Dragonfly 1.2 not having any noticeable effect?

[petebryan]

Hi, I'd like your thoughts on this one:

Over Christmas I thought it would be fun (and indeed it was!) to put together a music server in my spare room from some old hifi kit in my loft that had previously been superseded by newer kit over the years. So I ended up with an Asus Aspire One netbook (no soundcard), running WIndows 7, playing through an AV amplifier- the Sony STR VA555ESs from c2002 (in stereo mode), and Wharfdale 505.2 speakers (c 1996) on stands.

Both the amp and speakers were What Hifi category winners at the time so all reasonably decent kit. The netbook was initially connected to the AV amp by a 3.5mm jack to 2*RCAs cable, plugged into the DAT input in the amp (there are a number of inputs I could have used which are presumably identical).

Having read from the DAC reviews that there should be a significant improvement in this kind of setup, I went for an Audioquest Dragonfly 1.2 which slots into te USB port of the netbook (from which the same 3.5mm jack to 2*RCA cable is used to connect to the amp). My issue us that it makes no noticeable difference being played thru the Dragonfly compared to sound quality when simply connecting the netbook directly to the amp using the 3.5mm jack from the cable into the headphone output. The only difference is that the sound needs more volume when played through the DAC.

Does anybody have any thoughts why that might be? That's not to say it all sounds bad, it doesn't; it's ok, but that's about all.

The netbook volume is set at 25% as per the Dragonfly instructions.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[petebryan]

Should have said: am listening to itunes files ripped from CD at 320kbps. Typical music might be the Killers for example.

 

[fr0g]

If you're using the Sony receiver as volume control then the computer sound should be at 100%. The 25% is if you use (for example, iTunes) as volume control. If that's what you are doing I can only assume that the output from the Netbook is fine (Some laptops are rather poor, but many are pretty good and really don't need an external DAC).

If you are using the Sony for volume, I would guess that at 25%, you are making the amp struggle. It is purely a guess though 🙂

Anyway, from this link...

http://www.audioquest.com/usb_digital_analog_converter/faqs

"DragonFly is also capable of being employed as a traditional fixed-output source component (such as a CD, DVD or Blu-ray player), and can be connected to a standard input on a receiver or preamplifier. For this application, both the music player’s volume control and the main operating system volume control should be set to maximum. This “fixed output mode” allows your audio or AV system’s volume control to be in charge."

 

[petebryan]

...Good point, many thanks. Will try that and let you know how it goes.

Much appreciated!