Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Knick]

I am moving all my music gradually to 24 bit.  Have a lot in 192Khz already.  I just bought the LG V20 mobile phone with ESS Sabre DAC built in, and really like it, as it can handle 192Khz files natively and outputs same. Sync from MC22 to 128Gig MicroSD card.  Now I wonder if a hardware DAC with same chipset would make my wonderful MC experience even better.

I am now thinking about purchasing an Audioquest Dragonfly to work with MC on my laptop, but understand that it is limited to 96Khz output.  Amazon ratings seem all positive.  I have MC set to output all files to 24 bit 192khz, and am wondering now if the benefit of the hardware Dragonfly DAC with a 96Khz limit will negatively affect the quality of sound out of MC using the same settings.  I am using MC 22 (bought my upgrade!) with a Bryston 2B 100W amp straight out of my laptop.

Would appreciate any guidance, suggestions and opinions as ready to purchase if this would benefit my MC experience.  Thanks!

[~OHM~]

IMHO I doubt you would notice a difference!

[dtc]

Agree with TAO.  I doubt you will hear any difference between 192 KHz and 96 KHz.

You can convert some of your 192 KHz files to 96 KHz using the SOX resampler in MC and try them through your existing system as a test.

[tyler69]

I also agree with my predecessors. However, bitrate is not everything: in my opinion a 96/24 capable dac can sound better than a 192/24 dac. One thing to consider is the implementation of the dac chip. But I doubt there will be a noticable one in the dragonfly (I guess I have a good quality standalone dac in mind).

[blgentry]

It's hard to say.  Everyone that has listened to my Pono using the revealer has heard the difference between 96kHz and 192kHz.  I'm not actually sure *I* can hear the difference.

The Dragonfly is a pretty sweet DAC for it's size and price.  To my ears, it sounded just a *bit* shy of my Schiit Modi 2.  The Modi 2 is less money than the Dragonfly and is a MUCH larger form factor using a bunch of discrete components.  Still, the Modi 2 is small.  The Dragonfly is just teeny tiny.

If you were to buy a larger form factor DAC, you might hear differences. You might not.  All that said, the Dragonfly is good enough that you'll probably notice a difference compared to your internal sound card.  DACs can be a bit of a rabbit hole.  If I had it to do over again, I'd probably start with a Modi Multibit (not a Modi 2).  Good luck with your decision.

Brian.

[Knick]

Thanks all for the guidance.  I can see I need to think things through more before making a purchase.

[thecrow]

I was in a similar boat.
I love the ESS dacs, one in my Pioneer LX77, one in my LG V10 phone, etc.
I was looking for something similar to add to my new laptop Dell XPS15 but was put off the Dragonfly by its 96kHz limit.
What I have purchased is an Encore mDSD http://www.encore-av.com/main/products/mdsd-detail.
It does PCM at 32bit up to 384kHz and also accepts DSD upto 256 and it has a optical SPDIF out all for a similar price to the Dragonfly.
It uses the Sabre ESS 9010K2M DAC chip with XMOS USB chip.
I literally only received it yesterday but  I am very happy with it so far, never heard the Dragonfly so cannot say whether it sounds the same, better or not.

[MikeO]

Sorry a bit late

The dragonfly is great . I use one with a camera kit on my iPad .as wel as a laptop

I too doubt you will hear a 96 to 192 difference. I am fast coming to the conclusion that 44.1 is enough

I use it with JRemote playing to ThisDevice wirelessly on my iPad

The big plus of the new dragonflies ( red and black) is that the ipad powers them. < 100 ma

It even drives my HD 800's just