Fair point, but I suspect that if M had marketed the 818v3 as a major upgrade primarily in conventional sound quality with the added bonus of MQA in due course, many people would have bought it or upgraded from v2. Bear in mind that the v3 will have a much better 24/192 DAC than the v2 and will also be able to handle DSD natively.

This approach might have made life a little easier for the dealers, who can't have sold many v2s since the MQA announcement last December.

Agree that everyone's circumstances are different but I suspect M are getting very close to being able to say with certainty that MQA will fly, even though there are loose ends that still need tying up.

Streaming: Roon, NUC, QNAP869 NAS
2ch system: dCS Vivaldi, Audionet Stern, Audionet Heisenberg, Magico Q1
Retro system: 101/104/105, Red Rose Spirit