I have the Nodi 2i and have tried using this directly with powered monitors. I have a pair of KRK G4's and and went directly into the Nodi as my pre-amp. WOW, I was really impressed. The sound was a bit forward, but that was the monitors. Sound stage was great! I feel the bass was better than my Peachtree Nova 125 with a pair of Legacy Audio Monitors. I am reaching out to XTZ A2-300 tech to see if I can use these directly with a pair of Thiel's CS 2.3's and the Nodi as my pre-amp. Should be worth trying.
Bluesound Node 2 as a preamp?
Source: Bluesound Node 2
Amp: Belles Aria Integrated
Speakers: Vandersteen 2ce Sig II’s
Prior to last night I had been taking the analog outputs of the Node 2 and plugging them into 1 of the 3 stereo inputs on the Belles. I had read a thread here about bypassing the preamp and plugging the Node 2 directly into your amp. I did that last night by using the Bypass input on the Belles, using the volume control on the Bluesound OS app to conrol volume.
I don’t know if it’s expectation bias or some other phenomenon, but I swear my system has never sounded sweeter. More bass extension, more defined sound stage, better detail.
Has anyone else tried this experiment? What were your findings? Am I losing it?
Thanks!
Joe