Pioneer outs XDP-300R high-res music player

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Pioneer's new premium, high-res audio player features dual DACs, a fully balanced pre-amp circuit and balanced headphone output.

Compared to Pioneer's current XDP-100R, the '300R uses dual ESS DACs (as opposed to a single DAC on the '100R), a fully balanced pre-amp circuit and balanced headphone output.

The high-res player features a 4.7in colour display and uses the Android operating system. It comes preloaded with the OnkyoMusic app, so you can download high-res audio files straight onto the player. Tidal, Spotify and Deezer all come pre-installed too.

Storage is a relatively modest 32GB (7GB of this is used by the operating system) but this can be expanded to over 500GB via twin microSD card slots.

File support is extensive and includes DSD (up to 11.2MHz) and FLAC/WAV (up to 24-bit/384kHz). The Pioneer also supports Meridian's new MQA file format, designed to package high-res audio files more efficiently without sacrificing quality.

The Pioneer XDP-300R is due to launch at the end of October for £600 and coincides with a price cut for the '100R, which has dropped from £500 to £400.

MORE: MQA Audio: What is it? How can you get it?

Andy Madden
Andy Madden

Andy is Deputy Editor of What Hi-Fi? and a consumer electronics journalist with nearly 20 years of experience writing news, reviews and features. Over the years he's also contributed to a number of other outlets, including The Sunday Times, the BBC, Stuff, and BA High Life Magazine. Premium wireless earbuds are his passion but he's also keen on car tech and in-car audio systems and can often be found cruising the countryside testing the latest set-ups. In his spare time Andy is a keen golfer and gamer.