Audioquest Dragonfly v.1.2 DAC

A small Dragonfly USB DAC is one of the most compact devices of this kind on the market - its dimensions are comparable to a standard USB flash drive. The case is made of a nice non-slip plastic with an unusually designed multi-color status indicator that reminds a dragonfly. This is the second modification of Dragonfly, which received the index v1.2. According to the developers, they managed to improve the sound by optimizing the digital and analog parts of the converter, as well as making some changes to the headphone amplifier circuit. At the same time, there are minimum external differences - you can name without fail the model version only by defining the properties of the sound device in the operating system. The DAC is installed without any additional software and supports files with parameters up to 24/96. The DAC uses a 24-bit ESS Saber chip, standing out by a high signal to noise ratio.

Based on the results of listening to Audioquest Dragonfly v1.2, we can draw several conclusions. The most important thing you pay attention to is the amazing ease of the converter's operation. In addition, having a minimum size, the DAC has a fairly serious sound potential, which can only be realized with proper software configuration. In our case, the best sound was obtained with input signal of 24/96. We note very good macro dynamics, a fairly clean and clearly traced upper range plus well-structured and fast bass.

The reproduction accuracy of MIDs is not so high, and sometimes you can feel some simplification of the feed, however, given the class of the device, this does not seem to be a serious fail. When you output a signal to a full-sized system, you no longer notice some nuances. Sound space is being formed surprisingly large-scale. And this happens while retaining all the benefits of listening with headphones.