If es also dort implementiert IST, sollte keine spezielle XMOS-USB-Schaltung mehr erforderlich sein, um die MQA-Decodierung durchzuführen, oder?
Das heißt, die Gesamtkosten dafür müssen geringer sein.
It doesn't need an XMOS chip anyway, it can run on other processors, all of which only cost a few dollars.
It's just easier to implement with the XU216, since you need a USB interface anyway. In my personal experience, the XU216 (even without MQA material) seems to be slightly better than the 208, but only a touch.
The costs for MQA are usually wrongly estimated anyway. Additional hardware costs for MQA, if any, are in the small single digits. The license costs are also very small.
What is really expensive is the implementation from the development and programming side, possibly there are also costs for the help of MQA.
But the ES9068AS is only a hardware MQA renderer. If the first unfolding does not take place externally (Roon, Audirvana or similar) then additional software is required in the DAC for MQA full decoding.
It's also noticeable that every new DAC with ES9068AS and MQA also has an XMOS XU216 (at least all the ones I've seen). Either software is still required for MQA, or the manufacturers are currently switching to the XU216 for new devices.