British Hi-fi Company iFi Audio Is Newest Among MQA Hardware Supporters
British hi-fi company iFi Audio, which specializes in high-end digital-to-analog converters and portable listening accessories, is the latest to join the ranks of Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) supporters with its new Nano iDSD Black Label battery-powered portable DAC and headphone…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
amplifier. The Nano Black Label, priced at 199 pounds ($262), supports PCM up to 32 bit/384 kHz and quad-rate Direct Stream Digital at 256 times the CD sampling rate, with dual-mono analog amplification and hi-res certification by the Japan Audio Society. Battery life is 10 hours on a single charge, with no drain on an iPhone or Android smartphone when connected by standard “OTG” USB A-type cables, said iFi Audio. The Nano is ready as sold to play MQA content streamed from Tidal, confirmed MQA representatives on hand for a London launch event last week. The Nano Black Label also incorporates the same technology that's used in Ear Buddy, iFi’s recently launched small plug-and-play socket device that attenuates the output of a music portable without losing resolution. The company says it designed Ear Buddy because modern music portables typically have a digital volume control that loses two bits of audio resolution when controlling volume. For example, 16-bit CD resolution is reduced to 14 bits when the digital volume control is set at 60 percent for comfortable listening, it said. Ear Buddy costs 20 pounds ($26) and attenuates the output by 15 dB, allowing digital control to be set at full volume. The Nano Black Label has two headphone outputs, one with the Ear Buddy-style attenuation built in and one without. The Nano has an analog volume control, so the user can set the mobile digital volume on 100 percent and manually adjust listening volume level in the analogue domain, without losing bits.