Writing for What Hi-Fi?, Alastair Stevenson offers a touching piece on AudioQuest's award-winning DragonFly Cobalt, which, to this day, remains our most popular and accomplished portable USB DAC.
Indeed, DragonFly Cobalt is loved by many. In November 2021, Jana Dagdagan traveled to Mirac Tabtronics in Lynchburg, Ohio, for a behind-the-scenes look at the Cobalt manufacturing process. Upon its release in July 2019, John Darko took Cobalt for a journey around Berlin, documenting Cobalt's unique combination of performance and versatility in a memorable piece appropriately titled, "Excellence Everywhere."
In the time since — thoroughly blurring lines between audiophiles, headphone enthusiasts, and everyday music lovers — Cobalt received mentions from the likes of Rolling Stone and Men's Health while earning glowing praise from Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, Twittering Machines, Part-Time Audiophile, SoundStage, Audiophile Style, and many more of the world's leading hi-fi publications.
In his more recent piece for What Hi-Fi?, Stevenson explained his personal relationship with Cobalt:
[I]t was a quietly revolutionary item at the time, that, outside of my headphones, rapidly became my most used bit of hi-fi as it solved a key problem no one else seemed to care about — mobile devices' subpar audio.
Stevenson reflects on Cobalt's greatness and mourns its passing:
Even now, the Cobalt continues to be good, as evidenced by its final What Hi-Fi? Awards win in 2024. But after being discontinued, stocks drying up, and it looking more and more unlikely to get a refresh, its time in the sun is undeniably over....
I get why the company doesn't seem interested in making a newer model.
That DragonFly holds a place close to Alastair Stevenson's heart is a great compliment to AudioQuest, our design team, and everyone who brought the product to life.
But we are happy to announce that any reports of DragonFly's demise are premature, and AudioQuest is not only "interested" in making a new model but we are well into the process of doing so.
Has the DragonFly really been slain? Stay tuned for more on that.
In the meantime, enjoy Alastair Stevenson's complete reminiscence on DragonFly Cobalt.
