This Package Includes
DragonFly Copper USB Digital-to-Analog Converter
Long Live DragonFly
Like all AudioQuest products, the award-winning DragonFly has benefited from gradual refinements made possible by better parts, better materials, and AudioQuest's own insatiable desire for better sound. DragonFly Copper maintains everything that made its predecessors such a success.
Features
- Drives Headphones; Feeds Preamps, Amps, & Powered Speakers
- 5 Color Sampling Rate Indicator
- Improved RF-Noise Drainage
- Includes Form-Fitting DragonTail USB-A to USB-C Adapter
- Compatible with Apple® and Windows® PCs, iOS and Android devices
Lower Power, Greater Output
AudioQuest's careful selection of a new 32-bit ESS Saber DAC/headphone amp allowed for the implementation of a slightly smaller processor than the one employed in previous designs. In turn, power consumption was reduced by about 25% while significantly improving overall supply-chain efficiency. AudioQuest was able to do more with less.
Optimized for Lower Distortion
DragonFly designer Gordon Rankin then did what he does best: He optimized the new DragonFly parts for ultimate performance, reducing distortion to a level significantly below that of previous models.
Performance-Driven Copper Design
Drawing 25% less current and delivering two times as much output power as any previous DragonFly, Copper is the most powerful and efficient DAC AudioQuest has ever produced. Its new copper case, informed and inspired by the RF-draining barrels of AudioQuest's Mythical Creatures interconnects, isn't merely, but, like every other aspect of the DAC's gorgeous design, has been implemented for improved performance.
DragonTail Carbon USB A to C Adapter
The DragonTail USB adaptor activates USB Host Mode on most Android devices, allowing the devices to transmit USB digital audio to an outboard digital-to-analog converter (DAC).
Using DragonTail to connect to an external USB DAC, such as an AudioQuest DragonFly, will provide greatly improved audio performance.
Solid 5% Silver Conductors
Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications, like HDMI audio and video. These signals, being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor. As the surface is made of high-purity silver, the performance is very close to that of a solid silver cable, but priced much closer to solid copper cable. This is an incredibly cost effective way of manufacturing very high-quality HDMI cables.
All Conductors Controlled for RF Noise Directionality
Hard-Cell Foam Insulation
Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Insulation ensures critical signal-pair geometry. Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy. Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Hard-Cell Foam Insulation is similar to the Foamed-PE used in AQ's more affordable Bridges & Falls cables, and is nitrogen-injected to create air pockets. Because nitrogen (like air) does not absorb energy and therefore does not release any energy from or into the conductor, distortion is reduced. In addition, the stiffness of the material allows the cable's conductors to maintain a stable relationship along the cable's full length, producing a stable impedance character and further minimizing distortion.
Carbon-Based Noise- and Crosstalk-Dissipation System
This cable's negative conductors are covered with partially conductive Carbon-Loaded Polyethylene. This remarkable material reduces radio-frequency garbage being fed back into the amplifier. The sonic benefit is exactly the same reduction in "hash" and improved dimensionality that comes whenever RF interference is reduced in an audio circuit. In addition, a carbon layer damps interaction between positive and negative conductors, and an external Carbon-Based Noise-Dissipation System reduces external interference.