I have looked for hours to try and find settings to turn up the quality of my playback on both Mac and iPhone. I have experienced nothing but failure, just a green dragonfly staring back at me. Dear god please someone help!
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What do you mean by āturn up the quality of my playbackā?
The indicator on the Dragonfly units simply tells you what bit-rate it is being fed and/or if the material is MQA encoded or not. And this is dependent on the source material itself and what player/client you are using to play the music.
Technically, you could up-sample content to a higher sample rate - and doing so will change the color of the light on the Dragonfly ā¦ but it wonāt change the quality of the source material.
So, do you have high resolution source material? If so, what format and where from? What are you using to play it with?
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I am using Spotify premium. I seem to recall higher playback when I first set it up. I can be electronically challenged. I havenāt really used the dragonfly much due to disappointment of the initial sound compared to what I heard on my friends nearly identical setup. I am listening on RHA T20i
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Spotify content is ALL 44.1 kHz, so unless you had the incorrect settings in the Audio Midi Settings on macOS, it would play back as just that and light the green light on the Dragonfly.
If you were using Spotify on an iPhone thereās no option to upsample, so that also should have registered as 44.1 kHz and lit up the Dragonfly as green.
If you donāt like the sound of the Dragonfly with, or without, the RHA T20i, upsampled material/higher sample rates wonāt change it.
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Thank you for the thorough explanation of my ignorance. It must have been setup to upscale. To improve my listening pleasure what do you suggest I use for playback? Where do you suggest I look to increase my knowledge? Thanks Steve
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Without knowing what it is you like in general (both music and preferred signature), or what you donāt like about the Spotify/Dragonfly/RHA T20i, along with some idea of budget, itās really hard to suggest anything.
Whatās your friends setup that you seem to like?
This is as good a place as any!
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This might be a silly question, but has anyone found a way to keep the Apple usb to lightning camera adapter working with the dragonfly red?
This will be the second Apple adapter I am getting now as the first two just stopped working all together.
I am considering the larger version this time as Audioquestās website recommends it over the standard usb camera to lightning adapter.
I wish there was an iFi version of it like there is with the usb c connector from iFi as they are built way better and last vs. Appleās. These Apple adapters are pretty bad for longevity useā¦
think there are third party connectors
from what I read in other threads the apple camera connection kit 3 is ok
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Iāve been starting to experience issues with the Apple usb to lightening adapter paired with the Dragonfly Cobalt.
Iāve only had it for about a month, but I occasionally have audio drop outs. I find itās due to movement of the connector (Lightening portion).
Itās a bit of an annoyance and Iāve considered using a usb-c female to female adapter paired with a short Lightening to usb-c cable (DFC+Dragontail).
I may order this week and Iāll post an update if it works.
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Yeah same issues for me, now to the point it wonāt even work at all. It started with cutting out as a warning sign then it went 
.
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Yeah it looks like many people agree the original camera to USB port is garbage after reading many reviews online today. Iām going to give the one for $10 more a shot with dragonfly red today when I swing by Best Buy on the way to my studio and see how it does. There is chatter online that Apple will completely remove any ports on their phones next year. 
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What?!
That doesnāt make any sense. I can see the reasoning for using USB-C on their āProā models, but to remove all ports? Thatās just crazy, but very possible.
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I recently went back to Apple phones and I miss my USB-C port, I have a couple of usb-c Dongle DACs my favorite being the Razer THX DAC hard to find now for some reasonā¦ anyhow, I would look at any lightning to USB on amazon with good reviews, they shouldnāt be more than $20 in my opinion but meh lol
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I agree!!!
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I had a Dragontail recommended and from what I read it is good qc wise and fits the ifi xDSD port even better than the OTG by ifi
Got a free ifi USB C OTG cable from support as I asked for longer alternatives. They send it to me from UK to munich without asking/telling me
I already had the original ifi otg cables with USB-C and Micro USB 
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I havenāt listened to any ifi products, but Iām certain Iād enjoy them. I love the smoothness of Burr Brown chips and ifi has such great feedback on their products.
I went with the DFC because of the convenience of a dongle.
I may upgrade to an ifi portable in the future.
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I use both the Dragonfly R and the iFi iDSD Micro Black label. iFi portables are my favorite so far.
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I totally get it. A tiny USB dongle is super conveniant
With the Fiio BTR5 as balanced or single endedā¦wired and wireless DAC/AMP these days for around 100 bucksā¦
Could be a alternative for others
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Haha I like the BTR3 too. All of these portable units are fun and great to use and not a huge investment. The iFi products even have more entry level portables that are quite affordable and I am sure sound terrific.
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