![]() ![]() But worry not, play something livelier such as The Prodigy by Luca Stricagnoli, and it will happily sink its teeth into the rhythm. Listening to something like Beautiful Boy by Gillian Welch combines all these traits into a very life-like and intimate experience, filled with atmospheric cues. The soundstage feels wide and the instruments are well-separated. The highest frequencies are crisp and make Cobalt sound open and airy. Because of it, both male and female vocals sound present, rich, and filled with details. The midrange is also praiseworthy as it successfully combines a full-bodied tone with plenty of micro-details. The bassline is weighty but well defined, managing to provide a beefy base to the rest of the spectrum, but also a very good insight into bass notes’ details and texture. Switching to Hifiman HE4xx proved it’s also capable of providing good drive and dynamics to these planars as well. Connected to my CTM CE320 or Kinera Freya it was providing all the power I could ever need. It didn’t take long to realize that Cobalt is indeed a more capable performer than both Black and Red. So far so good, but let’s see how it actually performs. Like the rest of the family, it supports up to 24 bit / 96 kHz PCM files, as well as MQA compressed ones. It was immediately recognized by any PC and phone I connected it to. ![]() Lastly, AudioQuest boasts the new microchip PIC32MX274 that supposedly reduces current draw and increases processing speed by 33 % over DragonFlys Black and Red. The headphone amplifier comes from the same company in form of ESS Sabre 960. This one is very popular in desktop products but not often seen in portable ones. ![]() The most important upgrade happened on the inside, and the heart of Cobalt is the Sabre ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect anything less since even the cheapest DF Black is built with high standards. Esthetics is subjective but it looks nice and sturdy. Nice touch that also adds some additional value to the whole package.Ĭobalt itself is a bit more compact than its older siblings. In the box, you’ll find the Dragonfly Cobalt itself, a protective pouch as usual, and one new addition in form of DragonTail USB-C to USB-A adapter designed specifically to fit Cobalt’s esthetics. I’ll be testing those claims and comparing it with some competing products as well, so let us begin. It’s priced at $300 and it is supposed to offer better sonic qualities than its older and more affordable cousins Black and Red. When the electronics world fully embraces USB-C, DragonFly will be poised to take full advantage.Cobalt is the latest and greatest Dragonfly from AudioQuest. To easily accommodate the increasing number of electronic devices that feature USB-C ports, DragonFly Cobalt comes with AudioQuest’s new DragonTail USB-C to USB-A adaptor. Now, more than ever before, naturally beautiful sound is right at your fingertips-however you want it, whenever you want it.Ĭompared to previous models, DragonFly Cobalt incorporates some important new features, including a new, more advanced ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip with a minimum-phase slow roll-off filter for more natural sound a more sophisticated Microchip PIC32MX274 microprocessor that reduces current draw and increases processing speed by 33% over DragonFlys Black and Red and improved power-supply filtering specifically designed to reduce the WiFi and cellular noise that plague mobile devices.Īll of this is packed into a sleek, attractive enclosure that measures just 2.26” x 0.73” x 0.47” (57.5mm x 18.6mm x 11.9mm), making the latest DragonFly 10% smaller and that much more portable than its predecessors. No matter the choice of sonic pleasure, DragonFly unravels the emotional expression and nuance that makes music and movies so enjoyable. Stream high-res audio from Tidal or Qobuz. Explore playlists and podcasts on Spotify, Pandora, or Deezer. With AudioQuest’s DragonFly USB DAC, music appreciation and exploration are limitless: Plug into an Apple or Windows® computer or connect to an iOS® or Android mobile device. ![]()
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