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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
rushfan71
291 posts
 
@lg1

Being a Primaluna owner let me first say you should experiment with the two center 12AU7's of your intergrated and quality speaker cables first. 
An external DAC in my opinion is where I would go with your system after those two changes.
blackbag20
416 posts
 
Good advice to listen for couple months; B sound has a lot of detractors here that are louder than adherents.  

Should you then want to make a move check out audiosciencereview.com and eyeball the Gustav X16:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/gustard-x16-balanced-mqa-dac-review.17419...
natsound401
10 posts
 
Mytek Liberty DAC for $1K adds a noticeably sharper focus to the analog out from Node2i in my system...not jaw dropping to me, but it also preserves the MQA advantage.  Since the Mytek has a linear PS and Node an SMPS, that may account for my improvement as much as the DAC chip.  You can upgrade the Node itself to LPS, for example:
https://pd-cf.com/product/bluesound-node-2-2i-upgrade-kit-low-noise-psu-interface-smpsu/
That;s a budget friendly place to start.
ptrel
2 posts
 
If I were in your position, I would audition a Benchmark DAC3.  They have several models that include headphone, gain control etc..  They also have a 30 day trial period.  
larry5729's avatar
larry5729
1,002 posts
 
I purchase a Bluesound Node 2i and the dealer talked me into buying a Project S2 DAC.  When I got it home, I thought it sounded much better when playing the Bluesound alone.  I don't care what people say, but I think MQA sounds great and if you add a DAC the Bluesound will no longer unfold MQA on Tidal.  I also thought when adding the DAC it sounded thin.  There was much better bass with the Bluesound and I thought there was plenty of detail.  This said, I would not recommend adding a DAC.  Unless a $3,000 DAC sounds much better.  
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