Thanks guys, looking into those options :thumbsup:

Thanks, I'll check those out - although 3 boxes might be getting a little 'unportable' for my needs!

Thanks, that's helpful and saves me a lot of legwork looking! So, firstly, I hope that Cayin might produce such a device in the future... Second, if I had to use a 2-box approach, what would be the best way to 'feed' one of the Cayin tube amps with the above requirements, do you think? I guess...

Your English is fine, thank you for helping! What I’m after is something like a portable one-box DAC/Amp with a tube stage (I just tend to like the sound of tubes) and with the ability to play Tidal, including MQA, in some way. But it must be Apple ecosystem compatible. Ideally it would be Roon...

Very cool. Is that a tube amp in that one?

Thanks! That's an interesting product but I can't see any MQA support, etc.? I've been following Cayin for a while, hoping they would produce a tubed portable with DAC (and Tidal Masters, or Roon support) when used with a laptop or iPhone. The DAPs they produce are very nice, but unfortunately...

I’m in the market for one of these with a DAC built-in as I love the concept of a SS/Tube portable. Has to work seamlessly with Mac/iPhone/Tidal MQA (or ideally Roon) for me, though... anything in the pipeline from you guys please?

Hardware EQ would likely be worse if by that you mean pots of some kind.

Yes I hope so! The source I conversed with sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and was a user of the devices himself (and is also waiting for Tidal to get their app sorted for MQA). He also expressed that Pioneer/Onkyo are big believers in the future of MQA and fully behind it, if...

Sounds like you got through to someone who has no idea what they're talking about - a digital signal is exactly what would require a DAC.

I think my contact at Onkyo/Pioneer mentioned this. Sadly, I believe it is only for the newer players. Since I haven’t bought any yet, I would go for one of those... except they don’t allow offline playing of Tidal/MQA since they’re not Android-based. IMO this is the huge drawback of streaming...

The reply to me indicated they’d passed my request on to the development team, but they couldn’t say how long it would take or how far along they were. They also indicated they appreciate feedback from their members as to what’s missing and what they need (I guess this helps prioritise...

Also, it is the SD cards which cause glitches in offline playback.

Furthermore, Pioneer/Onkyo confirmed that it’s Tidal, and not the player, which is limiting hi-res/MQA streaming until it updates its app. Strongly suggested you email Tidal and request this if you’re a subscriber who needs the feature.

Right, I finally heard back a definitive answer from Pioneer. I quote: All audio from either the 2.5mm balanced or 3.5mm analog outputs uses the Sabre DAC. There you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth!