doug2761

I have both the DF Red and Cobalt and I've been spending a lot of time comparing them after reading this article, Audio Science Review, and Archimago's article. I'm using Campfire Audio Andromeda headphones and can drive them plenty loud with both. On my iPhone I listen at four of those little bars from zero. I think that the Cobalt sounds a bit more euphoric compared to the Red to me. I'm wondering if that is related to the frequency response curve that shows a slightly downward slope and how that affects what I'm hearing. I've listened to tracks back to back on each DAC and also spent a day with each one exclusively. For me with these headphones I find the Cobalt to be a bit more indulgent and easier to listen to. I find the Red to be a bit more coherent or perhaps accurate? I doubt I could pick either out of a blind test but I do seem to prefer the Cobalt long term. Could be subjective bias on my part or a preference for the Cobalt's frequency response curve. Connecting these to my stereo is pretty disappointing compared to my Chord Qutest or my HifiBerry DAC 2 HD. Connecting to my MacBook Pro, the Cobalt has a low level whine that isn't audible when music plays and that isn't present on my iPhone and the Red has some low level hiss. I prefer both the Red and the Cobalt to the built-in DAC but that's not my typical use case. I pretty much only use these USB DACs with my iPhone streaming Tidal or Qobuz.

Thanks for turning me on to the Dragonfly. This sounds great. Only unusual thing that I've run into is when using this on my MacBook Air with JRiver. Bit rate changes work great but the volume seems to be limited. I've got JRiver set to maximum output volume by adjusting the volume to 100 or by disabling the volume totally. I get enough volume at 100 and perhaps this is a good thing since it takes all volume controls out of play but the max volume is about half the max when I don't use JRiver. This community have any ideas what I might have set up incorrectly? This is truly a great product. I travel a lot and this in combination with Tidal has made long flights much more bearable. Sound quality is very good to my Etymotic in-ear headphones.