Dropping MQA would be a shot in the knee cap for the Roon. So highly, highly unlikely. As for quality, as a partnership between them and MQA, there is no doubth they've done it badly, more so even better than chinese DS dacs with MQA support 
Anywho, this is represented as a viable option to this topic/OP requirements. In my opinion much better than cheap delta sigma solution. But opinions are like *****, we all got em 😅
Anywho, this is represented as a viable option to this topic/OP requirements. In my opinion much better than cheap delta sigma solution. But opinions are like *****, we all got em 😅
Looks like there may be a problem in terms of MQA. Presumably the reason for wanting it is to get better SQ? Yet if only bad sounding dacs support MQA then is SQ really being optimized?
If $1,200 were to be the dac budget, seems pretty likely the best bet would be the Holo Cyan 2. Holo dacs are already pretty well known for especially good SQ.
Otherwise, if Cyan 2 features are unneeded or it its too much over budget, the dacs designed by @abraxalito tend to be low cost and give good sound. Also there is the Miro 1862 dac which many people say is the best they have heard so far.
Also as an aside for those folks inclined to discount any diy dac, and regarding Holo anything versus my custom discrete resistor DSD dac, seems likely Holo would have some catching up to do. The number of regulators and or the highest DSD sample rate is not all there is to it. Is the Holo DSD implementation RTZ? For only $5,000 or so the chances seem slim of having SOA clocks? Any phase noise plots? Maybe a Mola dac would be closer. (Also, we have discrete R2R here as well. Just prefer the DSD) Only point is that diy is not standing still, not stuck in the past. It keeps moving along with technological advancements and improving perceptual SQ.
If $1,200 were to be the dac budget, seems pretty likely the best bet would be the Holo Cyan 2. Holo dacs are already pretty well known for especially good SQ.
Otherwise, if Cyan 2 features are unneeded or it its too much over budget, the dacs designed by @abraxalito tend to be low cost and give good sound. Also there is the Miro 1862 dac which many people say is the best they have heard so far.
Also as an aside for those folks inclined to discount any diy dac, and regarding Holo anything versus my custom discrete resistor DSD dac, seems likely Holo would have some catching up to do. The number of regulators and or the highest DSD sample rate is not all there is to it. Is the Holo DSD implementation RTZ? For only $5,000 or so the chances seem slim of having SOA clocks? Any phase noise plots? Maybe a Mola dac would be closer. (Also, we have discrete R2R here as well. Just prefer the DSD) Only point is that diy is not standing still, not stuck in the past. It keeps moving along with technological advancements and improving perceptual SQ.
Not me. Avoid the stuff. I have hay fever.Indeed. There is also an option not to whack empty hay, yet you continie to do so
A DIY valve DAC, but it doesn't support MQA, and it may be above the budget. In fact, because of licensing issues, I don't see how any DIY DAC could support MQA, except for the partial support via Roon mentioned in this thread.
My DAC has an apodizing filter which is meant to shorten the impulse response, like MQA does, but less drastically. I never use it, because I don't notice the difference anyway. It could be that others would notice the difference, but I don't.
It is that guy. However, IIUC some of what MQA does, part of it is to hide information in synthetic noise at the high end of the audio spectrum where there is little natural high amplitude content in music played on conventional instruments. Since that area of "frequency/amplitude" space is arguably not needed for music, it can be used to encode increased bit-depth, or whatever. If so, don't know if I like that or not. There is other stuff it does too such as compressed sensing where it tries to find an optimum solution to reconstruction using sparse matrix techniques in some sparse domain.
If the MQA is a must, look no further than here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/gustard-a26-dac-streamer-review.43442/
... another good match for your amp and speakers...
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/gustard-a26-dac-streamer-review.43442/
... another good match for your amp and speakers...
I ended up getting a very cheap SMSL c-100 which is phenomenally better than my old portable DAC. I mean super cheap and it sounds phenomenal for the price.
I did a lot of little changes in my setup and I am blown away how good it all sounds now, but I'll create a kef 107/2 experience thread and wow they are good.
I did a lot of little changes in my setup and I am blown away how good it all sounds now, but I'll create a kef 107/2 experience thread and wow they are good.