I use Tidal quite a bit, but I have my doubts about the sound quality produced by the actual Tidal app. Plus, I want to use an equalizer with the songs I stream from Tidal, but no equalizer is included in the app. I'm thinking it might be better to stream the Tidal files through separate audio...

I hope you're right because they ripped a lot of people off. As a result, Beats made millions and a lot of people are listening to music that sounds nothing like the way the artist intended it to sound like. I hope they change. But, the fact that they're still paying celebrities the big bucks...

I agree with that for sure. Headphones are mostly R&D, and all headphones sell for much more than the materials used to produce them. Still, I think Beats pushed this boundary farther than any other headphone company by far. To me, Beats headphones sounded worse than the cheap, free headphones...

There have been multiple tear downs, not just the one. Try googling it. There are lots of different people, sources that have independently done tear downs of beats headphones and the result is always the same. They're terrible headphones made from very cheap parts, in every case. The...

I hope you guys are right. I hope they've changed completely in two years, but if I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on headphones (which I do, way too often!) I'm definitely not going to buy from a company who did the things in that article only two years ago. I mean, they charged $200 for...

The reason why it's taboo to mention Beats is because they're trying to charge you hundreds of dollars for headphones that cost under $10 to make. They're con artists. Check this article out...

Alright, so if I use the Dragonfly Red for its DAC and feed it to a dedicated headphone amp to get enough power for hard-to-drive headphones, is that going to cause problems with double amping. I know Audioquest claims the DFR has a line-out mode if you crank the volume to 100%, but I don't see...

I apologize for the newbie question, but I'm having trouble finding a simple, straightforward answer to this. What information do I need? And what do I do with that information? I want to make sure the desktop amp I buy will *fully* power my headphones. I don't want it to just be "good enough"...

I'm looking for an amp that will even out the brightness of my Dragonfly Red, for use with Sennheiser hd 650's. I like the sound of Fiio amps, with their smooth sound. I'm looking to spend around $250. Thanks!

I own a few sets of headphones and one of them is AKG K7xx. They're great headphones for a lot of reasons, but bass is their weakest characteristic. I've seen other audiophiles with similar issues, and I'm wondering why people don't just add more bass with an equalizer or bass boost function...

I've owned my V-Moda Crossfade 2 Wireless for a few months now and I'm still impressed by their sound on a daily basis. I own Sennheiser hd650 and AKG K7xx headphones too, so I was expecting to only use the Crossfade 2 for their Bluetooth capabality when I'm on the go. Yet, I find myself...

I discovered a reason why MQA might be sounding so much better to me. It might not be due to the temporal deblurring, so you guys could be right. Basically, it sounds better to me because I'm using a Dragonfly Red. Normally, a DFR maxes out at 24/96. But that limit is placed artificially on...

It isn't possible to do a blind test of MQA that way. Core decoding is only possible if you're listening through an MQA dac. As a result, that test is only comparing MQA files which have been unfolded once, through the software decoding part. The files won't sound much different than normal hi...

Quick question: have you ever tried listening to MQA files through an MQA enabled dac? I'm not trying to be a smartass, I'm just wondering. The equipment used for almost all recordings is archived and accessible by contacting the producer. MQA gets the artist, producer, etc to sign off on the...

What would you recommend as the best amp for Massdrop HD6xx under $300? I will be feeding the said amp from my PC, using Tidal, going into a Dragonfly Red dac/amp in line out mode. The Dragonfly Red is 2.1v but I'm using it for it's dac only. I want a dedicated headphone amp in the lineup too...

For those saying MQA is lossy: You are technically correct, but the only difference is an improvement in sound quality. Let me explain. For every MQA album released, information about the original recording equipment is stored in the file. They do this so they can correct known problems with...

Is their quality control really that bad? This is new to me. Details?

That made me laugh. You bring up a legitimate point too! Referring to their HIFIMAN HE1000 v2?

I understand what you mean. But, to me, having the best headphones out there is worth $50,000, even if they're only marginally better than cheaper headphones. I listen to music enough for it to be worth it to me... To know it's the best. It'll stop those nagging "upgrade thoughts" I always have...

I've decided I'm crazy enough to drop around $50,000 on headphones. I trust head-fi as the best audiophile community out there, so I'll probably buy whichever of the two gets the most recommendations. I appreciate any input, especially if you've had a chance to listen to them. Thanks!

You are correct. It is technically a lossy compression, but it still results in much better sound thanks to the deblurring. The improvement in sound quality is immediately noticeable to most listeners. Have you tried comparing MQA songs to non-MQA songs, using the same setup? I believe that if...

It's easy to assume compression automatically means lower quality, as audio has often been that way in the past. However, it's not necessarily always the case. One example is Zip files. It's a form of compression that results in no loss of data. With audio, we normally send all the information...

My thoughts: The MQA process is more than just a new codec. I believe anyone will agree it's a clear improvement to sound quality if they fully understand what MQA does. Particularly, the "deblurring" process, as they call it. When my Dragonfly Red got an update, making it support MQA, I...

Ah, that's interesting. I noticed a few of the albums on my Android Tidal app are higher bit, 24 bit, instead of the normal 16 bit for most files. They aren't listed under a Masters tab, because there isn't one on Android, but are those MQA files? Or just higher bitrate files? This is where it...