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AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt Review (Portable Headphone Adapter)

AudioSceptic

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It isn’t something I’ve got experience with personally, but I’d recommend taking a look at Amir’s reviews on dongles. The Hidizs products are well regarded from memory.
Why not try the Apple adapter? It's only $9 so even if it doesn't work 100% on the Samsung it's only a small loss.

Edit: if you buy from Apple, I think you can return an item within 30 days if it's not suitable.
 

Jimbob54

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Hey everyone, first post on the forum.

I have been reading many different threads (especially the speaker reviews!) over the past few weeks. This thread itself was welcome, considering I was pricing out a new portable setup in the hundreds of dollars for...nothing.

My question is this: I am a long time user of custom IEMs (Ultimate Ears 10 Pro Customs, and I'll be getting the Reference Remastered soon too), and I loved the sound on my ipod nano -> ALO custom cable -> RSA Tomahawk -> IEMs. But I wear suits far too often for this to be practical any more.

Is there any way I can take my Samsung S20, and do 'something portable' which could match the setup I'm used to? Or is it just absurd for me to hope that a dongle could match that? I am very sensitive to any 'hissing' or 'background noise' caused by connections.

Sorry for the essay - just would be grateful for any suggestions from you fine folks. Some have probably wondered the same thing as I here, and solved it long ago. I have been lazy :/
Get a meizu hifi dongle. It's v small and flexible, acts more like an extension to the cable than some of the boxy dongles which detatch from their (sometimes stiff) USB c leashes.
 

Rottmannash

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Hey everyone, first post on the forum.

I have been reading many different threads (especially the speaker reviews!) over the past few weeks. This thread itself was welcome, considering I was pricing out a new portable setup in the hundreds of dollars for...nothing.

My question is this: I am a long time user of custom IEMs (Ultimate Ears 10 Pro Customs, and I'll be getting the Reference Remastered soon too), and I loved the sound on my ipod nano -> ALO custom cable -> RSA Tomahawk -> IEMs. But I wear suits far too often for this to be practical any more.

Is there any way I can take my Samsung S20, and do 'something portable' which could match the setup I'm used to? Or is it just absurd for me to hope that a dongle could match that? I am very sensitive to any 'hissing' or 'background noise' caused by connections.

Sorry for the essay - just would be grateful for any suggestions from you fine folks. Some have probably wondered the same thing as I here, and solved it long ago. I have been lazy :/
The E1DA is great.
 

Svperstar

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I had one of the early Dragonfly dongles - it sounded so bad that I actually returned the first one as faulty, only to find that the replacement was no better. I sold it on, on fleabay, after a couple of weeks, but actually didn't take much of a loss on it as someone was as gullible as I was at the time and actually bid quite close to what I paid for it. .

I got the Dragonfly v1.2 back in like 2015 as my laptop's built in audio has serious issues. It worked well with my 580/650. Outdated and better choices today but if you have a broken audio system it wasn't bad for what it was(for the time).
 

Jimbob54

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Hey everyone, first post on the forum.

I have been reading many different threads (especially the speaker reviews!) over the past few weeks. This thread itself was welcome, considering I was pricing out a new portable setup in the hundreds of dollars for...nothing.

My question is this: I am a long time user of custom IEMs (Ultimate Ears 10 Pro Customs, and I'll be getting the Reference Remastered soon too), and I loved the sound on my ipod nano -> ALO custom cable -> RSA Tomahawk -> IEMs. But I wear suits far too often for this to be practical any more.

Is there any way I can take my Samsung S20, and do 'something portable' which could match the setup I'm used to? Or is it just absurd for me to hope that a dongle could match that? I am very sensitive to any 'hissing' or 'background noise' caused by connections.

Sorry for the essay - just would be grateful for any suggestions from you fine folks. Some have probably wondered the same thing as I here, and solved it long ago. I have been lazy :/

Id be intrigued to see how the RSA measures. I suspect you may be very pleasantly surprised by what a small modern dongle can do. By the way, does the samsung have a headphone jack?
 

ordeith

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Id be intrigued to see how the RSA measures. I suspect you may be very pleasantly surprised by what a small modern dongle can do. By the way, does the samsung have a headphone jack?

No it doesn't. With my cIEMs I actually used the Bluetooth/wireless attachment instead of the cabled (ugh, what a drop in quality). So I'd love to solve this. I just finished the whole E1DA 9038D thread and I think I'll give that a shot.

Have also been testing my PC setup, still not quite there :)
 

Svperstar

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Ajax

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I would refer you to an excellent review of the SMSL IDEA USB DAC by Archimago back in 2017.

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/05/measurements-smsl-idea-usb-dac.html

The IDEA sold for US$86 on Amazon, however, there are now later models. I have one and also an Audioquest Red Dragonfly. I prefer the IDEA but truth be told both work well with an iPhone and also I believe with a Samsung cell phone.

You maybe able to pick up one second hand.

Good luck
 

raistlin65

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ordeith

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Tempotec Sonata HD Pro/HIDISZ S8 and iBasso DC03 both work well with my S21+ and are comparable (based on independent measurements) to the Meizu HiFi Pro.

Just ordered an iBasso DC03 - looks promising. Hope I like the sound :)
 

raistlin65

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Just ordered an iBasso DC03 - looks promising. Hope I like the sound :)

The measurements I have seen show it to be noise and distortion-free within the range of human hearing. Seems the same to me as my Tempotec Sonata HD Pro and Meizu HiFi Pro (I have all three).
 

Jet Black

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The measurements I have seen show it to be noise and distortion-free within the range of human hearing. Seems the same to me as my Tempotec Sonata HD Pro and Meizu HiFi Pro (I have all three).
If you have all 3 dacs, how come? When you say all of them sounded the same, Im sure you chose a more favorite from the 3...
 

toobs

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Man, this review and especially some of these comments are way off the mark and misleading in one important respect....some of us don't need to swing anywhere close to 2v ptp. My Ultimate Ears 10 pro custom in ears e.g. have 119db/mW sensitivity (13ohm average impedance). I would turn myself deaf before clipping. Show me a better dongle to match the UEs at any price. Testing these things with low sensitivity low impedance cans is just plain stupid.
 

VintageFlanker

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Man, this review and especially some of these comments are way off the mark and misleading in one important respect....
So you just registered to bring back to life a 5 months old thread, just to tell the world how wrong we all are? Smart.

Show me a better dongle to match the UEs at any price.
Anything else.
 
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