I’m creating a Dragon thread as it seems to be taking up a lot of Matrix Spdif real estate. So post your thoughts here if you own or have experienced any of the Dragon cables. Dragon 48 I2S, Dragon speaker cable, or the Dragon power cables. I haven’t experienced one yet so I be reading about your experiences.
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I have a Dragon HDMI arriving today. To see if it displaces the RAL silver prophecy. The silver plated coppers are good but sizzle and better than coppers alone. But not as nice sounding and smooth as the silvers ,I have tried in my system, which is 48 silk dome tweeters.
But everyone’s system is different.
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Ahh the Dragon. Straight from Audioquest Dragon Labs full of mystical powers and unknown artifacts honed to perfection. I´m waiting for mine to arrive too 
I couldn´t help it but had to order one also. Well it´s the connection of the future but I kind of hoped to get Octave streamer or DSD mk2 before shoveling stupid amount of money to hdmi cable,but that´s what waiting too long does. But I love cables ! 
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I was thinking the same thing. But shortages of hardware and waiting for cash accumulation for the other big ticket items. it was easier now to enjoy my system with equipment on hand and top of line cables. My system has been responsive in a positive manner to tweaks with cables and fuses.
We can compare notes on the Dragon. I am hoping the Dragon power cable is good too. If too good I maybe selling some unused McIntosh equipment to finance more. McIntosh bringing more 2.5 times what I bought them for.
I wish I’d peak on cables so equipment upgrades would be next. But it sure is nice squeezing more performance out of what you have.
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The legendary Dragon HDMI showed up and i am now running it through burn in. So far out of the box it did not disappoint. As @waymanchen11 said it is readily more clear than the RAL and the ability to discern voices and sound in spatial relationships is better. The thing that shocked me was the echoes and spatial cues and the electronic auras associated with them disappeared.
The RAL has all the information it is just giving the extra electronic noise I thought was common in all digital recordings and I have also heard demoing many high end SOTA systems costing 100K plus.
The soundstage width is trapped at edge of the speakers with the Dragon. I suspect that will subside with time and use. I believe I will really like this cable. No buyer’s remorse yet.
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Give it a few weeks of burn in. The distance from the RAL will even be further apart.
This cable needs a lot of burn in or it can sound a bit rough in the beginning, especially in the highs. After full burn in, you really shouldn’t hear this cable at all, all you should hear is music.
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Well back from Symphony after three more hours. Soundstage is way wider. I bought this Dragon off @paul172 friends cables so not sure if he ever tried it out. Regardless it looked pristine. How does DBs look on a cable never turned on? There was no instructions or a prayer in the crown royal bag like a RAL cable. The green light lit and the DBS box was already plugged up. So I assume it was already activated?
This Dragon HDMi is sounding like a huge upgrade
I hope Al snagged Paul’s other cable.
Listening to Chris Jones. Roadhouse & Automobiles. My God never realized the other two background singers doing accompanying vocals . One a female. If you have a DS and matrix do a Dragon HDMi. Especially if you have done the mods.
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Hi Darrell, glad to see the Dragon arrived! Al did purchased Dragon #2 hopefully it will arrive on Monday for him to enjoy. The DBS is turnkey on the cable. There may be a tab that needs to be removed to activate the batteries otherwise if you press the button and it lights up green you are good to go! Enjoy and I look forward to more reviews!
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Glad this cable is working for you. Even if Paul’s friend broke in the cable a little, it really takes a much longer time to completely open up. It will get better as you put more time on it.
The light on the DBS is there only to test if the battery is still good, it should never be on unless you push the button to test it.
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Good point the light is just a quick visual test for the batteries. The cable is brand new and I don’t think it’s ever been used so the break in will be necessary. Enjoy!
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Sounds like your review is spot on and the cable is living up to the hype! Great job @waymanchen11
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And if you have a PST, you need this Dragon 48 HDMI also. That’s why I have two. I cannot listen to my PST without this cable. It sounded so compromised with the RAL.
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Yeah the new normal with a Dragon HDMI has to be uncompromising. I can see why Darren Myers went all Dragons in his new system. I hope my Rag tag collection of cables will suffice. He still owes his Dragon HDMI impression to his pod cast listeners.
I have gotten such great cable advice in this forum. They all don’t need to be expensive either.
Thanks for investing us with your experiences.
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There is no Dragon usb cable so far,and if I had to make a bet it won´t be too long before it shows up 
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For USB cables, you have Phil’s ChordMusic mega bucks USB, my excellent Nordost Valhalla 2 USB, and Al’s Shunyata Sigma USB, also there’s the new Shunyata Omega USB, so AQ has it’s work cut out for themselves to outdo these impressive USB’s now on the market.
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Audioquest needs a new top tier USB the Diamond is getting long in the tooth.
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I am still slumming it with an Inakustik Referenz. But I am sure cleaning signal multiple times never hurts. Maybe that’s the cable Galen is working on?
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What is the difference between the Dragon eArc 48 GBPS High Speed and Dragon 48 GBPS High Speed? The latter is more than 2X the price!
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Hopefully Galen is working on digital cables as I would like to see Iconoclast usb and I2s cables. I´m very happy with Inakustik Referenz too and have no interest to look further now. Looking in to future i wish to see I2s connections only so we can get rid of this reclocking and purifying madness what usb is all about. But it´s been fun to play with all these tweaks though.
@Serhan I believe eArc wont work with I2s connections at all. Different pin configuration.
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So, if they’re essentially the same cables with different pin configurations, then at x2 the price, audiophiles are being taken for a ride!
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