Audioquest DragonFly Cobalt

[Unclefred]

I have been trying to connect my computer output, (Desktop, running MINT 21.3?), to my old SONY amp/tuner home theatre Unit. Right now, I'm just plugging the stereo jack into the green socket of the sound card output. It works OK and gives me fairly good sound, but Wow! are there ever nasty voltage spikes, and I won't even try to unplug the jack while the stereo is still on.
I asked my audio system supplier for a solution and he recommends the Cobalt unit, which I an surprised, is cheaper than the old Red one and better also according to the reviews on YouTube.
So How do I find out if my usb sockets are "C" class? I'm hoping they are going to be fully compatible, and is the Cobalt unit Plug & Play like the Red was. so I'm told. You just plug it in and the icon appears in the Sound Settings dialog.
Any assurances would be great before I make the leap and buy the thing. I expect this is going to work for me. They say it's a DAC and effectively a pre-amp as well 96/24 I think it was listed as.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Normally, the Dragonfly Red is less expensive than the Cobalt but the Cobalts are on sale right now and there also appears to be a shortage of Reds right now. Audioquest's official Amazon's Storefront has only one Red and it's coming from a Marketplace vendor who apparently is price gouging. Also, there has been a problem with counterfeits being sold on Amazon and Amazon is currently selling their Cobalts and Blacks from marketplace vendors so buying from them might be a bit sketchy. Go directly to AudioQuest's website to find out where it is safe to buy the DAC. https://www.audioquest.com/dealer/find#!/online

As far as the USB type is concerned, the Dragonflies plug into Type A USB ports. Those are the same ports that most USB thumb drives use. You might want to get a short USB extension cable to plug the DAC into so the weight of the audio cable won't put a strain on the USB port.

[Unclefred]

Thank-you. I'll check that out.

[Unclefred]

I checked everything out and bought the Dragonfly Cobalt. It arrived by Friday. They don't mention Linux at all in their literature, but I plugged it in and there is was on the device list of the Sound facility. It works without and fuss or bother. The only thing I am disappointed with is the ~500 Hz. tone that is constantly there when the sound is running. It is not controllable with the volume control and I can't seem to get rid of it. It's not loud, but this is an Audiophile device and I expect it's not how it's supposed to operate. Any Ideas? Anyone?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I checked everything out and bought the Dragonfly Cobalt. It arrived by Friday. They don't mention Linux at all in their literature, but I plugged it in and there is was on the device list of the Sound facility. It works without and fuss or bother. The only thing I am disappointed with is the ~500 Hz. tone that is constantly there when the sound is running. It is not controllable with the volume control and I can't seem to get rid of it. It's not loud, but this is an Audiophile device and I expect it's not how it's supposed to operate. Any Ideas? Anyone?

Before I bought my speakers (JBL 305P MkII satellites and JBP LSR310S sub), I read a few complaints about a high pitched whine and one reviewer solved it by using XLR cables between the sub and the satellites and the cables between the sub and the sound source that had XLR connectors at the sub end and male RCA connectors at the source end. I used the same and a 3.2mm stereo male plug to two RCA female connectors to connect the cables going to the sub to the Dragonfly Red I've been using. It works like a champ for me.

I also got a Dragonfly Cobalt recently. I've been wanting a spare Red in case the one I have ever went belly up but I didn't trust Amazon and it was out of stock elsewhere. When I saw the Cobalts were on sale going for the same or less than the Reds, I snagged one before the prices went up but I haven't tried it out yet. I'll try it out in a while and get back here.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Curiosity got the better of me and I swapped out my current RED with the new Cobalt (not easy to get at) and it works just fine. With no music playing, all I get is dead silence. I run the computer's volume at 90% which doesn't sound like it's overdriving the sub's preamp (I would run it lower but I occasionally need the extra headroom to accommodate YouTube videos, even when running the Sound 150% applet).

One thing with my system is I get what sound like a loud power line hum while plugging or unplugging the speaker lines from the Dragonflies. Once fully connected or disconnected, the racket stops. It's possible what you are hearing is a harmonic of a power line hum and you need to check your connections and cables, especially if you made up your own cables (I cheated and used premade ones), and make sure you don't have a ground loop. Then again, I just may be full of Baloney Sausage and you are just picking up interference somewhere somehow. Note that XLR cables are balanced and shielded.

Over the years (over seventy), I've noticed that the higher end an audio system gets, the touchier its cabling and connections can get.

Now, I need to return the Red to use with the laptop since the Cobalt is destined for my new desktop computer which will become my daily driver soon (besides, I want to use the Cobalt during its warranty period in case something might go wrong after using it for a while).

BTW, the overpriced little USB Type C male to USB Type A female cable, called a Dragontail, that is included with the Cobalt is apparently only USB 2.0, in case you wanted to use it elsewhere. I'm using my my own USB A to A extension cable cables to connect the Dragonflies to both my laptop and to my desktop computers (I'm still setting up the desktop so my laptop is still my daily driver). Both extension cables I'm using are USB 3.0 (AKA USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.2 Gen 1, all the same speed, up to 5.0 Gbps; the idiots setting the USB standards can't make up their feeble minds what to call things ). USB 2.0 speeds are plenty fast for the Dragonflies; my Red is plugged into a hub shares a USB 2.0 port on my laptop with my two scanners also plugged into the hub and still runs well.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Did you ever get that low frequency tone sorted out?

A little while ago, after six years of use, my little Dragonfly Red DAC lost its right channel. At first, I thought my right speaker had gone bad. After fiddling with connections, switching it off and on, "talking" to it, etc., to further test it, I reversed the the cables going from the subwoofer to the satellites and found out the sound was now out on the left channel, ruling out the satellites as being the problem. After restoring the cables to their correct positions, I reversed the cables at the adapter going into the DAC and got the same results, ruling out the sub as being the problem. That left the DAC. I swapped out the Red I was using with my laptop with the Cobalt I was going to use with the desktop computer and I got both channels back so I'm using the Cobalt with the laptop for now.

I've ordered another Cobalt (which was still on sale, thank goodness) from Crutchfield so I'll have a spare when I retire the current Cobalt from the laptop and start using it with the Desktop. Hopefully, the Cobalts will last longer than six years (assuming I last that long ).