Recommendations for music network player

I was very skeptical when I purchased my Bluesound Node 2. First, I really was put off because I had many digital files ripped with Itunes which were a little hard to set up with the Node 2. Additionally, the artwork integration by which Itunes does a horrible job of getting album artwork for files. Once I got these bugs worked out, through the great help of the guys at Bluesound customer support I really liked the versatility of playing my files from my Iphone and NOT USING MY COMPUTER OR ITUNES. I have a separate HDD setup with Western Digital’s My Cloud in another room that the Bluesound picks up via my home wireless network. The best surprise of all was when I started investigating Tidal’s MQA on the Node 2. I was floored by how good it sounded. The Node 2 was the best $500 I have spent on my stereo.
BTW with the Vault 2, one would be skipping all the technical integration problems I had and serve as the HDD for your music. The Vault 2 will rip all your CD’s and find the artwork. It will also stream music, just as the Node 2 does.

Yes the Bluesound is that good..... for $499. We are in a place and time in audio, whereby people spend $20k for amps and preamps $10k for source components, $50k for speakers and $25k cabling. So lets keep things in perspective. I like the Node 2 as a budget component that delivers above the bar for it’s price range. Sounds better than my CD player to my DAC, better than my older Logitech Squeezbox and much better than any source digital audio component I have had when playing albums in MQA.
As always YMMV....

I will state I have not heard other music servers for comparison to the Bluesound Node 2. I have used the original Logitech Squeezbox as a music server, then started using my Iphone as a server for Spotify via a Pure I20 charger/stand. I also used my MacBook Pro with various software programs over the years. As the years progressed I used external DACs. I had last used a Benchmark USB DAC1 and a Schiit Bifrost Uber as of 2016. When I switched to the Node 2, I knew that it had the benefit of NAD engineering and I knew DACs were getting better and better every year. So the idea of a specifically designed digital audio component to replace my computer and provide the latest DAC technology to deliver all my ripped digital files AND stream hi-res files was within reach for $500 was very appealing. To my surprise the time had arrived for digital to sound really good.
The sound of the Node 2..... Separation of instruments is much more defined. One can pick out each instrument while listening to music. When I listened to Crosby Stills and Nash vocal harmonies, I can clearly differentiate each voice. When listening to Diana Krall’s jazz ensemble, the timbre of sounds match the instrument more exactly. A piano tone sounds like a piano key strike, the decay of the sound trails off slowly. On older and contemporary jazz recordings horn players like trumpet players and saxophonists don’t sound shrill or strained, they sound smooth and very easy on the ear.....natural and organic. Probably more than any other characteristic of the sound is the silence between notes, or passages. Deep dark backgrounds where there is NO sound, helps one hear each individual instrument note. I listened to the Ray Charles song “Deed I Do” and the song bursts from silence into a full orchestra. The dynamics are there full force, and where Ray sings his voice is clear, natural. After this the dynamic range dies down and the soundstage narrows Ray’s voice is low and tender and the piano notes are more delicate. Most of what I describe is from MQA material on Tidal. All of that with the Bluesound internal DAC! If, as one noted, you ran a cable out to an Ayre Codex..... it would sound even more heavenly.