Price and color aside, a key difference between the new DragonFlys is that the Black has a 1.2V output, while the Red supplies 2.1V to support a wider range of headphones, including low-efficiency models. The new microcontroller also has a low-noise power supply that improves the sound quality by minimizing the effects of radio-frequency interference (RFI). Both benefit from an improved USB microcontroller that draws 77% less power than previous versions, making the new DragonFlys iOS- and Android-compatible when used with the appropriate adapters.
Now, in 2016, AudioQuest has launched two new DragonFly DACs: the Red ($199 USD) and the Black ($99). But the iPad’s USB output wasn’t powerful enough to drive an external DAC-headphone amp, so the DragonFly remained stuck in laptops. An external adapter designed to bridge the gap between the 30-pin connector used by iOS devices and the wider USB world, the Camera Connection Kit made possible plenty of activities on an iPad, including transferring photos and videos from a digital camera and connecting to a USB keyboard for typing.
That such tiny hardware could make possible the playback of high-resolution audio through headphones - not to mention a high-end audio system - seemed nothing short of amazing.Īt the time, the only other thing you could have asked of AudioQuest’s DAC was to make possible enhanced mobile listening by connecting it to Apple’s then-new iPad Camera Connection Kit. The most attention-grabbing element was no doubt that the DragonFly was the size and shape of a USB memory stick. But in 2012, when AudioQuest introduced its first DragonFly DAC, the concept turned heads. Compact, portable DACs that plug into a laptop’s USB port, extract up to 24-bit/96kHz digital audio using the jitter-eliminating asynchronous protocol, and provide amplified output for headphones and line-level output for preamps, are common enough these days.
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