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

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!