Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan_DR3
I agree with you it is a good thing, but what DACs and how did they add it for free?
Even if it is just a software update they would have to charge for it to recover the cost of MQA licenses (unless it was already planned and charged for).
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The first was my PS Audio DirectStream DAC with Bridge II which I got in 2014. Roon was added at a later stage, then MQA (both free).
The second was my iFi micro iDSD. I got that like forever ago even before MQA was ever announced (2011? 2012?). Then on 31 March this year (most of us thought it was an April Fool's joke), they released a firmware to handle MQA. It still isn't a full MQA decoder. It requires software to first unfold 24/96 but it handled the second stage rendering to 24/192. That's due to the age of the hardware, just didn't have enough DSP to do full MQA decoding. But still free. Works great with the TIDAL app and Audirvana Plus or Roon.
Actually come to think of it, my Oppo 205 (which was announced with no MQA support) ended up getting MQA over USB for free. So that made three.
It's already free so I am not sure how it could become "unfree"??
Others with MQA added for free (not originally specified at launch) include.. the Lumin streamers which I don't own.