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Been eyeing these for a while. Cheapest I could find.
Original 10% off Sitewide ($75 Minimum Spend) on eBay Boxing Day Deal Post
AudioQuest DragonFly Black USB DAC $103.68 @ NAPF eBay
100
This is part of Boxing Day Sales for 2017
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tbh. I haven't tried. Don't have a DAC/AMP but been wanting to buy one for a long time. Finally gave in. LOL
this isn't an amp though?
Yes, DAC/amp combo.
If it's like my other DACs, once you push your app volume to 100%, then it becomes an amp.
Can't remember if it's app volume or system volume, but it's one of them.
As a non-audiophile music listener, is this worth getting? i.e. Would only purist notice a difference, or would the layman be able to appreciate the quality difference?
I'm no audiophile but part of the reason I got it was curiosity and interest. Not sure that it will let me enjoy music anymore than I do now.
IMO If you are not sure just save your money. Haha.
(the other reason i got it was my headphone jack on laptop is broken. So this will hopefully allow me to bypass that problem)
Probably not. What headphones will you be using?
I would be listening through logitech z506 speakers.
Save your money, you won’t notice much change.
@aja12:
i used my Z506 with SBZ sound card, it does make difference, but isnt that huge and only if the listener cares.agree, save the money.
With audio - as with a lot of areas ,"a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link". Therefore as alluded below, getting this, using some great audio program, brilliant source material ripped to lossless perfectly etc but played via a $50 pair of headphones is going to be let down by the final link in the chain.
So really with anyone getting into audio I encourage them to give thought to how much they want to spend on their overall chain - along with whether any given link is simply a very good purchase in itself thus justifying spending perhaps a tad more on it.
I think this may be a case of the latter, I've read reviews on this DAC and it rates very well and for the $$$ I don't think you could do a lot better, isn't a huge downside to getting it and not using other gear that 'max' its abilities out - like folks who have great home hifi's and play 128kbps mp3's they've ripped off Youtube through them. :-/
Is a good buy. :-)
Will this drive Sennheiser 650 well enough?
Not for my main setup, just something cheap to take into work.its not a the most powerful AMP.
There is the dragonfly red if your headphones are power hungry. Reading comments on headfi sounds like 650 might be at the limits of what the black can do.
You could use an external headphone amp with the DAC and drive the 650s well. Something like Audio Ocean would give a funky sound, you could also then use the Amp with phones, DAPs etc. Love mine, lovely valve sound:)
I got the Astell & Kern AK10 Mobile Headphone DAC/AMP, didn't seem to make much of a difference for my B&O H6 and Senn M2.
Good price tho.If you plan on using this on an iPhone get a Lightning CCK and also a music app that can play DSD or high resolution files. It’s pretty good!
Isn't the code supposed to be for Boxing Day? Until when can you use the code?
I've tried a few DACs and can never really hear the difference. Same with a lot of amps (with the exception of some being louder). Headphones/speakers make by far the biggest difference. Long gone are my days of buy equipment worth $10k and buying pure silver speaker cables.
Ageing does impair hearing though (age assumption made on the back of your "long gone" comment). That's fair enough. As we get older, it might not make so much sense to spend money on high end audio and even high end TVs
Lol. I'm 37 but have been an audiophile since I was 20. 10 stereos later and I know it's not my age that is the issue. It's all the snake oil out there that has left my ears full of it.
Your hearing does start going in your 30s :)
It hasn't stopped me spending money on things that I think are worth it. Like an OLED TV and new headphones quite frequently.
I can still definitely hear the difference in headphones. Amps and DACs on the other hand change music tonality but rarely make a huge difference in quality.
Neither my EarPods or Beats sound any different when plugged into this;-)
This is ridiculous. You can buy a great 7.1 sound card for $100.
In fact, I can sell you a Logitech USB DAC+ADC for $20 with free postage.
Hmm, the old Ford versus Porsche debate:)
Portability. That’s the purpose of these kinds of devices. They’re more aimed at use with smartphones than PC’s.
A great 7.1 sound card for the price would be an internal soundcard which is pretty much the source of many pc embedded DACs - the digital to analog output is affected the other components in the PC. Whilst not a huge deal - the difference is clear when compared to an external soundcard (which the DAC/AMP plugged via the USB) is essentially that.
Coming from the days where creative was the only sound card i'd recognize - and from a gamer's perspective - the Creative Soundblaster E-5 external sound card is actually the best bang for buck as it's portable, can be used with consoles, PCs and also comes with Bluetooth functionality for the low low price of less than $300.
It has scout mode for those gamers and a bunch of other options with the creative apps and drivers.
I can vouch for these. I use them with iPad via the camera extension cable hack. ASMR is on another level ;)
Go for the Dragonfly RED guys. It is no snake oil - the amp is capable of driving the 600 ohm Sennheisers to an acceptable level.
I own the O2 Dac/amp combo, the schiit magni modi uber stack and this and I can honestly say the Dragonfly red is portable enough to work with your iphone (you would need the Apple USB 3 camera connectivity kit which also allows you to charge as it has an additional lightning port).
The dragon fly Black has the same quality DAC but crucially a weaker amp given the output. Given the majority of headphones are below 50 ohms in impedance with the average being 30-40 Ohms or lower for IEMs, they are what you call portable headphones and were actually manufactured for use without an amp (hence why some would say the amp/dac is a snake oil product)
TL/DR: look at your headphone impedance rating - if below 50 - marginal benefit from a dedicated amp that would set you back the price of a headphone. Also - for those using iphones or the LG/HTC or Samsung - the inbuilt DACs are decent enough and unless you subscribe to Tidal's premium Hifi lossless you do not need a DAC.
Also- users of the macbooks need not bother too as they're up to par.If however, you are on an office workstation (i.e. the embedded RealTek audio chipsets which are sub-par) that would be justifiable. ==> Dragonfly RED (the one DAC/AMP) that's portable enough while also future proof to handle your growing collections of higher impedance hifi headphones. Start with that and you won't regret it.
Thanks. Will wait for the Red to be on sale.
Great price, great bit of gear.