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Topic: DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly (Read 4788 times) previous topic - next topic
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DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

I have two DACs lying in front of me. A Muse MX 5 for around 10 bucks and a Audioquest Dragonfly v1.2 I ordered for comparison for 150 bucks from Amazon.
Both are controlled via USB and work as desired on my MacBook Pro and my Lenovo Notebook. They both offer great sound with every headphone I own (Audio Technica M50-X, a few Beyerdynamics), but now it's time to choose between the two devices.
The Muse, on one hand, has an extremely competitive price tag, while the Audioquest Dragonfly is often considered to be up to with DACs as expensive as 400 to even 1000 Euros or Dollars.
While the Audioquest features an "ESS Sabre" DAC with own headphone amp, the Muse seem to have a pretty standard Texas Instruments DAC chip which also seems to be used for volume control.
The build quality of the Dragonfly seems to be OK, it feels massive and has a "premium attitude". It feels a lot like my AudioTechnica headphones - plastic, but heavy and solid. The Muse, on the other hand, is made out of painted metal (I think it's Aluminium) with sharp edges. Inside the Muse there's a simple circuit board with soldered connectors without a cable relief. Slack joints, here we come. 
But now, which one sounds best?

So I downloaded some samples of testing music.
I used HD-Tracks samples whenever possible, which I played via Audirvana Plus, which managed the Bit-depth and Samplerate settings on my DACs. Converter was the iZotope 64-Bit SRC, upsampling was disabled, volume control was done inside the DAC and every SystemOptimizer setting was used.

Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan
I began with this beautiful classic track playing with FLAC 24/96kHz from my AudioTechnicas.
On the Dragonfly as well as the Muse it sounded beautiful, very differenced and with good room and detail. I could localize most of the instruments and, to be honest, not tell which DAC is which, soundwise. If I'd be creative, I'd say that the Audioquest would show a little more detail and definition when it comes to higher volumes, but that's very subtle and maybe just my imagination.

Metallica - Sad but True
Taking into consideration that I, if I'm not listening to Jazz, Blues or Classic, am enjoying Metal in all of its flavors, I had to put a Metal track on my list.
Listening to this track I could also tell almost no difference. The Audioquest sounded a bit softer though.

Ludovico Einaudi - Andare
Listening to a 16/44.1 kHz Exact Audio Copy from the Original Album "Diveniere".
This track seems to be a real headphone killer - beginning from 2:30, on both DAC and using the AudioTechnica something seems to "clip" and I could hear some hefty clinkering going on with both. Using a pair Beyerdynamits T51 I could hardly notice this. Apart from that I could not really hear a difference between both devices.

Kollegah & Farid Bang - Jung, Brutal, Gutaussehend 2013 (instrumental)
This is an awful track, but actually the first one on which I could actually clearly hear the difference between both of the DACs. The Audioquest was subjectively a lot softer, the harsh, distorted (and most likely computer generated  ) guitar was not as crisp as on the Muse.

(...)

More tracks following as I proceed with my testing!

So here I am. I spent 160 bucks on DAC equipment and don't really know what to do. The DragonFly seems to be great value to many many people - but the Muse seems to be on par when it comes to sound quality.

Does someone on the board have experience with these DACs?



210 GPa

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #1 –
Welcome! May i ask how you decided to join Hydrogenaudio?
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #2 –
Quote from: 210 GPa on
Ludovico Einaudi - Andare
Listening to a 16/44.1 kHz Exact Audio Copy from the Original Album "Diveniere".
This track seems to be a real headphone killer - beginning from 2:30, on both DAC and using the AudioTechnica something seems to "clip" and I could hear some hefty clinkering going on with both. Using a pair Beyerdynamits T51 I could hardly notice this. Apart from that I could not really hear a difference between both devices.
The production of that album is very disappointing. No DAC, no matter the price, can fix that.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #3 –
Almost any modern audio DAC is better than human hearing.

Headphone amps can differ because the source impedance (if not low enough) can interact with the headphone impedance (which isn't constant over the frequency-range) to affect frequency response.  Also, some headphone amps can be noisier than others, and some have more output voltage/power.

Here at HydrogenAudio we have TOS#8 which says all claims concerning sound quality must be backed-up by a proper, level-matched blind listening test.  A blind listening test between two headphone amplifiers isn't easy to do, but you can record the outputs and then ABX the two recordings.

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Wombat on
Welcome! May i ask how you decided to join Hydrogenaudio?

I was reading the forums for quite a time when I was googling on audio stuff. Now I have some equipment which is above average and I want to know what you're thinking about my views; especially, I just want to know what you're thinking.

Quote from: Kohlrabi on
Quote from: 210 GPa on
Ludovico Einaudi - Andare
Listening to a 16/44.1 kHz Exact Audio Copy from the Original Album "Diveniere".
This track seems to be a real headphone killer - beginning from 2:30, on both DAC and using the AudioTechnica something seems to "clip" and I could hear some hefty clinkering going on with both. Using a pair Beyerdynamits T51 I could hardly notice this. Apart from that I could not really hear a difference between both devices.
The production of that album is very disappointing. No DAC, no matter the price, can fix that.

I thought so. On most of my devices I can barely listen to Einaudi because I run into issues with the quality. On the Beyerdynamics and lo-fi equipment it's fine, though

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #5 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Here at HydrogenAudio we have TOS#8 which says all claims concerning sound quality must be backed-up by a proper, level-matched blind listening test.  A blind listening test between two headphone amplifiers isn't easy to do, but you can record the outputs and then ABX the two recordings.


The testing was made in collaboration with a friend of mine who was plugging cables for me behind my back. Most of the times i could tell no difference between the two devices. I pointed out where I thought I heard some differences and tried to describe it. I will definitely continue testing and will try the ABX testing that you recommended.

The whole review is just my opinion, not scientific fact. Just as a disclaimer.

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #6 –
Quote
The whole review is just my opinion, not scientific fact. Just as a disclaimer.
Just be aware that a saying "It's just my opinion", doesn't let you off the hook.    The moderators are strict.

I know this can be frustrating but there is a TON of "audiophile nonsense" out there, and it's easy to fool yourself in a non-blind and/or non level-matched listening test.  We try to avoid all of that by being objective and scientific.

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Kohlrabi on
Quote from: 210 GPa on
Ludovico Einaudi - Andare
Listening to a 16/44.1 kHz Exact Audio Copy from the Original Album "Diveniere".
This track seems to be a real headphone killer - beginning from 2:30, on both DAC and using the AudioTechnica something seems to "clip" and I could hear some hefty clinkering going on with both. Using a pair Beyerdynamits T51 I could hardly notice this. Apart from that I could not really hear a difference between both devices.
The production of that album is very disappointing. No DAC, no matter the price, can fix that.

The music doesn't help much either...

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #8 –
Quote from: 210 GPa on
Most of the times i could tell no difference between the two devices. I pointed out where I thought I heard some differences and tried to describe it. I will definitely continue testing and will try the ABX testing that you recommended.

As your level matched ABX testing quality improves, most of the times will end up to all of the times. It is up to you to decide if you want to invest the time and effort to move in that direction!

DAC Duel: Muse MX 5 vs. Audioquest Dragonfly

Reply #9 –
Well, I did level mathched testing and could hear a clear difference between the two of the DAC, especially when there's applause and other "high frequency noise" present. The Audioquest does play these samples very unspectacular (you could say boring), but the muse, on the other hand, is extremely harsh and the clapping, which was plastic and natural on the audioquest, is more comparable to a box of nails hitting a sheet of metal.
I have decided for me. I'm keeping both - they both do sound very good, and 12 bucks for a DAC that sounds reasonable is more than okay. The audioquest is my device of reference - I'm using it as my high end reference as long as don't find something better.