AUDIOQUEST DRAGONFLY COBALT PORTABLE DAC/HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER
These days, just because you’re travelling does not mean you have to settle for second-rate sound quality. You can listen to high-quality music from your notebook computer, iPhone or Android phone without making do with mere Bluetooth connectivity, even if your device doesn’t have a headphone output. All those devices support an external DAC. And that’s where the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt comes in. It is a super-compact DAC and headphone amplifier you can take with you when you’re travelling.
THE EQUIPMENT
The Cobalt is the latest and most premium version AudioQuest’s DragonFly series of DACs. It looks somewhat like a USB memory stick, around the same length and volume as a typical mid-sized one. But it looks much classier than that, with its deep, glossy cobalt blue finish and backlit DragonFly logo. At one end is a standard USB Type-A plug suitable for plugging into the matching socket installed on most PCs. That’s both Windows and Macs and, I’d wager, Linux, although I haven’t tried it on one of those.
At the other end is a 3.5mm stereo socket. That’s suitable for driving headphones and also delivering a line-out signal for external equipment. As we’ll see, it most certainly delivers high-fidelity performance. In between the two is a great deal of advanced electronics, to which I’ll return shortly.
The Cobalt comes with a cap to cover the USB end. The cap is similarly finished. It also comes with a tight-fitting leatherette pouch and an adaptor cable. That last is a departure from the DragonFly norm. The cable has a USB Type-A socket on one end and a USB Type-C plug on the other. The Type-A end is shaped to conform to the lines of the Cobalt. The Type-C adaptor recognises the reality that many high-end notebook computers and Android
