Dragonfly red/black + Android (Huawei) advice

I am a novice when it comes to gadgets and tech, however, hopefully someone will be able to help.

I would like to have a a superior music experience and been looking at the Dragonfly DAC's. Paired with some decent headphones (Bose QC's for e.g) would this be better than my current setup (stock Huawei earphones) or would I not see any further improvement?

I listen to FLAC and 320.

Thanks

 

What kind of DAC is inside your phone? Some smartphones nowadays are shipping with DACs that have much better performance that what you get out of those USB dongle DACs.

The stock headphones/earbuds that usually come with smartphones aren't very good.

 

That's the thing, my contract expires and it's much, much cheaper to go SIM-only so am going to keep my current smartphone. I appreciate the new LG's have the ESS Sabre DAC but mine doesn't. That's why I was looking down the USB DAC route.

 

I've got an LGV40 and had a V20 before that. If you can grab an unlocked, refurb/used V series at a good price, I'd highly recommend it. I don't like carrying around extra stuff and a bunch of cords and wires with a USB dongle isn't something I'm going to bother with, especially if the performance isn't that great, which is what measurements tell us.

If you are sitting at a desk while listening, might as well buy a good desktop USB DAC, many of them out there at different price ranges.

The other thing: upgrading your DAC isn't going to be that noticeable with cheap earbuds. You mentioned Bose - stuff like that isn't made for great sound quality, it's meant for convenience with features like their noise canceling stuff.

Need more info if you want headphone suggestions - budget, type, etc. People will chime in with suggestions once they have that info, but you'll probably need to change the subject as well to make it clear what kind of help you're looking for.

 

The Bose QCs are brilliant active noise reducing headphones but if you do not need that feature then you can get better performing headphone for the same or less money. Having said that the sound of my QC15s is wonderfully relaxing and not at all fatiguing for long journeys and the ear pads are very comfortable. Probably not in your thinking at present but, having had mine for almost 10 years, I have just easily and cheaply replaced the ear pads, scrims and headband.

 

I was hoping it would be easy to say, yes a USB DAC and some decent headphones would be better

Doing a little bit of research, am I right in thinking that the USB DAC bypasses the phones DAC and increases the quality?

 

Well, headphones are high on my list at the moment. I did purchase some Bowers & Wilkins P5's secondhand but returned them as I didn't like them. But don't know if that's because of my phone or just my taste in the headphones' sound. I also didn't like the clamping as they are on-ear.

 

What do you like and what don't you like in terms of musical presentation? The Bose are very relaxed / laid back while my Sennheiser HD650s are much more accurate.

 

It only increases the quality if certain performance conditions are met. Whether you can actually hear the increase in quality will also depend on a number of factors. What kind of environment will you be using this stuff in?

 

How is the sound on recent IPhones anyway? The now vintage IPod classic had pretty good sound. My Samsung Galaxy (older) sounds like crap. Still use an IPod Touch for portable music. Call me paranoid but I wouldn't want to use Bluetooth in-ear buds either.

 

I like a wide soundstage, a bit of bass but not overpowering which I felt the B&W had in spades. I listen to every genre which probably doesn't help as one differs from the other.

 

Mostly at work on breaks. Going for a walk at lunch perhaps.

 

If the environment is noisy, just buy a better set of headphones and forget the DAC. If you need a set with noise cancelling just buy whatever set meets your needs for price/performance/features/comfort.

 

So the Black will not drive a lot of better quality headphones because of it's weaker output stage. I also read the volume control on the Black is whacky. The Red has the more powerful output stage and bit perfect digital volume control. The Red would also make for a nice USB Dac in a PC based playback system.

 

USB out in Android is upsampled to the internal DAC's highest resolution, regardless of the source file resolution. If you have a problem with that, you need a player with a proprietary USB driver, such as USB Audio Player Pro.

Another advantage to using an external DAC is the option to use an OTG-Y cable that allows one to power the external DAC with a battery of much higher capacity than your phone. This should improve audio quality as well as extend the battery life of the phone.

I have the arrangement described above with an older Dragonfly and it works well, but as usual with internet advice, YMMV.

 

Yes, another snag is that my Huawei model isn't supported by USB APP. If this isn't supported am I at a dead end? Sorry for my naviety.

 

Yes.

 

It's free to try, I believe.

 

Google Play says it's not supported and cannot be downloaded.

 

£6.49 with no try before you buy in the UK where the OP is.

 

The trial is available through their website here:

Free trial

I know they say the Chinese devices are not widely supported, but I took that to mean generic brands. FWIW, this phone is not listed as a supported device (although the brand is) but it still works for standard rez, just not with hi rez. My other phone works fine for all except DSD, but a Chinese generic USB-SPDIF converter for Android I have does not.

There are too many unknowns to make predictions.. you just have to try it.