Sound via laptop vs phone vs tablet

 So just to be clear...If your using a laptop or smartphone/tablet you cant really take advantage of a high end service like Tidal for streaming? Because those devices are chopping up the data stream or unable to handle anything beyond MP3 quality?? So is that why companys like Aurender sell music servers (less expensive) and full function server/players with internal DAC's (more expensive).  Also, in order to listen to the new MQA format ill bet these lesser devices dont work at all right? Just trying to get this straight. Digital is so fun :-)

Matt M

Would a better app such as "USB Audio Player Pro" help?

Sound still has to go through the poor quality electronics in phone or tablet    Only so much you can do.  Might help some. 

Thanks. I will give it a try.

There is quite bit of confusion here. The format of the stream is irrelevant, because you are using the same stream in all three cases. However, you are using the analogue output of the three devices, and they each have a different inbuilt DAC. The snag is that by and large none of such devices have a decent DAC - the environment is just too noisy. See here for some measurements: http://archimago.blogspot.nl/search?q=laptop
Even a dirt cheap usb DAC like the Behringer UCA 202 will be a vast improvement. See e.g. http://nwavguy.blogspot.nl/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html