Released in 2012, the original DragonFly digital-to-analog converter sent shockwaves through the high-end audio community — the good sort of shockwaves, that is: It got people excited about what hi-fi could be, where it could go, and how it could impact our relationship with music.
When he evaluated that original model, which launched with a $250 US price tag, Stereophile's wonderful Art Dudley found it excelled with tone color and musical texture, deciding it sounded at least as good as his then $900 reference DAC. He concluded, memorably:
Perhaps best of all, the DragonFly is fun: It's a thumb in the eye of those tea-pinky tyrants who would tell the rest of us what is and is not high end. I can think of no more recommendable product in digital audio.
