![]() Low impedance headphones tend to have higher voltage sensitivity and so usually require less output voltage than high impedance models to produce the same volume. AQ recommends using headphones with an impedance no lower than 16Ω. Unofficial measurements suggest Cobalt’s clipping point is -3dBFS with 300Ω ‘phones and -6dBFS with 30Ω ‘phones, output voltages of around 1.6Vrms and 1.05Vrms respectively. AQ recommends the latter for superior sound quality and reliability. While the new iPad Pro features a USB-C port and can tethered using the included DragonTail, owners of Apple devices with Lightning ports must purchase either Apple’s Lightning-to-USB adaptor or the larger and more expensive Apple Lightning-to-USB 3 camera kit adaptor. ![]() Cobalt ships with the USB-C version but the others can be purchased separately for an additional £17.95. AQ offers three DragonTail configurations: female USB-A to male USB-A, female USB-A to male microUSB/OTG, and female USB-A to male USB-C. Its bundled accessories include an engraved black leather storage pouch and a DragonTail USB adaptor, a short length of AQ Carbon USB cable that facilitates device connectivity whilst relieving port strain. DSD is not supported natively so you need to configure the player to resample it to 88.2kHz PCM to preserve as much of the format’s qualities as possible.Ĭobalt is compatible with Apple and Windows computers, iOS and Android devices. It cleverly glows green for 44.1kHz content, blue for 48kHz, yellow for 88.2kHz, light blue for 96kHz and purple for MQA (note that Cobalt is an MQA renderer only and must be used with a player that can unfold MQA files). Cobalt supports native PCM sampling rates up to 96kHz at 24-bits and the Dragonfly logo illuminates accordingly to indicate the sampling rate of the file being played. Measuring just 57mm long (2 ¼”), the svelte new model is 10% smaller than its siblings and its streamlined profile and immaculate deep blue finish is more reminiscent of a finely polished jewel than a USB dongle.įree trials with Qobuz (1 month) and Roon (60 days) are included with the first 10,000 Cobalt units sold to whet your appetite for hi-res streaming. Retailing for £269, some £200 and £120 more expensive than the £69 Black and £149 Red, Cobalt becomes the new flagship in the series and is AQ’s most expensive and ambitious Dragonfly to date. We now welcome the latest addition to the Dragonfly family, Cobalt. Both featured redesigned USB controllers that drew a fraction of the current and made them compatible with not just laptops but also tablets and smartphones and, with two prices of admission, brought high quality sound to an even wider audience. ![]() The original Dragonfly was supplanted in 2016 by two new models the even more affordable Dragonfly Black, and the more expensive but also more powerful Dragonfly Red. It’s hard to believe that it has been eight years since the release of Audioquest’s ingenious Dragonfly, the memory stick-sized USB DAC/preamp/headphone amp that provides a simple, effective and affordable solution to the problem of mediocre sound quality from computers.
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