Looking for any Crack + Audioquest Dragonfly users

[Bimbleton]

Hi,

Looking for anyone out there who uses an Audioquest Dragonfly USB-DAC to a Crack for a brief A/B comparison. Have been contemplating buying a Crack for my HD650's (love them!), but given that funds are tight, was wondering exactly how much of a difference adding the Crack makes? The Dragonfly already has a built-in amp that drives the 650's quite splendidly.

If there's anyone out there who uses the Dragonfly out to a Crack, could you possibly do an A/B comparison of the Dragonfly with and without the Crack and tell me what the difference in sound quality is?

Really appreciate it!

[lextek]

I'll let you know soon....

[Paul Birkeland]

The HD-650 is a 300 Ohm headphone, and the Firefly has a maximum output voltage of 2V.  This is 13mW of output power, which is right on the ragged edge of being enough with the HD-650.

The Crack will make in excess of 300mW into the HD-650.

I think Jim has a Dragonfly, Crack, and HD-6**'s. 

-PB

[Loquah]

I had the Dragonfly and the HD650s and while it was good, it's nothing on the Crack simply in terms of the dynamics created by the extra power referred to by PB above. The Crack will bring more energy, more life and more clarity to your HD650s (based on my experiences).

Also, while the DF is an excellent portable DAC, it's stage size is a little cramped so you may find a DAC upgrade after getting the Crack will take you forward yet another step. In the short term though, definitely go for the Crack - it'll be an excellent upgrade for your DF / HD650 combo

[Bimbleton]

Aweome! Looking forward to saving up my funds for one (and learning how to solder and all that). If anyone out there can do a straight comparison between the Dragonfly and a Crack, however, that'd be swell.

[STURMJ]

I recently stared using a Dragonfly as a DAC to output from my laptop to my crack.  The output is much better than the windows  DAC, much more detail better bass.  I have a nice, big DAC in my main system the dragon fly suits my headphone setup much better (i.e. small).

[mahdi8]

The Difference would be huge. I have compared them both. But with a dt770 600ohm. The dragonfly on it's own has less detail, smaller soundstage and sound more digital. Crack using dragonfly as DAC is on a whole different level. changing the DAC to something like schiit modi the crack pulls away even further

[Loquah]

1

[Bimbleton]

The Difference would be huge. I have compared them both. But with a dt770 600ohm. The dragonfly on it's own has less detail, smaller soundstage and sound more digital. Crack using dragonfly as DAC is on a whole different level. changing the DAC to something like schiit modi the crack pulls away even further

Thanks for the impression! I'll keep my Dragonfly because it's so dang portable, but it is very good to hear that there is a substantial difference in sound quality. That's the one of the only things that's been keeping me from buying a crack -- whether or not there is a substantial increase in sound quality. I would loathe myself if I spent all that time and money, and find that I'm unable to hear any difference at all.

[Loquah]

It'll be one of the best uses of $300 or so you've ever made! (And you can drive it from the Dragonfly!)

[STURMJ]

Also, what are you using to play files?  Make sure you have a direct digital output driver running the Dragonfly (WASAPI, ASIO, depending on your operating system. Im not a apple user but there must be one for macs also)

[Bimbleton]

Also, what are you using to play files?  Make sure you have a direct digital output driver running the Dragonfly (WASAPI, ASIO, depending on your operating system. Im not a apple user but there must be one for macs also)

I'm running windows and most of my music is streaming Spotify Premium (320kbps). I've got some FLAC files but they are all 44.1kHz. Unfortunately, there is no good solution to getting WASAPI/ASIO on Spotify yet.

[lextek]

Sent you a message about my comparison.  Pretty, much what everyone said.  Richer, fuller and bigger.

[takkos]

Just finished with my Bottlehead Crack (without Speedball yet). My setup is PC (Tidal Master) -> Dragonfly Cobalt -> Bottlehead Crack -> Beyerdynamic T90
Without the Crack the highs were too much and aggressive with the Cobalt and this headphone, and it brought the music to a new level. I also needed to install two 3A diodes as ground breakers in place of the buss wire between the chassis and the ground tab of the IEC power entry module, based on this topic (https://forum.bottlehead.com/index.php?topic=11676.0)
Without the diodes even the Dragonfly Cobalt that has jitter suppression and filter built in, there was a lot of noises from the PC, too much to even listen to anything, now it is silent.