AudioQuest DragonFly DAC USB Digital Audio Converter - Red

I bought the Dragonfly 1.2 when it came out a few years back (2014) when it cost me £129. I was pleased with it: great sound and so very portable – practicality and sound quality combined in such a small package! I thought it money well spent and never looked back...until now. If you can get a 1.2 version at a good price, with the new models out, it’s still worth considering.I was more than a little intrigued to learn that there was now a Dragonfly 1.5 and even a Red and a Cobalt (HOW MUCH?!?) since I last looked. I read a few reviews and decided it probably wasn’t worth spending money on the newer version of mine, the Black (1.5), but wondered should I go a little mad and give the Red a try? I decided the Cobalt was much too expensive to try unless I could compare each properly. So, I went ahead with the Red after it dropped below £150.I popped it into the USB slot of my laptop and put some Spotify Premium and also FLAC files through it to feed my Klipsh x10i and then Sennheiser IE80 earphones. Straight away, with the Klipsh ‘phones, I had to turn the volume down from the setting I use with the 1.2 version. There’s certainly greater efficiency with the new model. But is that it? Just turn the dial down to get the same decent performance.?Well actually, no. Swapping the 1.2 model in and then the Red, using the same FLAC file, I noted that there is more detail, greater crispness and even an improved sense of openness. Everything is delivered with more precision and clarity. Given that I spent £20 more, I consider it well worth the extra, even given the 5yrs of inflation. I consider my listening experience to be enriched.How does the Red (at c.£140+) improve your listening over the Black (c.£70) is not something I can address. Given that the 1.5 (Black) is claimed to improve on the 1.2, I can only guess that the step up from Black to the Red is unlikely to be significant since my perception of improvement from 1.2 to Red is mostly subtle (apart from the power). However, for me, the pre-Christmas gift to myself is well worth the money for an upgrade from the 1.2 version. I look forward to more experimentation.Of course, the thing is: the Klipsch and Sennheiser earphone models I have deliver different experiences in their own right: the Klipsch being ‘lighter’ and ‘brighter’, delivering somewhat less bass weight than the Sennheisers, making the latter seem more ‘rounded’ but occasionally seemingly less tight and precise. Almost as if the former are digital and latter are analogue in characteristic. I hope the AQ Red proves a good partner for both.As an aside, a work colleague loaned me a pair of £18 headphones (purchased down from around £30) and listening to them via the Dragonfly Red was really (surprisingly) good.

I was on the verge of buying something like an Oppo HA-2 or Teac DAC/Amp when I came across this new Dragonfly. I wanted something for use with my iPhone when travelling & in the car and the other devices just seemed too big to carry around. The Dragonfly is similar in size to a USB thumb drive (but reassuringly heavier!) so it seemed ideal and when the reviews started coming in, it seemed to sound good too. My primary use would be in my car, which has a 3.5mm line-in socket with a very nice Harmon Kardon sound system, but it needs a line-level signal to really sing; plugging in my iPhone 6 directly (European model, so has the EU volume limiter) has always been disappointing, any volume above 75% would start to distort the sound and it wasn't loud enough. I used a FiiO E11 headphone amp for a bit but it muddied the sound and couldn't be charged at the same time.Well, I bought the Dragonfly Red over the Black because it has a higher output. Within minutes of receiving it I knew it was a keeper! On volume alone, I would say that with my Sennheiser 598 headphones plugged directly into the iPhone on maximum volume, switching to the DF Red gave me the same volume at around 75%, so there was a fair bit more available if needed. In terms of sound quality at "regular" volumes, I noticed a fuller sound, more of a soundstage (instruments seemed wider, easier to pick out) and slightly clearer lower frequencies; importantly this was still the case when it got very loud, whereas the iPhone's amp would start to distort over 75% volume. When I went back to my headphones through the FiiO E11 into the iPhone, I realised how awful the sound was, really lacking in clarity and not really much louder than iPhone alone - the Dragonfly was so, so much better!When I used the Dragonfly in my car, with iPhone volume turned up to maximum (so the DF headphone socket was outputting at normal line level), wow! I knew straight away I'd done the right thing. It sounded fantastic, as if it were coming straight from the (excellent) CD player (I was playing a mix of lossless ALAC and 256 MP3 files) and the volume was perfect; I went as loud as I dared with the car HiFi volume and really thought I would blow a speaker, and I don't think I hit the maximum. But the sound quality was so clear even when very loud. I was extremely happy... And all this within an hour of receiving the Dragonfly. I appreciate it may sound better after 24 hour burn-in (continuous play) but I was already decided.I would like to add that I used the Dragonfly Red with the new Apple Lightning-to-USB3 adapter - this allowed me to plug a charging cable into the Lightning port and the Dragonfly into the USB port, so that I could listen and charge iPhone at the same time - it worked exactly as expected. In my mind, this is a far better solution than a USB DAC/Amp which has its own battery, requiring charging itself (& maybe can't be charged & used at the same time) and its own volume control; with the Dragonfly, you only have one volume to worry about (the iPhone) and one thing to charge (the iPhone).To summarise: brilliant with an iPhone, get the new Lightning-to-USB3 adapter for charging if needed. If you have an Android phone, you should do some research (start with head-fi.org) because there are devices that work and ones that don't, depending on the phone capabilities.