audioquest AUDIOQUEST DRAGONFLY AudioQuest Dragonfly (Open Box)

Where shall I begin?I am an audiophile, I truly love sound, I care for the quality of sound, music is so important in my life.I have a dedicated portable music transport and separate portable dac, but it becomes too much to carry around or to even travel with all the time or to go to the gym with or to even go for long walks with and I'm just too damn old to even carry it in a separate bag. So I decided to purchase a dac for the phone. I first started with the Black, which was a slight decent upgrade, but not what I needed. I borrowed a friends red, and that was a beautiful upgrade, nice warm sound, and then I bought the Cobalt (blue). I was amazed and disappointed at the same time.First, this truly upgrades the sound beyond what I had expected, the sound separation was mind blowing, the bass, treble and mid range were all separate close to perfection.When it comes to this dac, you must match it with a good pair of headphones or in ear buds. I used it with Bowers and Wilkins in ear and headphones and it was a great experience to a certain extent.What do I mean by certain extent?Well, once you pass the midway volume point, it begins to sound distorted due to the volume being so loud coming from the dac, listening to it at low and mid volume you will get perfect sound, but raise it up past the mid-level volume it sounds over bearing at times.Now, the build quality is great, it's smaller than the black and red. Quality of product? I had to return two of them, the first one I ordered had static on the left side, the second one I ordered had a strong loud whining sound that came on every 20 minutes. It was so loud that it would have caused hearing damage if I was listening to it at a loud volume. When looking into these issues, it seems to be an ongoing issue for many years. I guess it's hit or miss when buying this.I've read reviews that it isn't for every kind of music genre. I disagree with that statement, I listen to everything, from house and club music which sounds excellent with this dac, to listening to lossless files of Beatles and Elvis Presley music, to classic rock, classic instrumental jazz, old school hip-hop and so much more. And the difference is stunning. I'm not sure what the issue is with it being so loud to the point of being overbearing, which if you look online is an issue, to the static and whining sound which is also a known issue.Although Audioquest has a great return and replacement guarantee, it defeats the purpose of trying to trust this brand with quality control.Is it worth $200? It is if it didn't have these issues, I think the upgrade in sound that it gives you is worth the price. Is there a difference between this one and the red? Yes, the separation and detail within definition is better on the cobalt, however, if you like warmer sound similar to listening to vinyl records, I would go with the red. If you really don't care much for sound quality and want a slight improvement in sound, go for the black. But if you are someone like me that really cares for sound, and sit back and listen deeply to music, the red and cobalt are your options. If you really want to listen to definition and detail, and hear things you've never heard before on a song, the Cobalt is your go to. I will give you some examples.Pearl Jam - Rearview Mirror, at the very end of the song you hear the drummer throw the drum sticks on the floor in anger, you hear the sticks hit the floor in full detail.Pearl jam - Black, you hear the piano clearly separated which is beautiful and makes you feel the emotion of this song even deeperMile Davis - kind of blue, you can hear this man breathing each time he blows a deep note, it's so powerful.Elvis Presley - Big Boss Man, the separation of the instruments brings you closer to the song, hearing the band truly jam hard on this track makes you realize that Elvis did indeed pick the right band members with the way they are playing.The cobalt is worth it, especially if Audioquest fixes the issues that it has...One last note, I've read reviews of people saying to use it with the jitter bug, do not! It diminishes the sound quality, the cobalt does not need it at all, the black does as it makes a difference with that one.So I give it a solid 8 with the volume being at low to mid, then I give it a 5 with it higher than that.