AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt Review (Portable Headphone Adapter)

[Vertigosound]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt portable DAC and headphone amplifier ("dongle"). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $300.

The Dragonfly Cobalt dates way back to when these dongles came in the form of USB flash Thumb drives:

View attachment 127584

This makes it easy to connect to desktop and laptop computers (assuming yours has such USB connection) but needs a chunky adapter to connect to USB-C on phones and tablets. While I did not have it, a custom one comes with Cobalt which makes a secure connection.

The dragonfly series comes in a few colors, each with a different performance level. The Cobalt is the top of the line as indicated by sky high price for such a product. An ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip is used internally as to indicate high performance. We will check for this.

AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt Measurements
I was pleased that the Cobalt introduces itself to Windows in a way that I could use my ASIO interface layer and as such, run my full suite of tests (which half the time I can not). Let's start with our dashboard:

View attachment 127585

Looks pretty bad. It actually looked far worse before I subtracted 1 dB from the digital input signal. Without it, it was heavily clipping with SINAD dropping to below 30! As it is, the Cobalt turns in one of the worse distortion ratings as encapsulated in SINAD that I have tested:

View attachment 127586

The one to its right, Speaka, is one of the first dongles I ever tested. I think it cost just $30 or something. Sweeping the input level we see the full range of performance:

View attachment 127588

You can see that performance is best when the output is low and progressively gets worse until it hard clips. Just unacceptable.

Surprisingly, noise level is quite good:

View attachment 127589

Distortion is the problem as we see in multi-tone test yet again:

View attachment 127590

DAC filter is slow, ala MQA style:

View attachment 127591

I don't know how they consider 6 dB droop at 20 kHz acceptable. Testing with a square wave shows the "benefit" or no pre-ringing but with clipping as the filter rings:

View attachment 127593

Notice the flattening of the tops of oscillations. And that is at -2 dBFS input signal!

Linearity test is nailed showing once again, there is some good in this DAC that is obscured by other parts:

View attachment 127592

Jitter test shows very good results for a dongle as well:

View attachment 127594

Dragonfly Cobalt Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Most important measurement for these dongles is power. Phones and tablets often struggle to drive fancy headphones so the job of these products is to remedy that. Let's start with 300 ohm load:

View attachment 127595

Distortion rises very early one starting at a fraction of a milliwatt -- totally unacceptable. Fortunately because the output level reaches to 2 volts, we do have good bit of power for a dongle:

View attachment 127596

Performance drops much more with a 32 ohm load:

View attachment 127597

View attachment 127598

Compare the 26 milliwatt to recently reviewed THX Onyx. The Onyx produces 132 milliwatts compared to just 26 for Cobalt and does it at far lower distortion.

Dragonfly Cobalt Listening Tests
The Cobalt had no trouble driving my Sennheiser HD-650 to good levels of loudness and authority. There was not much to complain about in the context of a portable dongle. Switching to Ether CX headphone though, was a completely different situation. Turning up the level beyond a whisper would cause the bass notes to distortion. At max volume, the output was severely distorted and unusable.

Conclusions
As the category leader, AudioQuest takes advantage of their market position to price the Dragonfly Cobalt sky high. Unfortunately it then proceeds to deliver a highly distorting product that has little ability to drive low impedance headphones. You can buy plenty of products at one third of its price that way outperform it. If you want a brand name, get the THX Onyx which washes the floor with it. Whoever designed the headphone amplifier in this product needs to go back to engineering school or pay attention to what the competitor is shipping. Actually he needs to do both.

While with high impedance headphones, the AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt has acceptable subjective performance, it fails in so many other ways that I cannot recommend it.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Thx you Amir this was in my head and you just confirmed it

 

[AudioSceptic]

Thx you Amir this was in my head and you just confirmed it

If you don't already know about it, you will also be interested in Archimago's review <https://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/08/measurements-dragonflies-audioquest.html>. Lots of good objective stuff at that site.

 

[MLaranjeiras]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt portable DAC and headphone amplifier ("dongle"). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $300.

The Dragonfly Cobalt dates way back to when these dongles came in the form of USB flash Thumb drives:

View attachment 127584

This makes it easy to connect to desktop and laptop computers (assuming yours has such USB connection) but needs a chunky adapter to connect to USB-C on phones and tablets. While I did not have it, a custom one comes with Cobalt which makes a secure connection.

The dragonfly series comes in a few colors, each with a different performance level. The Cobalt is the top of the line as indicated by sky high price for such a product. An ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip is used internally as to indicate high performance. We will check for this.

AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt Measurements
I was pleased that the Cobalt introduces itself to Windows in a way that I could use my ASIO interface layer and as such, run my full suite of tests (which half the time I can not). Let's start with our dashboard:

View attachment 127585

Looks pretty bad. It actually looked far worse before I subtracted 1 dB from the digital input signal. Without it, it was heavily clipping with SINAD dropping to below 30! As it is, the Cobalt turns in one of the worse distortion ratings as encapsulated in SINAD that I have tested:

View attachment 127586

The one to its right, Speaka, is one of the first dongles I ever tested. I think it cost just $30 or something. Sweeping the input level we see the full range of performance:

View attachment 127588

You can see that performance is best when the output is low and progressively gets worse until it hard clips. Just unacceptable.

Surprisingly, noise level is quite good:

View attachment 127589

Distortion is the problem as we see in multi-tone test yet again:

View attachment 127590

DAC filter is slow, ala MQA style:

View attachment 127591

I don't know how they consider 6 dB droop at 20 kHz acceptable. Testing with a square wave shows the "benefit" or no pre-ringing but with clipping as the filter rings:

View attachment 127593

Notice the flattening of the tops of oscillations. And that is at -2 dBFS input signal!

Linearity test is nailed showing once again, there is some good in this DAC that is obscured by other parts:

View attachment 127592

Jitter test shows very good results for a dongle as well:

View attachment 127594

Dragonfly Cobalt Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Most important measurement for these dongles is power. Phones and tablets often struggle to drive fancy headphones so the job of these products is to remedy that. Let's start with 300 ohm load:

View attachment 127595

A distorção aumenta muito cedo, começando em uma fração de miliwatt - totalmente inaceitável. Felizmente, porque o nível de saída atinge 2 volts, temos uma boa potência para um dongle:

View attachment 127596

O desempenho cai muito mais com uma carga de 32 ohm:

View attachment 127597

View attachment 127598

Compare os 26 miliwatts com o THX Onyx recentemente revisado . O Onyx produz 132 miliwatts em comparação com apenas 26 para Cobalt e faz isso com uma distorção muito menor.

Testes de audição de cobalto de libélula
O Cobalt não teve problemas para conduzir meu Sennheiser HD-650 a bons níveis de volume e autoridade. Não havia muito do que reclamar no contexto de um dongle portátil. Mudar para o fone de ouvido Ether CX, porém, foi uma situação completamente diferente. Aumentar o nível além de um sussurro causaria distorção nas notas graves. No volume máximo, a saída foi severamente distorcida e inutilizável.

Conclusões
Como líder da categoria, a AudioQuest aproveita sua posição de mercado para precificar o Dragonfly Cobalt nas alturas. Infelizmente, ele passa a fornecer um produto altamente distorcido que tem pouca capacidade de acionar fones de ouvido de baixa impedância. Você pode comprar muitos produtos por um terço de seu preço, dessa forma superando-o. Se você quer um nome de marca, pegue o THX Onyx que lava o chão com ele. Quem projetou o amplificador de fone de ouvido neste produto precisa voltar para a faculdade de engenharia ou prestar atenção no que o concorrente está enviando. Na verdade, ele precisa fazer as duas coisas.

Embora com fones de ouvido de alta impedância, o AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt tenha um desempenho subjetivo aceitável, ele falha de tantas outras maneiras que não posso recomendá-lo.

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Como sempre, perguntas, comentários, recomendações, etc. são bem-vindos.

Quaisquer doações são muito apreciadas usando : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

I have a Topping E50 DAC, tha works with an 2011 Mac Mini with Tidal inside and good RCA and USB cables. I like the results and would like to take the chance of buying the Cobalt for US$ 200.00 to use it as a DAC in another Mac Mini with Tidal inside. I think that I will have breathe deep and invest to see what happens.

 

[VintageFlanker]

I like the results and would like to take the chance of buying the Cobalt for US$ 200.00 to use it as a DAC in another Mac Mini with Tidal inside. I think that I will have breathe deep and invest to see what happens.

Why on earth would you do that?!

 

[staticV3]

@MLaranjeiras Audioquest and Meridian Audio should be at the very bottom of your list of audio brands to give your money to. Both heavily deceive and exploit their customers.

 

[Dr Schweinsgruber]

Is anybody interested in selling their terrible Cobalt at a reasonable price? I'll take it off your hands. I think Amir priced it out at $50. Could even swap for a pristine Hidizs S9 Pro limited copper edition (500 pieces)...which measures fantastically on SINAD.

 

[Bleib]

I review (and love) DACs so am thrilled this multi-Award winner has a Cyber Monday deal

Nothing makes more of an impact on my music listening than a DAC, and AudioQuest's best is £90 off at Sevenoaks

www.whathifi.com

Award winning. Hah