just was saying from his video… he basically says that audioquests are hacks because of the USB jitter fix stuff the cobalt mentions (he really wants to be a snale oil debunker) and the fact it costs more than a similar dac that has more features and cost him 60 bucks on amazon even though its supposed to be 100
More features ≠ Moar better
You see, the Wenger 16999 may be impressive:
Bug a SOG FX21 will be way more useful:
Fair enough. I am personally not the biggest advocate of dragonflys either, but you really shouldn’t only judge based on them using the same or similar dac chip, implementation is important as well, the same chip can sound fairly different implemented well and poorly
objective only reviewers are kinda weird like that
Yeah, its a good idea to consider both mindsets. I will look at specs, internals, and design, and if there is nothing glaringly wrong then it’s all on subjective sound for me. You want to find a balance between objectivity and subjectivity when you make your choice
no theme is almost completely objective based (and also clickbaits all his videos with the same # about the chord mojo battery)… saying that if there is not an objective immediate improvement in sound there no reason to not buy the cheapest thing that can do it. not realizing that some people can buy the more expensive thing because the parts are composed a bit better
so do people just think the dragonfly red is not worth the price… the one thing keeping me off it is the lack of higher than 96K support and no DSD or other features, but it also seems perfect for me since it fits my budget, is super small so it can fit my bed, has MQA support for tidal, and aparently is one of the best sounding DACs available
Concerning DSD support: How many DSD files or SACDs do you own?
Or to cut this short: Did you have to think about the answer to the above question?
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About 2% of amazons catalog is >96K, no other streaming service is close to that, and unless you have DSD content, which you can trivially transcode to PCM, it’s not worth worrying about.
i dont have any but i did think about trying it with say a beach boys from acoustic sounds or thriller on HD tracks.
i only cared about over 96K because i thought of getting on HD tracks the american idiot remaster they have which is 192… though i can probably do 96 there is still that temptation
I am using a Dragonfly Red in my makeshift bedroom setup… Macbook Air-Dragonfly Red-SMSL AD18-Micca RB42s and that setup sounds really nice…so much so, I am not looking for anything else to replace it at this time. I have also used the Macbook Air, Dragonfly Red with headphones and IEMs. The Dragonfly Reds DAC is so much better than the DAC in the Macbook. I have multiple PCs in the house that I have also compaired on… Definitely more power to drive heaphones, as well as a detail, soundstage and imaging upgrade.
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how power of headphones can they do… because im thinking of a dragonfly red or an ifi and the max requirement is they can run HD 6XX and a beyerdynamic headphone (i need the sennheisers for no one is around casual listening and the beyer 770 250ohm for when i am in a room with another person and need isolation)
I only have Audio-Technica ATH-M40s, Sivga SV006 which are easy to drive and get very loud. I have Sundaras … which are touted as easy to drive, but definitely like more power… I have used them on the Dragonfly Red… it powers them just fine, but I can turn up the sound to 75-100%… It is plenty loud, but I can definitely tell the Sundaras can take more. With harder to drive headphones, I guess it would depend on what listening levels you listen at.
i know the cobalt can run 6XX but thats a lot more expensive and if i can get something that can run say 300 ohms id be perfect
I’ve read the cobalt has the same amp section as the red. The cobalt has an updated dac and a miniaturized version of their jitterbug usb filter all in one chassis.
but i heard there was a decent amount more power on the cobalt than the red…
but then again it IS from no theme who said it had 25% more power so i dunno maybe the red is all i’ll need… hoefully sundaras/6XX (a little nervous that the sundara might be a little TOO cold) and beyerdynamic DT 770 250s will be able to run on the 2.1V power
I have the Monolith usb dongle dac that is part of this thread’s title. It’s been awhile since I’ve done anything with it but I think it is designed to have similar specs to the DF red. I have vague memories of it driving the 6XX decently. I’ll see if I can find it and report back on that…
I got myself a BTR5 from Fiio … you can easily pair your laptop with it via BT, and it’s amazing when you’re on a go with your phone… plus: I can even pair it with my living room LG TV and sounds amazing!
I love it and recommend to anyone 
how did you feel about the monolith… seeing as it has more features except for MQA and costs less
It’s ok. I’m trying to remember why I bought it. I think it went on sale for something like $60 on a Black Friday sale and I ordered on a whim after 2 fingers of Maker’s Mark. It’s certainly better than a phone’s or PC’s headphone output. I just checked again, it has plenty of power to drive the 6XX. It did a serviceable job driving a 600 ohm DT880 to decent, thought not necessarily fun, levels. There’s nothing really wrong with it at the price point, I just had better gear already and it didn’t surpass what I already had.