Bluesound, best value streamer?


Is Bluesound the best value out right now to stream high quality files with ipad integration?

Thinking about using it's digital out or even the new NAD M12 with the module and skip a dedicated preamp.
dinmax82
Best value I have seen is plex on Amazon fire tv box. Box costs less than 100 and supports high res audio and video via toslink and hdmi. Plex app to run on it is $5. Does not require Amazon prime to run plex. You can run plex on smart phones or tablets and "cast" to Amazon fire tv plex to use those as controllers. Use standard hdmi to any tv for display.

Plex runs on many platforms costs virtually nothing and sounds and looks great.
Apologies if this had been covered and I can't understand the answer. 

Question: I have an iPhone with Bluesound app installed. I'm willing to purchase a stand-alone mqa dac (e.g., Meridian Explorer 2). I'm willing to (re) subscribe to Tidal. Can I stream full mqa?

Thanks






The Bluesound app only works if you have a Bluesound device like a Node2, Vault, etc. You need to use the Tidal app on your mobile device to stream thru the non-Bluesound devices such as Meridian, etc. And as far as I know, full MQA capability is currently only supported when using the Tidal app on a PC/Mac. Hope this helped.
The analog outs of Bluesound Node2 will allow FULL Mqa. The internal Dac is about as good as any DAC in the under $700 or so price range (maybe higher). If you go digital out from the node, 24/96 is limit unless you have an MQA Dac. I believe the explorer only takes USB in, so one would have to have a computer. 

" If you go digital out from the node, 24/96 is limit unless you have an MQA Dac."

That's not quite true. Someone had said the same thing before and I asked Bluesound helpdesk to verify. Their response was MQA capability is supported through both analog and coax digital outputs. Of course if you feed the coax output from the Node to an external DAC, then you (obviously) need a DAC that supports MQA in order to benefit from full functionality. In this scenario, a (digital) preamp with coax/digital input would be a good option.