Pioneer has announced support for MQA on their “XDP-100R” digital audio player. Announced at IFA in September 2015, the “XDP-100R” is the world’s first MQA enabled portable digital audio player*1 says the company’s latest press release. The free update will be available worldwide on April 12^th via Google PlayTM.

MQA captures and delivers master quality audio in a file that’s small enough to stream or download. And because it’s fully authenticated, the listener can be sure they are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio.

When listening to MQA on the “XDP-100R” the MQA display indicates that the product is decoding and playing an MQA stream or file and denotes provenance that the sound is identical to that of the source material (indicated by a green light in the App). ‘MQA Studio’ (indicated by a blue light in the App) is playing a file which has either been approved in the studio by the artist/producer or has been verified by the copyright owner.

Bob Stuart, MQA’s creator, commented on the Pioneer launch. “We are very excited to launch MQA on the Pioneer “XDP-100R”. Throughout the implementation process the MQA listening tests have been astounding and we’re looking forward to hearing customers reactions to MQA on the portable player. We continue to work with the music industry and you will see much more MQA music in the market very soon. It’s an exciting time for MQA and our partners.”