Red ESS 9016 DAC
Cobalt ESS ES9038Q2M DAC
You are too fixated on the chip. It’s just one part that makes the DAC to sound great. Implementation of that chip is far more important.
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With MQA the device is paying for licenses of an industry invention to get royalties. It’s no better than 24/192 This is what Linn, a hi-fi manufacturer, tells you:
Thank you for that most interesting contribution. It echoes my own thoughts about the rentiers of the music production business.
MQA is change, but not progress…
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For me, mqa is not a must have, but if I can take it with me, I’ll take it with me.
Especially if it only costs a little more.
I think the ifi zen dac is also an asset for me and MQA is still on top.
Cheers Chris
@Mephisto1111 HELLO I have had a Meridian Explorer 2 and AQ DragonflyRED both are excellent for MQA and other HiRes files but caution there is a lot negatives out there in Audiophile Universe about MQA I personally find no difference in SQ between TIDAL MQA and Qobuz 24/96(and most albums I played are upsampled to 24/192 by Audirvana + 3.5… anyway) or higher except MQA “sounds” louder and I have an outstanding system Schiit Audio Ragnarok 2 just the amp and Yggdrasil GS and Legacy Audio Studio HD Monitors
I am very pleased with Meridian and AQ DAC
bobbmd
I tried the Project Pre Box S2 digital, but sent it back to retailer and now going for Dragonfly Cobalt; Project S2D is a nice box, but very sensitive and unstable with sources which are less than perfect… e.g. over Tidal Master streams (MQA) it simply got berserk and needed a full firmware re-install 
Project Pre-Box S2 Digital
Works really well for me with Tidal.
Are you directly using the Tidal desktop app or streaming via Audirvana?
Using Audivana. Sounds great. Noticeably better than my old Audiolab 8200CD. Not much of the music in my favourites is MQA, but sounds good either way. The box itself is tiny and utilitarian-looking but the DAC itself is top notch - above what you’d normally get in the this price range. The remote is useful but a bit cheap-looking. It’s annoying there’s no off switch, but apart from that, works really well
Have you experienced any MQA dropouts by chance? I’m hoping you got a good unit as there are a lot out there that have serious issues with keeping the MQA filter engaged long enough to play through a whole song without dropping. Would be interested to know your experience. Thanks
I haven’t had any problem with it it all. I wouldn’t get too excited by MQA though, it sounds good, but FLAC also sounds good. Nice to have the option, but not worth forking a ton of cash over.