[estreeter]

One of the ongoing criticisms of a lot of the gear on the market is that there is no attempt to supply meaningful measurements to support the marketing rhetoric. In addition to a favorable subjective review. the Dragonfly seems to have done OK for itself on the test bench - 
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/audioquest-dragonfly-usb-da-converter-measurements
 
I have absolutely no idea how those graphs compare with the other 'giant killer' budget DAC (and I cant link to that person's numbers), so I'll hand it over to the assemblage for more informed. hype-free discussion.  

 
(just for kicks, here is a link to the measurements for one of the earliest 'budget buster' USB DACs, the original HRT Music Streamer Pro:
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/hrt-music-streamer-pro-usb-da-converter-measurements
 
Unfortunately, Kevin doesnt seem to have responded  to the issues raised by JA in those tests, but I'm confident that they were fixed when my MSII hit the assembly lines !)

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by estreeter /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I have absolutely no idea how those graphs compare with the other 'giant killer' budget DAC (and I cant link to that person's numbers), so I'll hand it over to the assemblage for more informed. hype-free discussion.  

 
In short: the ODAC measures better overall. Although this does not necessarily mean that the DragonFly actually sounds bad. Those who do not mind using an internal sound card can also get better measured DAC performance from a Xonar D1 (or DX) sound card that costs less than $100.