Dragonfly cobalt reviews2/18/2024 ![]() But despite all this digital signal processing, the sound with the iPad Mini feeding USB data to the Cobalt was clean and clear, if again less authoritative-sounding in the bass than it had been with the USB connection from the Roon server. The DragonFly Cobalt's logo accordingly turned yellow. ![]() When I selected a DSD file with the Roon app, like "Take Five" from the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out (DSD64 file, Columbia), the Nucleus+ first converted the data to 352.8kHz PCM, then converted the sample rate to 88.2kHz and the bit depth from 64-bit float to 24-bit integer, before sending it over my network to the iPad. However, it is fair to note that the Roon app now controls playback volume with the iPad's volume control, not that of the DragonFly, as the app can't "see" the AudioQuest DAC. Listening to Rachel Podger performing Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in A minor, Op.4 No.4, with Arte dei Suonatori from La Stravaganza (24/96 FLAC file, Channel Classics CCS 19598), the sound was less full-bodied and a touch more grainy than it had been with the USB connection from the Roon server. ![]() If using the Audeze headphones with the Cobalt seemed an incongruous match when playing music directly from my Roon server, how about when I plugged the pair into my iPad Mini, using an Apple Lightning to USB adapter (footnote 2), and streamed music from the Nucleus+ via Wi-Fi? And the DragonFly Cobalt didn't have any problems holding on to the massive 16' organ pedals on the Widor recording with the current-hungry Audeze headphones. With the Audeze LCD-Xes, which have an impedance of 22 ohms and are a little less sensitive than the AudioQuest cans, setting the volume control to "60" (≡2dB) gave a volume that was as loud as I wished to hear with the Led Zeppelin track. ![]() And on "Rock and Roll" from Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won (24/48 ALAC file), I had to back off the volume a little with the NightHawks to avoid my brain emulsifying. The massive chords at the end of my 2014 recording of Jonas Nordwall's performance of Widor's Organ Symphony No.5 (24/88.2 ALAC file, footnote 1) crackled a little at volume control settings above "70" (≩dB), but the music was unlistenably loud in any case. With the AudioQuest NightHawk headphones, which have an impedance close to 23 ohms across the audioband, I found that setting the volume at 55% (≡4dB) gave usefully loud levels without any audible problems. When the Cobalt is required to drive lower impedances, the volume control has to be backed off to avoid clipping the DAC's output amplifier. The double bass solo on Bill Evans's rendering of "Green Dolphin Street" (from Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest, 16/44.1 Qobuz stream from Resonance Records) was reproduced with solidity and low-frequency weight Evans's piano was way forward in the mix but didn't sound overly aggressive even when I played the music loud.Īs you can see from this review's Measurements sidebar, while the Cobalt is specified as being able to deliver a maximum output of 2.1V, this is into high impedances. I replaced the NightHawks with the brighter-balanced Audeze LCD-Xes I bought after reviewing them in March 2014, and despite the apparent incongruity of using $1500 headphones with a $300 D/A headphone amplifier, the pairing worked well.
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