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Jaw Dropping Improvement?

60-something, intermittent earner here (Read “mostly starving-artist with the rare, unexpected windfall here and there.”) who has just acquired a Bluesound Node 2i.  I’d be very interested to hear what external DAC, in your experience-and-opinion gave such a dramatic improvement in SQ over that of a stock Bluesound streaming device as to be jaw dropping...an absolute game changer.  Does such an animal exist for less than $2000 U.S. or are improvements at this price point more in the nature of subtleties?  Somewhere in between?  To be sure these things are subjective but your take on this would give me a running start on researching things here with a fairly tight budget being considered — If subtle-to-low/moderate level “tweaks” to SQ are all I can expect from, say, a Qutest or Gungnir Multibit, I’ll probably stay with just the streamer and be happy.

Thanks in advance.
lg1

Showing 2 responses by lg1

lg1 OP
199 posts
 
Thanks, Jazzman.  I’m running the Node 2i into a PrimaLuna Prologue Classic integrated w/stock preamp section tubes and Gold Lion KT77 power tubes out to JBL L 65s.  Speaker cables are Home Depot “thick”...lol...and just switched the supplied interconnects from the Node > integrated out for a pair of Belkin ones from the pile of wires in the garage that have accumulated over the decades...slight but noticeable improvement.  Musical tastes are all over the map but lately lately listening to a ton of jazz and 70s James Taylor on Tidal...
lg1 OP
199 posts
 
Thanks, jjss49...good points for me to contemplate!

I’d like the music I listen to to be as clear and as in-focus as possible within the capabilities of my integrated amp and speakers.  If I can compare to optics, I want to be looking at things through an immaculately cleaned and top-of-the-line Zeiss lens!  However,......I want this hyper-focus to reveal “euphonic” 95 times out of 100 and “clinical” on only the five remaining occasions.  If a given singer is sounding overly sibilant via Tidal, I want to be confident it’s an inferior recording and not artifacts originating at a weak link in my system-chain.  All that considered, I want lower-frequency “punch” and a certain, undefinable “energy emanating from the speakers wall” to induce the same smile on my face I had two weeks ago when I got the Node 2i hooked up and playing....that sense of “Yeah......this component purchase was a gamble that sure paid off.”...but taken to the “final frontier” within the parameters of my Node2i>integrated amp >speakers.

Might be chasing phantoms here but one may as well aim high!
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