Replacement/upgrade for Bluesound and Chord Mojo 2 streamer/external DAC combo

What’s your budget and are you looking for new or used? 

Hi @nothelle ,  If @soix is helping you, you are in good hands!  I, like many, had Bluesound Nodes and have clearly appreciated my upgrade path from there.  I also think your amp and speakers easily outclass your digital front end, so an upgrade in one or both of the streamer and DAC would be appreciated.  Give us the sound characteristics you like, and budget both new and used.  I would not spend money and efforts upgrading the Node; it will help some, but makes selling it later a bit harder to recoup your costs I think, and a new streamer will just sound better.

I will be looking for 2nd hand. It’s not worth spending for new equipment in digital source which will have technology change every year.  I think the ongoing market price for second hand Bluesound and Mojo 2 is around US$600 together, so ideally would like to spend that much or up to US$1,000.  I listen mostly to jazz instruments and vocals, so would like to be able to listen to details of instruments and warm vocal sound without being tired for long listening hours, perhaps warm and neutral but enough clarity and detail, if that makes sense.  I do listen to pop music but usually just looking for decent bass, which i think the size of my speaker will limit it.  The tempo/beat of pop music usually is quite fast so not listening for detail, just enough to hear the dynamics.  Thanks

I use the PD Creative board and Sbooster LPS on a Node 2i and I have the Fidelity Audio board and LPS on a Node 130. In both cases the external power makes a significant difference in sound. And this is when using a separate DAC. Definitely a cost effective upgrade. The Node 130 is very sensitive to the quality of the power supply. Not all LPS's are the same and the LPS is a key to extracting the best out of the Node. Of course there are higher end streamers for more $$, and I have demoed popular streamer that retails for up to $3800.00 and for me, they was not better than the upgraded 130, some just different. Of course system synergy is a key factor to how components affect the sound, each setup will be different. Streamers in the higher range will exceed my results.

I had an eye on a 2nd hand bluesound node with pd creative upgrade kit installed, but no lps provided. This what deters me from switching as lps does not come cheap, unless it can use any 5v power supply without making significant difference, ie iFi iPower, then the cost will make sense to me.

Any 5V dc power supply should work as long as it has more than 2 amps I believe. The IFI will work fine. And it will sound better than a stock Node. Just not as good as it can with a higher end LPS.

To stay near your budget I’d recommend this Musician Pegasus R2R DAC (I own it) and LHY linear power supply for the Node.  The Pegasus will give you natural tone and great detail and bass along with excellent imaging and a spacious 3D soundstage, and you can choose between non-oversampling or oversampling modes if you feel you want a bit more or less detail/incisiveness, which is nice.  If possible you should run a balanced cable from it to your amp as it is a fully balanced DAC and sounds best that way, and later when funds allow if you want even more you can buy a Musician Pisces or Denafrips Iris DDC (I have the Iris) and get very significant performance improvements for relatively not much $$$ especially if you buy used.  Using the upgraded power supply on the Node will up the performance to a point more on par with $2k streamers and should at least hold you over (or at least not hold you too far back) until you’re ready to do a significant upgrade there.  That’s what I’d do at your budget given what you’re looking for and just one idea FWIW.  Hope this helps somewhat, and best of luck. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226670482937

https://www.vinshine.audio/product-page/lps25va

Given your budget, I would absolutely support @soix recommendation of a low cost LPS for your N130 and an R2R DAC. 

+1 upgrade Node power supply, R2R DAC (Denafrips Ares), add IRIS DDC for best results.  Mojo vs R2R different sound signature, Chords are detailed and transparent with punch. Denafrips and R2Rs generally are more laid back, smoother, with good detail and expansive sound stage.

i have Node 2i w LPS and Topping D90 in bedroom linked to a low watt Inspire KT-88 driving Vienna Acoustics Bach speakers. Sounds really good. Also a Cambridge Audio CXN V2 linked to a Cary 300 SEI driving Klipsch Heresys in another room, also sounds really good. Warm, relaxed easy to listen to.  Finally a Pontus II + IRIS linked to a Willsenton R800i 845 driving Klipsch Forte IIIs and Focal Aria 926 in main system.  Sounds freaking amazing!! 

Look for IRIS + Ares used and upgrade Node 2i power supply would be my suggestion.
 

I haven’t heard your DAC.  I did have the Node functions both as a streamer and a streamer DAC.  I now use CA CXN 100 and found it to be a significant upgrade.  They just changed their DAC to an ESS Sabre; I have 2 of the older units which essentially use the old DAC Magic.  Used are going for $900, new $1100

I have a  Node2i feeding a PS Audio Directstream DAC Mk1 moded by APS Transformers.  I've thought about upgrading to a more expensive streamer,  but none support the two services that I stream,  Idagio and Amazon HD.  So I decided to upgrade the Node2i with a TeddyPardo LPS; the improvement in SQ was significant! More detail,  wider and deeper soundstage, lower noise level.  One of the most important things to consider in a streamer,  IMHO,  is the OS.  If it doesn't support the streaming services that you want,  it won't work for you.  The rest of my system is PS Audio Stellar Gold Preamp,  M700 monoblocks,  and Legacy Audio Signature SE speakers.  I listen mostly to classical,  blues,  and classic rock. 

"Mojo 2 is around US$600 together, so ideally would like to spend that much or up to US$1,000"

I do not think your going to beat the Mojo for your budget just make a differance/ side step. 

Maybe a powersupply for the Mojo, but IMO Chord makes an excelent DAC andnd you're going to have to spend more then a grand to beat it not just side step/different. I'd save up a bit and/or look at moving up the Chord line. 

Keep the Blue Sound Node for now until your ready to upgrade. I find after many streamers the DAC is the more important item to focus on at these levels. Chord has good digital filtering so makes the streamer less relivent at these levels. 

Thanks everyone for the input.

@soix unfortunately musician and denafrips is out of my budget for now, but will consider it for next upgrade.  

@glennewdick yes i agree, Mojo does sound nice and i am quite content with it. But hopefully something can be done to enhance it further with minimal costs and unfortunately it’s quite hard to have a live demo with the exact same amp/speaker/cable combo.  It took me quite a while to come to the accuphase/dynaudio combo and actually listened to them live together.
 

Seems the consensus for the most economical solution for now is the bluesound upgrade.  I am eyeing on LHY audio, price is quite lower than pd creative and teddypardo and shipping is nearer, no need to ship it halfway around the world.  Wonder anyone has opinion on this LHY audio? Also i’ve read there are two options for the 5V LPS, a 25watt and 50watt, the later seems to be recommended for external ssd use with bluesound, which is what i intend to do, but is it just gimmick or will the 25watt suffice?

Cheers,

Just a heads up that you can purchase the LHY power supplies off Aliexpress for around $100 which seems to be a much more reasonable price ;)

The Sengterbelle R-core supplies are crazy good value at around that price as well. I have 3 of them here. 

Can you send me the link on aliexpress? I can only find one at $150 for lps and additional $70 for psu.  Alternatively there is one on taobao which sells it for around $160 lps+psu, shipped. Took quite a bit of effort to translate, but seems legit.

Just punch in LHY 25 Power Supply in the Aliexpress search window and you’ll come up with at least 10-15 different sellers on Ali. Will depend on whether you want dual output and which output (dual DC 5V or single DC and single USB) and voltage.

I’m talking LHY LPS only which Soix linked to above on the Vinshine site, if it can be made to work with the Bluesound. Others can perhaps shed more light on this. 

For any 5V (or even higher voltage) devices with a barrel connection for power or any other USB power connection, it’s easy peasy. 

 

For upgrading your Node, I would order the PD Creative board ONLY. It is about $85 plus shipping.

https://pd-cf.com/produkt/bluesound-node-2021-upgrade-low-noise-psu-interface/

Then order this Power supply from AliExpress. Select the 5V option. And tell them you want the output side of the supplied cable that goes into the PD creative board in the Node to be 5.5 x x2.1 for the DC plug.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832703217960.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.779d505asKkaws&algo_pvid=ebf2ffc3-7ac4-4c52-b529-aeaa17ec8069&algo_exp_id=ebf2ffc3-7ac4-4c52-b529-aeaa17ec8069-2&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%227%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%7D&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%2171.99%2161.19%21%21%2171.99%2161.19%21%402103010e17442483043134682ea44c%2112000030521543645%21sea%21US%211761543796%21X&curPageLogUid=XcohpLzIPWrV&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A&tblci=GiDkHYAKHFliBBPKNM9ILkVK6EMpprrmDH_1qb1BJ667kiDA9m4o9tP22ZGM9L8ZMKjbXg#nav-description

These two items are a cost effective way to elevate your sound. And I agree with others that a good used R2R DAC would be a great next step.

Good Luck!

Also +1 on the Iris DDC. Another cost effective addition. Improves clarity with a blacker background. Get one used.

Good advice from nwres above and I would second his recommendation of a good R-Core LPS vs something like the LHY, particularly at the inflated price from Vinshine. 

I have two of these in use here (one on a 5V dac and the other on a Wiim Pro Plus used as streamer only feeding the dac) and they are outstanding power supplies: 

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/2255800739878853.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

As nwres also alluded to above, these LPS's can have a pretty dramatic effect on improving streamer only performance. I was pretty shocked at how much of a difference the above supply made with the Wiim Pro Plus, and also how much better it was than a slightly less expensive Talema torroid based LPS that I also used on the Wiim.

It's very possible, as he stated, to put together a pretty low budget streamer combination for $400-$750 using an outboard LPS which will compare favorably with a lot of the more expensive streamer options in the $2K-$4K range.  

To parrot nwres one final time, all LPS's are not created equal. 

Thanks all.  I have bite the bullet and order the LHY kit, PSU and LPS.  Let see how it goes, will report here once it enter into my system.

Cheers

I went from the N130 to the N130 with a Pontus ll.  To the N130, added a Teddy Pardo LPS and the Pontus ll. Now I’m using an Aurender N200 and the Pontus ll and m really happy, but I am still looking at getting a different DAC.😁

All the best.

I have the same Bluesound Node.  Used as both the streamer and DAC.  I Then upgraded the DAC and then finally the streamer.  My suggestion is to upgrade one piece at a time.  Start with the streamer.  See how it sounds.  Then upgrade the DAC if you want to.  

Keep the Node for now and get a second-hand Qutest.  Upgrade the streamer later.  I borrowed a friend's Mojo and liked it enough that I found a used Qutest, which I absolutely love.  It replaced a massive Doge DAC 7, with a Sabre chip and all-tube output stage.  I love the Qutest for it's greater transparancy, speed and lack of coloration, and the desktop connections provide a big upgrade in sound.

My streamer is an Ian Canada kit I assembled, with the PurePi battery-powered base, a Raspberry Pi 4 and the TransportPi Digi II.  It's a wonderful match for the Qutest, extremely clean and quiet.  The cost is about $300.  But that may be more than you're willing to take on.  It's also a either "ugly" or "cool" depending on your tastes. ;-)  But my main point is to focus on one unit at a time and get the best upgrade you can afford.  A used Qutest falls within your budget and if you like your Mojo, you'll love the Qutest.

Installed the LHY audio kit, now i understand all the praises of changing the power supply unit out of the bluenode. I’ve only had listened to this for an hour, but It indeed improves the output on both the direct analog output to my amp and digital output to the dac (though i would say to lesser extent than the analog).  Previously i always can hear the difference between using the bluesound directly vs. using the Mojo in between.  Now they have become very close.  One immediate noticeable difference is improvement on the bass, which was previously lacking as it is more of an accuphase character plus a bookshelf speaker arrangement.  The difference is like removing a screen protector/tampered glass put of your smartphone screen. You normally wouldn’t see much difference for daily use until you remove it and suddenly there is a difference, not night and day but it is just different in a good way.  So far this has been a good spend on the upgrade and thanks for all the recommendations from here.

@dogearedaudio, i hear you. Chord character suits me well and was thinking about upgrading to the next line, either to Hugo 2 or Qutest as you said, but was not sure the costs vs. benefit of it.  Was considering a Hugo version 1, but many reviewed the difference vs. Mojo 2 as marginal.

My B&W Formation Audio (streamer/dac) sounds better than all of the other sources I've used. I am surprised by this - I bought it used as an interim solution but have recently sold $11,000.00 worth of separates because I love the way my system sounds now. Retails for $599-799. I started out with a Bluesound Node and tried numerous dacs and streamers over several years. Not much in the way of reviews for this component which is a bit frustrating. There is virtually no information to be found about the dac chip and it's implementation. But, my ears keep telling me that the music sounds just about perfect.. finally.

@nothelle  Installed the LHY audio kit, now i understand all the praises of changing the power supply unit out of the bluenode.

Give the board some time to burn in. It will improve.

Enjoy!

A follow-up to the ordering suggestion for a LPS above by nwres. You state:"And tell them you want the output side of the supplied cable that goes into the PD creative board in the Node to be 5.5 x x2.1 for the DC plug. The internal DC plug size of the recommended PSU from ZEROZONE is indeed 2.5 mm. (the site states other sizes may be provided on request, although I don't quickly find a place to do so.) However, specifications for the LPSU Interface V2 on the PD Creative site appears to say its input will accommodate either size plug. "DC plug 5.5/2.1mm (5.5/2.5mm compatible),center pin positive." Am I understanding this correctly. Thanks.

@sadbird, i ordered the lps50, 5v option. I ordered through an app called taobao and had chat with the store beforehand, quite helpful and understand right away the needed hardwares for bluesound, with the right 2p to 5.5/2.1mm cable etc.  installed per instruction and followed lhy audio guide in youtube.  Simple enough.  Store name is LHY audio also or Lau Hu Yu Yin Pin, seems genuine reseller or even the official store itself.  Price is quite good, anyone interested in detail can pm.me.

@sadbird If PD Creative supports either 2.1 or 2.5mm DC plugs then perhaps the supplied cable from ZEROZONE will work. It has been a number of years since working with the PD Creative board and perhaps my recollection was off or they are now using a different DC port.

@nothelle

Unless you need a headphone amp, I'd go with the Quetest, you save a lot of money, and you can use better cables for connection to the streamer instead of being limited by the Hugo's miniature input jacks.  Once the Qutest arrived I splurged on a used Snake River Boomslang BNC cable and it makes a big difference.  Of course, with the Hugo you can get the 2Go, which is probably the ideal solution for streaming with that DAC, but $$$.  The battery supply on the Hugo is also a plus for reducing noise, but you also need to eventually replace that battery, which is expensive.  For me the Qutest offered the best connections and the least future maintainance, and it's said that it's comparable to the Hugo in terms of sound.

 

HI! I had a very similar experience. I had a second gen NODE with PD Creative PS upgrade, SBooster LPS to Mojo DAC with custom interconnects. I didn't hear a dramatic difference in transparency or detail with the PS/LPS upgrades. Just a lower noise floor.

I replaced the Mojo with a Gustard R26 and transitioning to xlr was a major improvement in SQ. However, I wasn't totally satisfied..........go figure??

I tried Roon Rock sourcing Qobuz from my desktop bypassing the Node all together, a option on the Gustard, hardwired with blue jeans cat 6 brought another jump in clarity, and massive spacious soundstage. Sold the node/lps combo.

I've now added a dedicated Roon Nuc connected to a HOLO Red to stream via blue jeands I2s cable into the R26 dac and it's a game changer. Best SQ from my system. Couldn't be happier!!!!

I lowballed sold the first system and purchased the new Gustard and Red at net cost of $1400. Maybe you can find them used to fit your budget?

This is my experience

One at a time.  Node N130 might be the weakest link.

Class A - Stereophile

Cambridge Audio MXN10: $399 $$$
The affordable, Roon Ready MXN10 features Ethernet and Wi-Fi inputs, coaxial and optical digital outputs, and unbalanced RCA analog outputs. A USB-A port allows files stored on a memory stick to be played. It can be controlled by Roon or fed audio data with the Cambridge StreamMagic app, which works on Apple and Google smartphones and tablets and natively incorporates Spotify Connect, Qobuz, Tidal, and Deezer. TF was surprised how well the MXN10’s converter and analog output stage stood up in comparison to the much more expensive dCS Bartók. While a careful listener "probably will favor the Bartók’s improved detail and tighter low end," he wrote, "let me stress how unfair a comparison this is and let me say again, the MXN10’s built-in DAC sounds damn good." TF concluded that "the MXN10 is a thoughtfully considered, high-performance bridge to the future-present, at a price that’s friendly to most budgets." On the test bench, the MXN10 offered superb channel separation and very low noise and distortion, coupled with excellent jitter rejection. "That the MXN10 performs as well as it does suggests that Cambridge Audio has some serious engineering talent in-house," concluded JA. (Vol.47 No.5 WWW)

Reviews: Here, here and here. These reviews are trustworthy.  I own one myself. Don’t forget a good power cable for it like Pangea AC14SE C7.

Yes one at a time.  I used Chord Mojo 2 originally to replace my Mojo 1 for my headphone setup, which i then turned for desktop use prior to selling to boost my Bluesound.  When i heard improvement using Mojo against the internal bluesound DAC, it stuck in my home audio set up ever since.  I wasn't keen in changing the digital source for now as technology changes quite fast and i am quite happy with the easiness of the BlueOS app (I used AudioLab previously and the app was just painful) and the Chord mojo combination, sound signature is to my liking already.  This upgrade was just a marginal step on improving the setup with minimal costs and I am not keen on trial and error for now.  So far the power supply upgrade has been quite fruitful relative the the cost, so i would stick to it for now until the itch comes back.

My digital progress has followed a similar path.  I started with a stock Node 2 then upgraded to a Node N130 with the LHY linear power supply kit already installed.  The difference between the stock power supply and the linear power supply using the internal DAC was quite noticeable and well worth the upgrade to anyone considering it.

Then I added a Chord Qutest DAC using the coax SPIDF output from the modified Node N130 using an old Audioquest video (75ohm) video cable.  I would have to say that the improvement using the Qutest was noticeable; however, not as massive an improvement compared to upgrading the power supply.  There was improvement in the details that I've noticed in material that I know well.  Recently I upgraded the digital cable to the Audioquest Carbon and the improvements were much more noticeable.  The mid and high frequencies are more clear and well defined.  Snare drums sound like snare drums, etc.

I've been debating an upgrade to a newer (and hopefully better) streamer but have decided to stick with the Bluesound Node for the foreseeable future.  As stated in many posts, the OS makes a huge difference and the BlueOS does everything I need and want it to do.

Plain_fan:

 

Have you upgraded the power supply on the Qutest?