AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt USB Digital-to-Analog Converter

I bought a DragonFly Cobalt to use with my mobile phone and headphones in the office. My phone has no headphone jack. Using a simple USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter wasn't acceptable. Max volume was much too low and the overall sound quality was awful. So I went into WWS to try a DragonFly. MANY THANKS to Dave Sailer who patiently let me sit in a room and thoroughly demo the DAC with both of my headphones through my phone. WOW! What a difference! Max volume increased dramatically. Sound quality was unbelievably better. And the power draw is small enough that it did not significantly impact battery usage.

For those who think that the extra $100 for the Cobalt over the Red is unwarranted, consider that the built-in JitterBug filter ($70) and included USB-A to USB-C Dragon Tail ($30) cover that difference without even getting into other Cobalt improvements over the Red.

Bonus #1: At home, I found that using the Cobalt with my laptop provided a dramatic improvement over the built-in DAC. I'm now able to use my full-size over-the-ear headphones with my laptop.

Streaming music through my phone or laptop, through the Cobalt, into my home stereo sounds excellent, providing much better sound staging and instrument separation than going directly from my laptop into the amplifier.

The BIG Unexpected Bonus: Last year we bought a used 2012 car which ticked all of our boxes except that it has the base stereo. That base stereo sounds awful. Even though it has separate tweeters at the tops of the front doors, the sound is muddy, with very little treble. In my experience, using a car's CD player usually sounds much better than using the radio. Not in this case! When it didn't even sound good using the CD player, I figured I'd need to look into replacing the head unit and possibly the speakers, which would have been non-trivial with the way that head units are built into dashboards these days. I decided to try streaming music from my phone through the Cobalt into the car's Aux input. My daughter was with me and immediately said "WOW!". When I brought my wife out to hear it, she thought that I had indeed replaced a number of things. The Cobalt improved everything. Bass is clean and punchy. Not only is there treble now, but we can just about place where the band members are across the dashboard. Vocals and acoustic guitars sound much more lifelike and live. And this obviously cost A LOT less than replacing the head unit and speakers. Your mileage may vary, but we are blown away by the difference.

I admit that I had reservations about spending a few hundred dollars on a DAC the size of a thumb drive. But, in our case, the value goes beyond the wow factor of the sound difference to having saved more than the purchase price in other upgrades that now are unnecessary.

A Drawback: Using a dongle DAC like this with your phone will prevent you from charging your phone through the same port. If you know anything about how USB works, you'll know that, although some companies sell them, you can't simply use a splitter to use both a charger and the DAC at the same time. So, if you must do both, you'll need to figure out an alternative approach that works for you.

That aside, I still smile every time I use this little gem.

What an EXCELLENT product. GREATLY improves the sound from all my devices: desktop, laptop, android phone and ipad. It comes highly recommended!!

This DAC is ideal for listening to a mobile device utilizing high quality headphones. In addition it allows one to connect to an audio system with standard RCA connectors. It handles a surprising number of resolutions including MQA. It is well worth the price

These guys are a great outfit. I've ordered dragonfly and cables from them. Shipment was out the door the next day. But check this out. I ordered some audioquest cables on Amazon and decided to send them. It turned out these guys were the seller. They provided me with return label and refunded me the next day. So here is where I am. If I'm shopping on Amazon and these guys are the seller, I'll order from them directly as I'm sure they have to pay Bezos for the service. They are a reliable, speedy and honest outfit. They gained a customer for life if they carry the item. Oh and they have an actual phone numn6you can call and talk to someone. Good luck finding a business with that service after covid. No I wasn't paid for my review. Thanks guys for my refund and speedy shipment.

Excellent DAC. Very convenient for use with mobile devices. Sound quality is very good. Not much difference from my other DACs which are pricier and bulkier

An excellent DAC, it"s small lightweight, and powerful. It definitely delivers on improving the sound quality of my Sennheiser HD58X headset. My music quality is so improved and much more enjoyable now. Thank You for an excellent product.

Excellent sound quality and compatibility with my phone and tablet. Works flawlessly with TIDAL\Roon and MQA.

After thorough research into entering the world of High Resolution/Definition audio, I opted for the DragonFly Cobalt DAC. Wow! The sound quality, wide range of applications, compact footprint and price point are quite simply unbeatable! Highly recommend this product to anyone looking for an extremely high quality, thoughtfully engineered DAC for under $300.00! It’s as though i’m hearing my favorite music for the very first time!

I conducted a review of this on my YouTube channel, No Theme Reviews. The Cobalt has significantly better amplification. The sound signature isn't noticeably better than the Red, but the sound stage is wider.

Finally decided to upgrade my several year old Dragonfly V1.2 to the Red on June 27th. Of course, AudioQuest announced the Cobalt on July 8th. Suffering from a case of upgraditis I had to check out reviews of the Cobalt. After reading a couple of comparison reviews I just had to have the Cobalt. Sold my Red to a friend for $100, so essentially the Cobalt cost me $400. And I could not be happier.

As I type this I am listening to a MQA playlist on Tidal on my Sennheiser HD 58x headphones and am totally blown away. Music is clearer and instruments more well defined. Soundstage is wider. Read the comparison reviews online.

So if you are trying to decide between the Red and Cobalt, go for the Cobalt. You do get a DragonTail USB C adapter and this has improved power filter and does not need the JitterBug so the price difference really is not that great. If you already have the Red and have the disposable income considering upgrading. It is worth it. At least it was worth $400 to me.

Definitely a great upgrade from the Red. Recommended.

Comparing the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt to the DragonFly Red, and feeding 44 khz WAV tracks from my iPad Pro 11-inch to the DragonFlys, I played the first 70 seconds of Steven Wilson's Luminol (at the 44/24 data rate) playing the Cobalt first (3 times), then the Red second. Almost immediately my impression of the stereo image was that it's less open and full with the Red. That alone didn't seal the Cobalt deal though.

I ended up playing the same 70 seconds 3 times with the Red, then repeated 3 with the Cobalt followed by 3 with the Red. I've always thought of the Red as a very smooth reproducer, particularly compared to the DragonFly Black. But this time the Cobalt edged (no pun intended) out the Red with a smoother yet detailed sound. Some users might not hear the differences, but if they are practiced at evaluating DACs, they should pick up on these differences pretty quickly.

When I heard about the DragonFly Cobalt, I thought the $100 USD jump from the Red was a bit much, but the factors of sound quality and the inclusion of the DragonTail USB-C adapter did seal the Cobalt deal for me.
I will try to incorporate listening with the AudioQuest JitterBug in the full review, but in the meantime I'd recommend the Cobalt here and now for certain users:

1) Perfectionists. 2) Those with good enough hearing and experience to appreciate the differences. 3) Those who won't hear the differences immediately, but who trust AudioQuest to put into the DAC what they say they put in. Don't put any special trust in my review, since the music you play and many other factors could net out the differences. Do read as many reviews as possible, focusing on the best-respected reviewers of portable audio gear, especially DACs and amps.