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Would an Audioquest Cobalt feed my integrated amp without clipping?

I just upgraded my speakers and now I think I would like to get a better DAC. I do all my listening using a laptop into an old Audioquest Dragonfly V1.0 from 2012 and that directly feeds my integrated amplifier preamp. It sounds pretty good. I don't know what this Dragonfly's output voltage is (but V1.2 is 1.8V peak). I can spend up to £300 (about $370) on a new DAC and I am thinking about getting an Audioquest Cobalt. That has an output voltage of 2.1V.

Is that going to be suitable for feeding my amp line in or would there be clipping?

The amp is a Marantz PM6004 and the input sensitivity is 200 mV/20 kOhms. The manual doesn't give a peak sensitivity. It sounds like 2.1V input would be too much for it, but I don't know about this stuff.

The Dragonfly is a headphone amp and maybe it is just not right for feeding an integrated amp or pre-amp. Would anyone like to suggest a better DAC for me under my price ceiling? It occurs to me that with a DAC that has a built in amp feeding my preamp, that is inserting an extra amplification stage I don't need. I do use my headphones sometimes. But the old Dragonfly would do for them.
ontodva

Showing 1 response by b_limo

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b_limo
2,290 posts
 
You can use the Cobalt!  I use a Red Dragonfly with 2 jitterbugs and it’s pretty dang good.  I think I may look at a used Schiit BiFrost Multibit or ...? for around $500 as an my next upgrade.  I’ll still probably use the Jitterbugs with my next dac.

I read that the cobalt doesn’t work with a jitterbug, which makes me assume that its built in now since you can’t run 2 in series.  You could still use a Jitterbug in your empty usb slot on your laptop with the Cobalt. 
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