The X also implemented the low output impedance THX headphone circuit and replaced the 3.5mm headphone jack with a 6.3mm. That’s in addition to employing the ESS Sabre DAC, which the other Nodes did not. As a front end only, the N130 should be identical. Best use case is USB out into a USB DAC of your choice, with MQA decoding to leverage Tidal streaming. Another popular sport is replacing the SMPS with a linear supply.
Difference between Bluesound Node, Node 2, Node 2i, NodeX
Audiogoners.
I love the Bluesound user interface Is the only difference between the different Node models the DAC portion?
Which would indicate that if you use coax out to an external DAC all Node models would sound the same through the speakers.