This might be a specific hardware/driver problem and not a general problem with the Audioquest device and all computers running Win8. Steve, would more info from a working Audioquest/Win8 system help troubleshoot this problem?
It is clearly a problem sufficiently serious for Audioquest to admit to, albeit in a hidden way, and for them to notify Microsoft and provide Dragonflys for Microsoft to test. "Major problems" is the way the article in "thestreet" that Steve linked to described them.
I can't afford to drop £215 (about $300) on a product that does not work and is therefore of no use to me. Amazon copied Audioquest's sales material, which doesn't mention any issues, and I think it is decent of Amazon to give me a refund. I did post here before initiating my returns request on the off-chance that there was a work-round. To be told to "be patient" is not good enough. For how long? I just cannot afford to put money out on stuff that doesn't work.
Whatever Microsoft's "specific conflict between their USB device driver and their sound driver" is, it doesn't affect my other DAC, which I've been listening to all afternoon. And if the alleged culprit is conflict is between two Microsoft drivers, that rules out a "specific hardware/driver" problem surely?
Should Audioquest ever get a solution to this problem, they're welcome to send me a Dragonfly which I'll happily test. But since Microsoft haven't done anything for six months, I'm not holding my breath. And were it me, I'd try and find out how Meridian, Audiolab, Naim, Audiophilleo et al don't seem to have any problems with their asynch USB DACs and W8. Implement a driver that works.
It is preposterous of Steve to suggest that the claim "any computer" is true, because it doesn't say "any operating system". Unqualified Windows compatability is clearly claimed in the Dragonfly brochure, which says "connects to a USB jack on a ... Windows pc ... turning any computer into a true high fidelity music source".
Meantime, I look forward to seeing the changes to the website. I hope amazon also are provided with better copy.