AudioQuest Dragonfly Black v1.5 Plug-in USB DAC with Pre-Amplifier and Headphone Amplifier for PC, MAC, Apple and Android Mobile Devices

I am using it with a PC to power a set of Sennheiser HD 598 SR headphones. Dragonfly Black v1.5 has opened up the sound-stage very nicely and has ample clean crisp power to drive my headphones. The sound, for the lack of a better term sounds so much un-constipated. If you were accustomed to on-board PC soundcards, or mobile devices, then you are in for a big surprise when you switch over to this little gem. Dragonfly Black v1.5 puts you right in the middle of the performance with some jaw dropping sound. Dragonfly Black v1.5 is the size of a thumb drive but much more heavier metal construction. the outside is coated with a rubberised matt black finish. the Dragonfly logo will glow in different colors based on the sampling rate of your music. Comes with a leather pouch / sleeve. The volume is controlled by your device' main volume setting. No fiddly knobs to turn here. There are a few driver level sound enhancements which I have not tried, so cannot comment. Power is drawn directly from the device. If you are planning to use it on a mobile device, suggest you get the Red version as it draws a lot less power. More details on the Audioquest website. For anyone with a good set of headphones that are approaching audiophile quality, I will definitely recommend a DAC/Headphone Amp. And for the sake of simplicity, price, size, ease of use and practical design I will recommend the Dragonfly Black v1.5 with top marks. It's been an hour since I started using the Dragonfly, and the smile on my face refuses to go away.

I just received my DragonFly Black and thought I'd share my impressions. I was previously using Fiio Q1. While it was delivering good sound, what I notice on the Dragon Fly Black is that the sound is more full and more together. It seems to be coming from a single source and the silence which is backing it is more solid and full. This may be due to the noise reduction. The sound is great and instruments can be heard I guess the way they are meant to be heard in a studio or something. I could not have hoped for something better short of a live performance. What I notice is that the sound is not rough around the edges and it is dileneated pretty well. The frequencies from one instrument do not fall into the band of another.It is damn solid. I have yet to hear tons of music on it. I guess it will be done in due time.

AudioQuest, a part of the Quest Group, is an American manufacturer of high-end audio cables and accessories. In 2012, they released a small pen-drive sized USB DAC called DragonFly. Many reviewers and audiophiles called it a game changing USB DAC, back then, and it went on to become great commercial success in the world of computer audio. Since then, many have attempted to create similarly sized USB DACs and the market is currently flooded with many small USB DACs for use with computer audio and certain portable devices. This year, AudioQuest released an updated/tweaked version of the DragonFly and aptly named it as the DragonFly V1.2. AudioQuest has not only tweaked the original DragonFly USB DAC for better performance, they even reduced the price to USD 150 making it within the reach of a wider audience of computer audiophiles. Features & Functionality One of the key visible difference by which one can identify the DragonFly V1.2 from the original V1.0 is the 3.5mm headphone jack--it now sports a grey colour instead of the original black colour. The DAC is actually designed with only the most practically essential functions that includes: • The 3.5mm jack that can power headphones directly or can be used to connect to a Pre-amp/Amp too. • 64 position (computer controlled) analogue volume control. There are no channel imbalance issues here that some manual volume controls are by design plagued with. • Asynchronous USB data transfer feeding a 24bit ESS Sabre DAC. So there is no need for an external Asynchronous USB to S/PDIF or TOSLINK converter that some Synchronous DACs require to sound good with computer audio. • The LED indicator, in the shape of a dragonfly, changes colour depending on the resolution of the music being played. Green for 44.1kHz, Blue for 48kHz, Amber for 88.2kHz and Magenta for 96kHz. It looks really cool in use. I wish it also had an option to turn the LED off when the audiophile in me wants to get into serious listening without any distraction from the playful LED. • The DragonFly is restricted to 24bit/96kHz playback. In practice, it does not really matter to me because most of my collection is actually within that limit. And even if I occasionally ended up with a 24bit/192kHz download, I simply make a 24bit/96kHz copy of it for use with most of my other practical non-reference setups. • Made in the USA. What a pleasant surprise to see a `made in USA' tag at this price point! Setup & Performance The AudioQuest DragonFly V1.2 USB DAC comes with a removable dust cap and a small protection pouch as part of the included accessories. The entire body of the DragonFly V1.2 is encased in a rubberised material that gives it a nice grip/feel and a smart looking matt finish. I plugged the DragonFly V1.2 into my CPU's USB port and gave it a continuous 50 hours burn-in. I then sat down to listen to the DragonFly using two of my favourite headphones--the Fostex T50RP and the Sennheiser HD650. Both these headphones give me different perspectives and I use them according to the content I choose to listen to. I have my collection of FLACs saved in my Dell Vostro computer's hard-drive that includes 16bit/48kHz that I have carefully ripped/tagged from my collection of CDs and 24Bit/96kHz FLACs that I have bought/downloaded directly from the service provider. One of my recently discovered favourite music album is Random Access Memories by Daft Punk in 24Bit/88kHz. At about 50% volume the HD650 gets comfortably loud for me and it completely allows me to immerse into the performance. When I first listened to the DragonFly V1.2, out of the box, I felt that the bass was a little over powering for my taste. With burn-in, the bass is now cohesively stouter and does not draw any attention to itself. Burn-in has also opened up the soundstage and placement of instruments for the better. The T50RP is an old school semi-open orthodynamic headphones, used by sound engineers on shoestring budget, that is notorious for rolling off frequencies on both extremes. The HD650 on the other hand is a dynamic open-back headphones that has a wide frequency extension and is a benchmark for many audiophiles. The T50RP has this unique ability to pick-up micro details from poorly mastered old Indian recordings that the HD650 simply smoothens out for a cleaner and pleasing presentation. For this reason, I use the T50RP to listen to old Indian recordings that do not have too much of frequency extension and it plays those old recordings faithfully well and they are also more 03 dimensional on the T50RP than on the HD650. When listening to more pristine and well mastered western recordings, the HD650 is simply no match for the T50RP. Listening to some Indian songs from early 1980s, I was able to hear microphone feedback and other artefacts with the T50RP that I just could not hear with the HD650. The DragonFly V1.2 has this unique ability to retrieve all the details in the recording without ever getting clinical at all. I could listed to this little USB DAC all day long without any listening fatigue. There are some live recordings of Mohammed Rafi, possibly concerts from the 1970s, that was remastered and released by Universal in India. I have them ripped and stored as 16bit FLACs. The lead singers' voice is captured very well but the passages where the crowd is cheering, in the venue, is not very clear enough, either because of poor recording equipment used at that time or the data may have faded from the master magnetic tapes, over the years due neglect. I use these recordings as an acid test for testing DACs. Very few DACs, that I have tried, has been able to resolve and give some credibility to the sound of the cheering crowd in these recordings. With the DragonFly V1.2 what I heard was merely a very unclear and almost distorted sound--quite honestly, I was not expecting a DAC powered by the computer's 5v USB power supply to actually pass this really challenging test. There are very few recordings in my collection which are actually this complicated and challenging. With most of my other well recorded and mastered music, the DragonFly V1.2 displayed a good balance of texture, timbre, timing, separation, placement and soundstage. Even the spectral balance is faultless, to my ears, unlike some of the other detailed DACs that I already have that usually comes bundled with a compromise or two. Comparison & Alternatives I compared the DragonFly V1.2 with the Musical Fidelity (MF) V Series II system that I use as my desktop computer audio setup. This system consists of a V-DAC II (Asynchronous DAC) and V-CAN II (Headphone Amp) that is powered by a V-PSU II (Linear PSU). This MF V-Series II system cost me over USD 1000 (equivalent of INR 60K) with all the accompanying essential accessories and tweaks in 2012. Listening to Kenny G's music from the album Greatest Hits, using Foobar2000 with Wasapi Event option, the saxophone has more air, presence, body and texture with the DragonFly V1.2 than the MF gear. The differences are subtle but discernible. The MF gear also failed to pickup the micro details in the South Indian recordings and neither does it resolve the crowd cheering passages from Mohammed Rafi's recordings, mentioned above, any better than the DragonFly V1.2. YouTube videos were a pleasure to listen to with the MF gear and they allowed me to discover new artists and their work, some of which are not available for sale. Asynchronous DACs almost always have a blacker background compared to their Synchronous counterparts. For this reason, I sometimes use a Musical Fidelity V-LINK Asynchronous USB to S/PDIF convertor with Synchronous DACs to wring out better performance when watching YouTube videos. Listening to Arijit Singh's live performance of Tum Hi Ho at MTV Unplugged (Season 3), the MF gear had always sounded spot-on to me. Listening to this familiar performance with the DragonFly V1.2, I could hear better venue ambience, the background vocals are more audible and better placed, instruments had better attack and decay, and there is more `life like' feel to the crowd cheering during the performance. These small differences actually helped me appreciate a familiar performance much better than ever before. Sometimes, it's hard to judge the performance differences between 02 devices when the quality of the recording/media is good. I have to give an analogy here to better explain this. I'll take the inspiration from an alternate hobby--photography. If there are 02 compact cameras from 02 competing brands--say Canon and Nikon, equally priced, similarly specified/featured and targeting the same market, then choosing the better camera becomes a little tricky. The more you test them in broad daylight the harder it gets to pick the right/better camera. The best way to test them will be in low light conditions--the camera with low noise is the one to go for. Likewise, when I'm listening to DACs, I use old recordings to gauge performance differences. The lesser the quality of the recording, the greater the differences, of course, there is a point after which a poor quality recording cannot be revived by any DAC regardless of cost. I played YouTube videos of some old Indian movie soundtracks from 1980s, the MF gear focused more on what is missing in those recordings and the DragonFly V1.2 focused more on what is left of those same recordings--ear opening revelations there! Both DACs gave different perspectives and I enjoyed the focused, insightful, musical, agile and less noisy presentation of the DragonFly V1.2 better. The DragonFly v1.2 leads the performance with more micro details, better cohesion and less laidback than the famous/infamous Musical Fidelity house sound. I'm amazed at how much the soundscape for USB DACs have changed over the last two years. So much computer audio performance from the DragonFly V1.2 for so little money! I also took the opportunity to compare the DragonFly V1.2 with other USD 100 Synchronous DACs like the Acoustic Fun PocketDAC and the Audiotrak Prodigy Cube. There simply is no competition here until I throw in a Musical Fidelity V-LINK Asynchronous USB to S/PDIF convertor with some decent USB and digital interconnects into the equation. With this clunky, complex and expensive setup, I'm able to wring out better performance from the Acoustic Fun PocketDAC, but it still lacks the rhythmic precision, detail retrieval and finesse that the DragonFly V1.2 exhibits. The PocketDAC, on the other hand, allows me to watch TV in better fidelity than my TV's headphone output due to the S/PDIF input that it comes with and it can be connected directly to the Tata Sky's digital S/PDIF out. So a lot also depends on what one wants to do with a DAC. Accessories & Tweaks The USP of the DragonFly is that there is actually nothing to tweak at all. It is as simple as just plug and play. There are no USB cable, digital cable, Asynchronous USB converter, linear PSU and other after market audiophile investments here. I think it is after a very long time that I'm actually listening to music instead of thinking about trying to tweak the sound for the better. The accessory that I use with the DragonFly V1.2 is the DragonTail--an extension USB cable from the AudioQuest Carbon family of USB cables. It is priced at USD 17 (equivalent of INR 1000). It compliments and protects the DragonFly V1.2 from USB plug damage, in case you happen to accidentally bump on it, and wear/tear caused from constant plugging and unplugging of the male USB Type A plug from the computer or a portable device. My only gripe with the AudioQuest DragonTail USB extender is that, in use, there is a 0.5cm gap that allows for dust/grime to settle and maybe even allow corrosion to set in on the exposed DragonFly's male USB plug, over a period of time. I wish the female USB port of the DragonTail had a collar long enough to cover the male USB plug of the DragonFly, to make them look like they are one long single piece of accessory, cut and put together from the same AudioQuest fabric. Since AudioQuest manufactures both the DAC and its essential accessory, I'm sure this is a fixable issue and maybe they could consider reducing/removing the gap when they choose to release the DragonTail V1.2 in the future. In order to facilitate the use of AudioQuest DragonFly V1.2 USB DAC with headphones, integrated amps and other devices, AudioQuest offers a wide variety of cables that suits the taste and budget of every type of audiophile. I'm yet to give them a spin though. Conclusion & Rating The AudioQuest DragonFly V1.2 continues to be ahead in the game of USB DACs, just like its predecessor, despite its price and size. It is actually more of an accessory than a USB DAC, in the sense that it travels with my headphones everywhere I go and all I have to do is just plug the accessory at the tip of headphones' cable. I'm now able to enjoy good fidelity without carrying any cumbersome equipment around with my Laptop. The AudioQuest DragonFly V1.2 USB DAC is highly recommended to anyone who appreciates the convenience of computer audio and also demands good fidelity on the go. Whether you are looking for a USB DAC for connecting a HTPC to a 02 channel audio system, setup a desktop computer audio system or for portable headphone applications with a Laptop, this little USB DAC does it all. The Sennheiser HD650 headphones with the AudioQuest DragonFly V1.2 USB DAC makes for a very good match and I cannot think of a better performance for under USD 650 (equivalent of INR 40K) that this pairing has to offer. The soundscape for USB DACs is evolving so fast that I'm amazed at how much performance has been packed within the 02 inches of DragonFly real estate. Truly a remarkable and commendable feat by AudioQuest! Pros • Commendable performance--for the price and size. • Comes bundled with a dust cap and a small protection pouch as included accessories. • Made in USA. Cons • No option to turn off the mostly attractive and yet sometimes distractive dragonfly shaped LED. • When the DragonTail is used with the DragonFly there is a 0.5cm gap between the two that awkwardly exposes the DragonFly's male USB plug.

The product is great as you can easily do your Google research and find that out . However I was in doubt before buying this product as I will not be using this as a headphone DAC . I have connected dragonfly to my PC that I paired with my Marantz amp and Polk Audio floor standers. The output was stunning . The music got refined and stereo sound just got better . I used a Cambridge DAC magic before and that had a heating issue which is solved now with dragonfly. I have also took a jitterbug to have the sound more refined . At this price this product is a must grab . A big Thank you to Amazon and the seller. finally the delivery was prompt and the item was nicely packed .

What an awesome piece of audio equipment :-) lives up to all its online reviews.....i thought i had the crappiest pair of headphones, Philips ones (500 rupees), but this baby makes them sound like pioneers :) who knows what it'll do with technics and such like....the overall experience has been really good, right from ordering to delivery, the look and feel of the device, the easy setup-ability on Win 8.1.....select the DragonFly as the default device and youre ready to roll.....shows up in the drop down of Traktor as well, plays iTunes and Win media files equally well....everything sounds crisper and cleaner.....i tried some 128 kbps and 320 kbps mp3 files....great playback for the 128 kbps rips.....great output from Traktor as well......i play deep house so the bass is booming, the highs and mids are clean as well.....rock/metal is really good, played some ac/dc just to check and excellent output on that as well.....the best part is the plug and play-ability in its truest sense...great piece of engineering, i read all their onine manual and faqs and thoroughly impressed....nice one audioquest :)

Excellent DAC+amp in a deceptively small form factor. I am using it with a Sennheiser HD 598 SE. It sounds amazing compared to my laptop's default headphone out. The instruments are well separated, the low end is taut and deep unlike the muddy bass produced by headphone out. There is no shrillness in the high frequencies, voice is crisp. The only downside is the price, it's pretty overpriced in India. Overall I'm satisfied with my purchase

The dragonfly black DAC is nothing but an electronic gizmo to bypass your mother board's built-in DAC and then seemingly provide you with better quality sound while listening to audio files on your PC/Laptop using over the ear headphones. You can achieve the same thing by using a high-quality headphones such as audio technica etc and a simple headphone amplifier costing no more than Rs.500/- The DAC chip on your motherboard, if you own a decent PC/ Laptop is good enough to provide the same listening experience. The DragonFly Red costing Rs.20k is a total scam.

This tiny usb dac is immensely powerful in terms of the sound stage it creates and the amount of clarity and detail it adds to the music. Highly recommended for an audiophile. I am using it with my computer as input and Norge 1000 integrated amplifier paired with Wharfedale Diamonds. They just sound much more lively with the dac!!! Almost unbelievable considering the price and size of the dac..

No descubriré nada a los audiofilos con mi comentario. Seguro que habrá Dac USB mejores o que gusten más. Que tengan mejor relación calidad precio seguramente ya no. Para los usuarios normales que como yo dudan de hasta que punto merece la pena la compra de uno de estos: Produce una mejora significativa en la calidad de sonido con respecto a tarjetas de sonido integradas y/o sencillas. Esa diferencia puede ser abismal si lo comparamos con portátiles básicos o tarjetas de sonido usb económicas... y se reduce si comparamos con dispositivos que incorporan chips de sonido de calidad, como pueden ser tarjetas de sonido dedicadas decentes, placas base de gama alta o algunos mac. Por la diferencia de sonido... puede no merecer la pena la compra. Dependerá de las exigencias de cada uno, de con que lo comparemos, a que lo vamos a conectar, tipo de archivos que vamos a escuchar y de nuestro presupuesto. Obviamente, es tontería comprarlo si no es para combinarlo con unos altavoces o auriculares decentes. La mejora en sonido ya se nota si escuchamos archivos mp3, pero se vuelve más interesante para escuchar archivos sin perdida y sonido de alta definición. Yo reconozco que podría vivir sin él pero me lo he quedado. De hecho, compré también un Fiio K1, que cuesta la mitad, pero que sí he devuelto para quedarme con el Dragonfly.

Ancienne installation: ampli Rotel/CD Teac/enceinte Castle Trent II.... On remet un coup de jeune aux géniales Trent/Quobuz/Ampster BT II/ Nuc Intel sous Linux Mint et.... cette petite chose de Dragonfly. 600 euros, ramener en franc = 1/4 de mon ancienne installation. 1 Premier test sans le dac Wouha ... les enceintes respirent les aigus sont un peu trop présent mais humm de bonne basse précise et langoureuse. 2 Le Drangofly Plus de voie 😋... magique ... magnifique Tout est la, équilibre, finesse, espace , puissance. Mais le Drangofly reste en 16bit/44000. Pulse audio bloc ma sortie 😖 Avantage de Linux!!! on modifie les paramètres d’échantillonnage....Et le dac s’éclaire direct en violet. COOL 3 Le test ultime Purple Rain en 24bit/192. J’en pleure encore. Prince est ressuscité. 6 minutes de pure hypnose. 🙏 Alors les vieux, jeter votre vieux matos, et kiffer 😉le numérique. Et merci à Audioquest pour cette petite pépite.

Am using it with my iPhone. Just need to have the right adaptor to connect. Best thing I liked, other than the great sound, is the light indicator for different levels of quality

Using good headphones (NAD Viso HP50) the sound quality blew me away - better than I expected. Reduced noise I didn't even realise was there and really improved sound clarity and detail. Sound stage and imaging also much better now. Treble clarity improved but not sibilant, mids more are detailed and better separated, bass extends deeper and is more controlled. However, this all depends on your headphones - cheap ear buds won't improve much, while higher end phones will probably sound much better. Build quality is really good as well - it feels nice and solid, and the rubberised coating prevents fingerprint smudges. It connects snuggly to your USB port and holds the 3.5 mm plug tightly. Be aware that with easy to drive headphones (like the HP50) you will need to keep the volume really low - on laptop with Windows 10 I keep the volume between 3/4 out of 100 - any higher is probably dangerous to your hearing for long term use. These phones really don't really need volume amplification but the dragonfly black cleaned the source sound incredibly well. Absolutely worth every penny. The dragonfly red (which I haven't heard) is supposed to further improve clarity, but I doubt it will be very noticeable. The red version has better amplification, and is probably only worthwhile if you have more difficult to drive head phones like the beyerdynamic DT 770s at 250 ohm. Also be aware that the dragonfly (black or red) may or may not work with either your android or iOS devices for a variety of reasons. For iOS, it requires the right lightning to USB cable for your version of iOS - there are a combination of unsupported cables based on differences in the version of iOS, leading to problems ranging from crackling, popping, and no audio. I don't use apple devices so I can't comment further on this other than it's an apple problem, not an audioquest problem. For your android device, you will need an OTG USB cable, and it might not even work natively with your android device. There are two reasons for this: 1) some providers seem to have native android USB audio disabled despite that android natively supports USB audio since 5.1.1 (why, I have no idea), and 2) Android defaults the built-in hardware volume of the dragonfly to such a low level that you might not hear the music, and there is no external volume control to adjust this. The first problem cannot be fixed without rooting your phone and applying a custom kernel. However, you CAN use a 3rd party app to play music that uses it's own USB driver like USB Audio Player Pro (UAPP) or Hibymusic. Unfortunately, these don't support streaming services other than Tidal, so it only lets you play music you've already downloaded to your phone (e.g. mp3s or FLAC). I much prefer the interface for the free Hibymusic app, while UAPP is a paid app with a terrible user interface IMO. Now if your issue is quiet volume, you can adjust the internal hardware volume using the 3rd party app, exit the app, and keep the higher hardware volume. This doesn't seem to work for everyone though, so you may be stuck with using the app only and not have access to streaming services. Otherwise, this is a fantastic portable device that can't be beat for the price. If you're stuck between black and red, I'd select strictly based on amplification need - for easy to drive headphones (most 16-64 ohm headphones), the black will be absolutely enough. For more challenging phones (e.g. Senheisser HD600, Beyerdynamic DT 770), the red will be necessary.

despues de comprar mis audifonos Senheisser HD598 y leer varios foros, me decidi por "mejorar" mi setup de audio, dentro de las opciones que tenemos disponibles en nuestro hermoso pais, vi que esta era de las mejores a un precio accessible, en si es un muy buen producto pero no es una mejora considerable para mi, cuento con la tarjeta madre asus h110m-a m.2 la cual al parecer tiene una excelente tarjeta de audio integrada ya que la diferencia entre la tarjeta integrada y el Audioquest Dragonfly black no es mucha, si bien si es una mejora directa, se escucha mas detalle en todos los rango, bajos, los bajos se notan mas notan mas definidos, concisos, los medios como siempre con estos audifonos, simplemente increibles, si bien los medios no son una gran mejor a lo que ya trae mi tarjeta madre, la bateria se nota mas detallada, mas brillante, mas agresiva y mas centrada, los altos son los que reciben una gran mejora, mucho mas adelante, mas brillantes y agresivos, hacen que las guitarras electricas e incluso los violines y pianos resalten mas lo cual encaja perfecto con en excelente soundstage de los audifonos. otro punto a favor es el poder de este pequeño DAC/AMP, esto ya con audifonos con una impedencia de 50omhs, el 10% de volumen es mas que suficiente para poder esuchar todos los detalles, subir mas el volumen seria llegar a niveles de volumen que podrian ser dañinos, lo cual me dice que este pequeño DAC facilmente podria servir para audifonos con hasta unos 300omhs de impedencia si bien, todo es positivo con este producto, hay que considerar que si ya tienes un buen equipo posiblemente no lo valga, pero si siente que a tu equipo le hace falta mas detalle y calidad, es una excelente compra. Edit: despues de tener varios dias con el dispositivo, probarlo con diferentes audifonos y comparandolo uno a uno con mi tarjeta madre, me he dado cuenta que el salto es mas de lo que habia notado al inicio, desconozco si se trata de algun tipo de "burn in" o no, pero es una diferencia de dia y noche, el sonido es mucho mas nitido y claro, mas brillante, mas expansivo, todo suena mas vivo, me retracto de mi comentario anterior, si la calidad del sonido de tu musica es prioridad, este pequeño dispositivo es un "must buy"