Physically connect a Bluesond Node 2i to a downline, stand alone Chord Qutest DAC

hilly230, you don’t, by any chance, have MQA in mix do you??? I would expect some shenanigans going on if your source material has been tainted by MQA as the Node does MQA processing and the Chord Quest does not support MQA...

I am not saying MQA sounds bad, just different horses for courses... My Quest sounds head and shoulders better in all ways then my ex Burr Brown DAC...  Also moved on to a Lumin U1 mini...

@jazzman7 Thanks for the comments. I am not discounting your suggestion of trying different interconnects. At the moment it's a Chord C-Digital coaxial and a cheap Toslink. I have tried the Chord cable vs a cheapo one and heard zero difference, which only increased my scepticism about cables. But I am trying to keep an open mind. I just want to think it through before spending on interconnects.
I agree about 'NADness' from the Node potentially colouring everything downstream. After all, when I use UAPP on USB from an Android phone into the Qutest and other dacs I own, I can clearly hear the Qutest is far better, almost holographic, etc. UAPP is definitely bit perfect digital output. Not so sure about the Node. Bluesound support say the Node's output is bit perfect even with variable volume, which raises an eyebrow. 
I might use UAPP on USB out of Android for serious listening, and use the Node 2i for convenience when I'm wandering around. 
But that doesn't explain why you in your system with your ears can clearly hear the difference when feeding the Qutest from the Node. Maybe your system is better. I've got a good amp and speakers and fairly experienced ears though, so I'd expect them to be resolving enough. 
The mystery continues ... I hear you about interconnects, but want to explore a bit more before splashing out on them.

@ddude003 Yes, I'm using TIDAL and the Node 2i is an MQA renderer. But it's the same with CD-quality tracks from TIDAL too, internet radio, everything. 
I'm going to try the same setup with a different amp I have to see if it's the amp that is putting out the same sound regardless of input!
I'll post again when I've done that. 
Thanks for the input/output!

Also my Node 2i is wired on ethernet from the router. I'm gonna try wifi to see if that makes a difference! No idea how it could, but nothing else makes sense!
(I can hear jazzman7 coughing politely and saying something about interconnects ;)

@hilly230, Glass is better than plastic for Toslink... Coaxial is susceptible to RFI... Wifi may give you some physical isolation at the cost of increased RFI... Ethernet cable is pretty clean at cat 6 and above...

I use Wifi to/from my laptop to my local router, wired ethernet from the router to the streamer and USB to the Qutest which has galvanic isolation plus some other trix Rob Watts designed in...

For testing, and to be fair, I would turn off all MQA processing in the Node and use known quality and resolution source files to compare the two DACs... I, and many others, are suspicious of any source material from Tidal now a days...

I also wonder if your amp is doing something to the signals...  Maybe digitizing the incoming analogue for further internal processing?