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Sound quality of the Audioquest Dragonfly Red via a good streamer

I imagine the AQ Dragonfly Red is typically paired with a smartphone and cheaper headphones. I loaned my DACs to a friend for the week so have been listening to my Dragonfly on my main system via a Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra streamer with an AQ Jitterbug noise filter attached as well. To my surprise, it sounds quite good. The shortcomings of the Dragonfly that I hear compared to my Denafrips Pontus II DAC are that it does not sound as full, the timbre of instruments and voices are not as warm, it's not as resolving, and it is not as clear and precise in its timing. But, what's there sounds quite enjoyable.

Has anyone else tried a Dragonfly Red with better ancillary equipment? I'm wondering if the cleaner signal coming from a dedicated streamer is boosting the sound quality of the Dragonfly Red by requiring less processing power?
calvinandhobbes
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calvinandhobbes OP
302 posts
 
@soix I did a quick listen to the Dragonfly Red with and without the Jitterbug. My perceptions are that the sound is better with the Jitterbug in. I'm sure many other factors affect the sound that comes out including the quality of the data stream from streamer. If there isn't much to clean out of a music signal, perhaps the Jitterbug then has a net negative effect versus a net positive effect.

A friend loaned me a Wyred4Sound Recovery USB noise filter to try out  and I found that seemed to flatten out the dynamics in music.

These were the differences that I heard with the Jitterbug in the signal path:

  • More clarity
  • Richer tonal quality to voices and instruments
  • More spacious
  • Better pace (perhaps due to more clarity)
mahler123
3,318 posts
 
I used the red in my system for a couple of days, without the jitterbug, when I had sold off one DAC and was awaiting the arrival of a new.  I wound switching back to my Oppo 105 as my DAC until the new one came
soix
9,456 posts
 
I tried my Dragonfly Red with the Jitterbug and thought the Jitterbug significantly deteriorated transparency and collapsed the soundstage so I returned it.  Have you tried the Red without the Jitterbug?
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