable sounds in the lower registers, resin-y bowing, and the fullness of voices and instruments that aren't the least bit exaggerated. It's jazz, and the sound is as good as they come - surprising for a live-in-studio recording, although in reading the liner notes one can appreciate how it was accomplished. The quality of the bass in this recording was noticeably better than with the DF Red, and the impact of the bass was more palpable, although I wouldn't describe the bass as "impactful" in the sense of many EDM recordings. at 352 khz or so, and then down-res'd to 44/24 WAV files for my 256 gb iPad Pro. My next listen was the album Carmen Gomes Sings The Blues, which was recorded in DSD etc. Some users might not hear the differences, but if they are practiced at evaluating DACs, they should pick up on these differences pretty quickly. But this time the DF Cobalt edged out the DF Red with a smoother yet detailed sound. I've always thought of the DF Red as a very smooth reproducer, particularly compared to the DF Black. I ended up playing the same 70 seconds 3 times with the DF Red, then repeated 3 with the DF Cobalt followed by 3 with the DF Red. That alone didn't seal the DF Cobalt deal though. Almost immediately my impression of the stereo image was that it's less open and full with the DF Red. AudioQuest included a DragonTail adapter (USB-A to USB-C) that connects the DragonFly to an Apple iPad Pro or various Android devices, and that was the added touch that gave the purchase even more value.Ĭomparing the DF Cobalt to the DF Red, and feeding 44 khz WAV tracks from my iPad Pro 11-inch to the DragonFlys, I played the first 70 seconds of Steven Wilson's Luminol (at the 44/24 data rate) playing the DF Cobalt first (3 times), then the DF Red second. But $300 USD is not a stretch for something significantly better than the DF Red, as long as it meets that goal, which I believe it does. I understood from various conversations that there was a bit of angst about the price - 50 percent higher than the DragonFly Red, which was and is a great little DAC/amp for mobile devices. When I got word of the new DragonFly Cobalt, I hesitated - about three seconds - then I went for the phone and called TTVJ to get one. Sources: iPhone XsMax, iPad Pro 11-inch, Macbook 12-inch, Generic PC Tower, Meridian Explorer2/Oppo HA-2se/DragonFly Red DAC-amps, AudioQuest JitterBug, AudioQuest DragonTail USB-C.
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