As of June 3rd 2022, MQA appears in many dacs. Should I pay extra for this feature?

[AmalfiMan]

Many of the dacs mentioned and recommended within the past year are no longer available on amazon. Example the Schiit Hel 2. Or JDS Atom.

What appears to be available now are some advertised with MQA, but prices go up $60-100.
The Topping EX5 is $350, with MQA.
The SMSL is $250, without MQA.

Is MQA future proof? And any impacts/benefits to video games?

 

[tifune]

Absolutely not; many here would argue you should not buy a MQA DAC specifically as a statement against it. I'm not sure I'm that staunch about it myself; I would just ignore it if the DAC had all the other features I need, but I do agree it's nonsense and the sooner it's gone, the better

 

[Katji]

No.

Please use the Search facility.

[ Long story short: several threads about MQA were closed/locked. You can use the rest of the day reading them, if you like. In other words, there are long, comprehensive threads, with technical detail, tests, youtube, and the history of MQA. ]

 

[abdo123]

You should buy it because without it you’re basically experiencing MQA content in below Red book CD quality.

There are many caveats here though, since this is a loaded topic here i’m sure many people will jump to explain them to you.

 

[BDWoody]

Let's just use the search function for this one please. This is well covered.