AudioQuest DragonFly Copper review

AudioQuest’s DragonFly Copper retains all the charm and simplicity of the very first DragonFly we tested back in 2012: a hi-res DAC and headphone amplifier tucked into the titchy dimensions of a USB memory stick.

We marvelled back then at how such a small device could transform your computer into a full hi-fi system, and we haven’t stopped being impressed with subsequent DragonFly models (Black, Red, Cobalt) – all of which received enthusiastic five stars and have woven their way into many of the review team’s desktop hi-fi arsenal.

The new AudioQuest DragonFly Copper claims to be the brand’s most powerful and efficient DragonFly yet. Has it struck gold again?

Price

Costing £229 / $250, the DragonFly Copper launches at a lower price than the previous Cobalt did at £269 / $300 back in 2019. The DragonFly Cobalt is a multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winner for many years until it was discontinued, and in its latter years its price dropped down to around £179 / $200.

There are some strong contenders at either side of the Copper’s price. At the cheaper end you’ll find iFi’s Go Link Max (£79 / $79) and hip-dac 3 (£199 / $199), while the Award-winning Chord Mojo 2 (at £395 / $650) remains the steadfast option for those who can pay more.

Build & design

We’re delighted that the DragonFly Copper has stuck to its winning plug-and-play design. It’s tiny and easily portable. It is identical in size and shape to the older Cobalt, with only the shiny ‘copper’ finish differentiating the two on the outside.

At one end is a 3.5mm output for plugging in your wired headphones, while on the other is a USB-A connector for connecting to your computer. Using it couldn’t be easier. As before, a USB-A to USB-C adaptor (called DragonTail) is included in the box, so you can use the DragonFly Copper with smartphones and a broader range of laptops.

There’s no volume control, buttons or menu here. The only adornment on this tiny DAC is the dragonfly logo that lights up and changes colour according to the sampling rate of the music file being played: green for 44.1kHz, blue for 48kHz, yellow for 88.2kHz and light blue for 96kHz. It glows red when in standby mode.

Despite the variety of ultra-portable DACs that are available on the market, we think the DragonFly Copper remains a wonderfully unfussy and practical design for instantly boosting the sound from your laptop (or smartphone), and elegant in its simplicity.

Its size means you can keep it anywhere – alongside your keys in your bag, in the mug that holds all your pens, or leave it attached to your laptop without it taking up any meaningful space. Its simplicity means absolutely anyone, even a novice or technophobe, can use it without any barrier.

Our only minor complaint about the otherwise classy and solid build is that this new finish shows up fingerprints quite easily.

So what’s changed? Inside is a new 32-bit ESS Sabre DAC/headphone amp, while better parts and materials are used to help improve performance. The Copper promises twice the output power of any previous DragonFly, while power consumption is reduced by about 25 per cent, all while improving supply-chain efficiency.

We are promised lower noise and distortion than before, and that copper-plated casing isn’t just about looks – it is also designed for improved RF (radio frequency) noise dissipation.

Features

The DragonFly aims to handle all kinds of popular file types, from MP3s to WAVs to FLACs. You’ll have noticed by the LED colours that the maximum native file resolution is supported up to 24-bit/96kHz PCM. The Copper will accept 24-bit/192kHz files, but they will be downsampled. This is versatile enough for most people’s desktop music libraries, but there are now rival portable DACs even at this level that can support native 192kHz playback – so why this limit?

For AudioQuest, it was simply more important that the DragonFly Copper worked with every device you plugged it into. So to avoid any potential issues with device compatibility, the Copper uses the base USB Audio Class 1/USB 1.1 standard, which, while having a 24-bit/96kHz cap, ensures that it will have no issues when used with any audio-capable USB port. That means regardless of whether you’re using iOS, Android, Mac, Linux or Windows, new or old, the DragonFly Copper will/should work with all.

Additionally, in such a small package as the DragonFly, AudioQuest found that running at higher sampling frequencies increases noise levels, which tends to have an adverse effect on sound quality. While in a larger DAC this could be solved by separating the digital and analogue sections and shielding parts from the increased noise generated by the higher sampling rate, AudioQuest tells us this wasn’t possible in such a tiny form factor.

For AudioQuest, chasing the higher spec introduced trade-offs that it wasn’t happy with. If your digital library is full of these rarer higher file rates (and DSD files), you will want to consider alternatives, but we think the DragonFly Copper, for this price and its intended use, will be more than adequate for most people.

Sound

We plug the DragonFly Copper into both a Lenovo Windows laptop and a MacBook Pro running Audirvana software, and play a variety of local tracks – hi-res FLACs, CD-ripped WAVs and even some lowly MP3s – as well as our favourite Tidal playlists. We also use a wide variety of headphones throughout our testing, which include the Beyerdynamic 990 Pro X, Grado SR325x, Shure SRH1540 and Sennheiser HD 600.

Does the DragonFly Copper improve your laptop’s music compared with simply plugging wired headphones straight into your laptop’s 3.5mm port? 100 per cent. The change in performance is immediate: every song sounds more powerful and dynamic, and musical elements are more precisely and confidently placed in a larger, more spacious soundstage. Layers of detail and texture are unearthed, with voices and instruments sounding full-bodied and substantial, while timing is spot-on.

Playing Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain (in 24-bit/96kHz), we find the leading edges to be crisply drawn, basslines and drum kicks are pulled taut and land with snappy impact, and there’s a good amount of tactility and shine to the guitar strums. Rhythmically, it all dovetails together to sound cohesive in the roomy soundstage. There’s drive and momentum in the repeated chorus – you can hear the fierceness in Stevie Nicks’ and Lindsey Buckingham’s warring vocals – and the drop in near-silence before that iconic bassline hits is appropriately dramatic.

With the DragonFly Copper deployed, that bassline is weighty and satisfying, while still tuneful and fast enough to keep the melody propelling forward.

Play The Curse by Agnes Obel, and the Copper makes it all sound fluid, atmospheric and involving. The breathy layers of her ethereal voice fill up the spacious soundscape convincingly while also sounding intimate; the difference in pressure of the fingers plucking the strings and the movement of the bow across the strings is more apparent.

Compared to previous DragonFly DACs, the Copper sounds cleaner and less noisy, and that darker background allows for more subtlety and depth to the sound, while big dynamic shifts are handled with punch and a greater degree of gradation.

No matter what genre or file type we play – a 24-bit/192kHz FLAC of Tom Waits’ Closing Time album or MP3s of indie-folk demos or a CD-quality Khruangbin album – the Copper handles every kind of recording to the best of its very admirable ability, allowing the songs to flourish in the spotlight.

The grimy, sludgy, distorted guitars in Defones’ Change (In the House of Flies) come through with a satisfying amount of muscle and heavy angst, while Michael Giacchino’s orchestral Star Trek (2009) compositions sound rousing and inspiring. The differences in tonal quality between the big thunderous drums and the reedy woodwinds are relayed with a good amount of skill, and the variations between the quietest moment and a sudden loud moment are handled with authority and nuance in equal measure.

The Copper doesn’t shy away from laying bare low-fi or messy recordings, either. The noisy, shriller recording of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea isn’t scrubbed clean, with those glaring, higher notes coming through with all their shininess intact, but without sounding horribly bright or hard.

Through it all, the DragonFly Copper ensures that everything still sounds organised and has solid footing. Rhythmically, it is quite excellent for its price and type, and so no matter the genre, it holds its own and leaves us hooked to the music, toes tapping and attention rapt.

It’s a similar story when we plug the Copper into an iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S24, although as it draws power from the connected source, it sounds less powerful and less subtle through a smartphone compared with a laptop.

We would also recommend choosing your wired headphones carefully as the DragonFly Copper is more than capable of driving even premium options, and is flexible enough to showcase each headphones’ specific sonic character, too.

The differences between the Copper and Cobalt are pretty much how we found the differences between the Cobalt and the Red. The newer model is crisper, cleaner and more punctual, with a tighter bass and greater finesse, leaving the older model sounding a touch fuller and fuzzier. Both DACs are excellent performers that make music sound exciting and involving; the Copper is simply a more attention-grabbing performer, while the Cobalt now feels like a comfortable old friend.

Give it some good running-in time, and the new Copper will settle in just as nicely.

Verdict

We were briefly worried that AudioQuest wouldn’t be making any more DragonFlys once the Cobalt DAC’s stock started winding down. We are very glad that it has, as the new DragonFly Copper is a terrific, tiny, simple device that is incredibly effective at making your desktop-bound music sound a hundred times better.

For its size and price, it’s quite astonishing just how good it is. Highly recommend.

Review published: 28th September 2026

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 3

MORE:

Read our review of the iFi Go Link Max

Also consider the Chord Mojo 2

Best DACs: USB, desktop and portable digital-to-analogue converters