 I reviewed the AudioQuest Dragonfly Red and Black 1.5 in August 2016 and was rather charmed by them, especially the Red. Only four months later it was announced at CES 2017 that an update was planned enabling MQA on both models. During High End Munich 2017 the update was finally released, so time for my update. For a description of both the Dragonfly Red and the Black 1.5 see the initial review by following the link in the show notes. Updating works the same for both models, but earlier models like the Black 1 and 1.2 cannot be updated. Just download the free Dragonfly desktop app, install it and then run it. It will ask you to connect the Dragonfly to the USB port after which the device manager pops up. It checks whether an update is available, which will be the case, and suggests to install it. If you click the Update Now button the process will start. A clear warning is displayed not to disconnect the Dragonfly during the update process for this might render it useless. In my case it took only two minutes to update. The Dragonflies can render MQA files only when working together with software that supports MQA decoding. MQA playback is a two stage process split up in decoding and rendering. Decoding is the hardest and needs the most computational power. This can't be done by the Dragonflies, thus needs to be done by the PlayWax software. Currently Tidal and Audivana Plus 3 provide MQA decoding and Roon will have it soon. The decoded signal can be up to 96 kHz. The second stage the rendering can only be done by the DAC and so is performed in the Dragonflies. The USB interface chip in the Dragonfly is limited to 96 kHz to keep the power usage low. No problem for the decoded MQA files since they are limited to 96 kHz too. But now comes the interesting part. Despite the Dragonflies the second stage, the rendering stage reconstructs the signal to the original resolution. So if it was a 384 kHz file it will be played back as a 384 kHz file. The Dragonflies even play 768 kHz MQA files. By the way some people think that all MQA files are 192 kHz, then not. Only a 44.1 or 48 kHz or a 2 fold of that. But there are also 384 kHz or higher files. Now let's get testing. I use Audivana Plus 3 as the player and my reference sets for playback. For playing with MQA disabled I use Roon since that doesn't yet support MQA decoding. I also listen over my audio quest Nighthawk headphones and Sony MDR EX700 in ears despite the claustrophony. For comparison between MQA and non-MQA I use the number of free downloadable tracks from 2L.NO and other MQA tracks bought at highresaudio.com. It is hard to say if the sound of the Dragonflies has improved by the update for playing normal audio files since I can't compare. But I thought I could compare between MQA and non-MQA since I have a limited number of tracks of which I know they came from the same master. First the disclaimer. When testing equipment you want only one factor to change. But when Audivana Plus detected the Dragonfly, the option to switch off MQA support is gone. Ideal for normal use, not for testing. It means that I can't fully define what sound properties belong to the MQA rendering and what to the differences in software. And from an earlier review I now know there is a difference between the normal CD quality file, the non-decoded MQA file, the 2496 or 192 kHz file and the decoded MQA file. See what went wrong in the initial Dragonfly MQA review, if you are interested. I started up with CD quality files to compare them to non-decoded MQA files. In most cases timbre of both were about the same but playing MQA files opened up the stereo image, made voices more natural, gave deeper bass and overall a less stressed sound. Also percussive instruments sounded more realistic, more coherent. Again this was without MQA decoding, using Roon as a player. Playing to higher SPCM files brought a bit of the stress back together with sometimes other qualities being slightly less but that varied strongly between the albums. Playing MQA decoded files using Audivana Plus, took the stress away again, gave slightly more improved sibilance control and again all other changes were not constant over all albums. For those that don't speak the audiophile lingo, the sound of MQA files is less a burden to the brain, playbacked over the Dragonflies using the MQA rendering more than when not decoding. This is a good test, try to read a book when playing MQA music and then non-MQA music. You will notice that the reading is more difficult when playing non-MQA music, or not of course if you are not sensitive. MQA files make the difference between the black 1.5 and the red somewhat smaller. I would still prefer the red and would be happy to spend the extra 100 euros, but you might say it's twice the price of the black 1.5 and you would be right too. The nice thing about the Dragonflies is that the volume still can be controlled by software while playing MQA since it uses metadata to control the Dragonflies volume. If you are skeptical about MQA, spend 99 euros on the Dragonfly black 1.5 and listen to the difference using for instance the free files on 2L.no. For those that want MQA for on the road, use the camera adapter for the iPhone or the OTG cable for an Android and you're set. If you're a music guru man even on the roads, spend 190 euros for the red version. AudioQuest shows that MQA developments at the lower end of the market can still be done and I expect other manufacturers to follow. Some might hasten now, others might be hesitant since integrating MQA into a device does require serious R&D money that can only be earned back with large volumes or high prices. Anyway, I will keep track of the new developments so stay in contact to hear about them by subscribing to this channel or my newsletter or follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. See the show notes for the links. If you have a question, post it below this video, but please don't ask me for buying advice. See my About Questions video to find out why. If you like this video, please consider supporting the channel through Patreon and see super exclusive videos too. Just one dollar a month will do. The link is in the show notes. And don't forget to tell your friends on the web about this channel. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.