Has Anyone Compared the DAC On a Bluesound NODE 3rd Gen to a Separate DAC?

All this is a good reason Bluesound should make a streamer only (call it the "Point") without a DAC and knock off $100 from the price. I guess they are afraid it would cannibalize the sales of the Node. Sad, because everyone raves about their U.I. O/S being one of the best out there.

People could start out with a Schiit Modi, Geshelli Labs J2, or Topping E30 and move on up the food chain when their wife and budget allows or just go ahead and get an Ares II as their starting point gateway drug.

Note that previously on YouTube I heard some say the Ares II didn’t pair well with the Node for whatever reason. I never found out why that was observed. Some later said there was a setting "Audio Clock Trim" that needed to be disabled. For those of you who have used an Ares II with a Node was that the key or is there a "deeper" reason such as an impedance mismatch or something?

@wolf_garcia that Schiit Bifrost 2/64 multibit seems like a good alternative to the Ares II at a roughly similar price point. I’ve heard others mention it having better quality textured bass than the Ares II. Heck, I’ve heard a few mention that the AKM 4493 based Geshelli Labs J2 DAC (at $300 or $350 with a nice wood case) is very comparable to the Ares II in soundstage and depth, and yes, has better bass (especially if you get a linear power supply for it). I guess it comes down to what a user is looking for and what sonic signatures they like. There’s nothing technically "magical" about an R2R DAC but yeah, they can be very good. So can others.