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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 1 response by tk21

tk21
238 posts
 
I own both the Node 2i (not currently in use) and a more expensive DAC/streamer (the Matrix Element X).  FWIW, these 2 DACs have shown up at nearly opposite ends of the ASR measurements, Matrix near the top and Bluesound near the bottom.
vhttps://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-matrix-audio-e...
(you may be able to find more recent versions of this chart)

I would not attribute a "jaw dropping" SQ difference to the DACs, per se.
However, I do experience a jaw-dropping SQ difference by adding BACCH4Mac software processing to my system.  The Intro version costs $980, plus the cost of a Mac computer to run it on (which I already owned).  I don't think there is any way to feed BACCH4Mac output into a Node 2i because you'd need a USB connection (which the Matrix Element X does support).

BACCH4Mac manipulates the audio signal in the time domain, so it isn't quite like room correction software.  It purports to minimize/eliminate crosstalk.  The effect isn't as dramatic on all recordings, but on some, it can rather dramatically widen/deepen/heighten the perceived soundstage.  For example, a performer who seemed to be near your left speaker without BACCH might seem to be performing as much as several feet away from the same speaker with BACCH.  The effect, I think, is likely to be much more dramatic than the effect of any new cable or DAC chip. 
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