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MQA compatible DAP?

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I'm looking at purchasing my first decent DAP, and I'm wondering if MQA compatibility is something I should care about.
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nwimpney
219
Jun 30, 2017
I have a Fiio x3 2nd gen. It's not perfect, but I like it. The menus are a little clunky, but it supports the formats I use (mostly ogg and flac), has replaygain support, works as a DAC on the PC, and sounds good. It also works with big memory cards (128GB, at least)
They were a bit slow to get some pretty essential features fixed/implemented, but they did eventually get there, and I'll definitely look at their current offerings next time I need a player.
MQA looks like a total gimmick to me. It looks mostly like not just a mediocre lossy format, but a THX-like certification program where they get to cash in on every step of the chain.
I say don't worry about it. It won't make your music sound any better, It just tells you that there was a pile of extra fees paid during the production of your music.
Henko
0
Jul 23, 2020
nwimpneyWe are in 2020 now and the world of portable audio has chanced a bit. There are more MQA palyers than ever right now. Tidal Masters is in MQA so YES definitely worth the money. HiBy R5 and R6 do both MQA. And even some LG smartphones. The discussion is ongoing. https://www.facebook.com/groups/689938551214806/
nwimpney
219
Jul 23, 2020
HenkoThe world of portable audio has changed. Now even more people listening on phones with overpriced bluetooth earbuds that will hear even less diffence between audio formats. MQA still doesn't really improve anything for the end user. It's still using a lossy codec which is worse than others that are available (Though with lossy codecs there's some variance in what people like subjectively) Pretty much all it does is gives you a little light that says the people producing your music files spent the money and went through whatever silly certification is necessary to make the light turn on. If you need a light to validate that all the extra money you spent was worth it, maybe it wasn't actually worth it? At this point, if we want better sound, where the improvements need to come from are mixing/mastering (stop compressing the hell out of everything), and at the streaming services (learn to normalize downward to a reference level, instead of further destroying dynamics, and stop transcoding from lossy source material) With that alone, 192kbit ogg encoding like spotify has been using would actually sound just fine to most people. The reason it sounds bad now is not because of the final format it's presented in. It's cumulative losses from all the other steps of abuse, changing formats and bitrates, and feeding streams through bulk compression, etc.
martinmcd
39
Jun 30, 2017
OK, no responses, so I'll ask a broader question. What is your favorite digital audio player? I'm talking hardware, not software.
Juka
191
Jun 30, 2017
martinmcdMQA is a digital format, so if you have music in that format then you may want. If you don't, then why bother?
Sony NW series are pretty nice and does pretty much everything. Although, I prefer sticking with a phone.
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