Dongle DACs for main audio system?

[Miguelón]

It's a myth


99% of consumer DACs have no sound coloration

I’m pretty sure about the coloration, connecting my Ifi Zen Signature to the Genelecs I can measure “raised” regions on mid highs and low bass. No coloration measured with Focusrite Scarlett.

Also with headphones (Sennheiser HD 600 are pretty neutral): Ifi go link is even fatiguing, the Scarlett shows way more and completely colorless

 

[staticV3]

Maybe the amp section, they have a DAC and an amplifier.

Here's the DF Red's combined DAC+Amp response:

Source:
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/08/measurements-dragonflies-audioquest.html
https://www.stereophile.com/content...lack-usb-da-headphone-amplifiers-measurements

It's a bad product, no doubt, but your issues with it did not stem from double amping or an inherent coloration.

 

[Miguelón]

Here's the DF Red's combined DAC+Amp response:
View attachment 361771 View attachment 361772
Source:
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/08/measurements-dragonflies-audioquest.html
https://www.stereophile.com/content...lack-usb-da-headphone-amplifiers-measurements

It's a bad product, no doubt, but your issues did not stem from double amping or an inherent coloration.

Thanks for the graphics, no color at all.

Humm, from the time I had the Dragonfly, my iPhone had a lightning port, that restricts a lot the power to peripherals.

I noticed (with the go link) a remarkable change on iPhone 15 pro max with USB port (which is class compliant 3.0).

But this doesn’t explain the huge difference within the Zen Signature and the Focusrite Scarlett. I connected both to the same source, barely no difference on signal strength, but the sound is quite different (Ifi has way more coloration and less clarity).

Also bought a Wiim Pro streamer and the sound is again different from Focusrite and Ifi. In this case very mid bass focused and highs are reinforced also.

Wiim pro offers the possibility of changing filters, that changes also slightly the sound perception but still is minor difference compared with the streamer-dac signature sound.

Probably is because some other reason than frequency response, I guess that FR is not the whole history of how an electro acoustic device will sound…