While I haven’t made a direct comparison of the bridge II versus the bluesound node in my system I do have the Directstream with the bridge II and my buddy uses the bluesound node in his system. Without question I prefer the interface of the node better than mcontrol app. Regarding sound quality I know it’s apples and oranges with two different systems but I can’t imagine one or the other being a huge improvement in sound quality except for maybe the node accepting wifi and the bridge II accepting only Ethernet.
What did make a slightly audible improvement for the bridge II is when I connected a wifi extender in my stereo room and used Ethernet from the extender to the bridge II which ended up being about 8 feet of cat5. Basically what that did is make the bridge II accept wifi. Wifi signals in my house seem to be better than the noise on a hard connected Ethernet cable.
I’m seeing a whole lot of Directstreams for sale lately and a number are without the bridge so if you are happy with the bluesound node I’d say save a few bucks and get a good deal on a Directstream sans bridge. Regardless of interface I really enjoy the DAC. Best of luck.