I just got a Node 2i day before yesterday and can address your concerns about Spotify (free version) but not Tidal as I have no experience with it. The free version of Spotify appears only “streamable” via a slight workaround using the Node 2i’s Apple Airplay capabilities. In this regard (and to my ears) Spotify sounds the same, SQ-wise, as my Apple TV 4K does playing the same. (Using “John Coltrane’s “Blue Train”, Extended Edition, as a reference). Where the Node 2i is a decisive higher level of sound quality than what I’ve experienced using either my Apple TV or an older Apple Airport Express has been in streaming lossless files from my computer and, to a smaller extent, Radio Paradise. I listen to TuneIn Radio a lot and was blown away at how good some of their “genre” feeds are on the Bluesound (HD Radio “Blues” sounds good enough to elicit “free content guilt”!). These are my subjective observations using the 2i without an external DAC and I do not, as yet, subscribe to a paid music service although I’m planning to try Qobuz in the near future...