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AudioQuest includes its new USB-C DragonTail adaptor cable that connects DragonFly to all USB-C-enabled Apple and Android gear, but iPhones will require an Apple adapter such as the $39 Camera Adapter 3 that AudioQuest recommends.Įrgonomics? The Cobalt doesn't have any beyond a sexy illuminated DragonFly logo that lights up different colors to indicate 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96kHz sample rates and glows a stylish purple when an MQA stream is detected.

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(Because the Cobalt relies on the host to downsample files above 96kHz, Windows users don't need to download a driver.) Pairing the DAC with a portable like a smartphone requires an adapter.

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(Fearing golden-ear backlash, I elected not to use a USB-extension cable.) The Mac's OSX (10.13.4) software found it without difficulty, and voila! Music. I used my older iMac, which conveniently (not!) put the Cobalt on the back with its jack facing away. Setting up AudioQuest's DAC involves merely plugging it into a USB port.

The Cobalt retains the Red's headphone amp (also ESS) but has a new micro-controller chip that's said to reduce power consumption and increase processing speed. Those distinctions? The Cobalt uses a newer ESS micro DAC chip with a 'slow-rolloff' minimum phase digital filter that AudioQuest claims to deliver more natural sound (both the Black and Red versions use fast-rolloff filters). It has a USB type-A male connector on one end, and a standard stereo mini-jack to connect headphones or a cable to a preamp or other 'B-chain' component, on the other. With a couple of distinctions, the new Cobalt follows the Red with a 24/96-capable ESS Sabre micro-DAC circuit and a relatively high-output headphone amp micro'd into a housing that looks like a nicely finished USB thumb drive. And indeed, its DragonFly line of miniature USB-Headphone amp/DACs has been so successful that the firm has added a third, the $299 DragonFly Cobalt, to the existing Black ($99) and Red ($199) versions. Both tribes, however, can agree that the headphone amps in most smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops leave a lot to be desired when it comes to peak output, dynamics, and inherent sonic quality.ĪudioQuest, a firm that made its bones selling high-end cables to folks committed to the differences therein, is a natural to provide a similar set of options in the portable DAC space. If you don't, you likely have auditioned many a converter component with a seriously gimlet ear.

If you believe bits is bits, you're probably perfectly happy with the converter inside your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Listeners tend to consider an external digital-to-analog converter as either completely unnecessary or absolutely essential.

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