Some streaming comparisons and what to make of it all?

To be clear - I don't really have much of a point here, or any question in particular. It's really more of a status report on where I'm at. Still, this stuff is fun, so I figured I'd share and maybe benefit by others comments and experiences. So here goes . . . . .
My Christmas present to myself was to jump on the streaming bandwagon with a pair of Bluesound Node 2i's. I've been using Spotify for a long time and grown increasingly unsatisfied with the sound quality. It's OK for playing in the background in a workshop, but that's it IMO. That led me to get a Node 2i for my small living room system. Out with Spotify-over-BlueTooth, in with Tidal and Qobuz over wired ethernet. Nobody should be surprised that this was a MASSIVE improvement. The next step was to get another Node 2i for my big system, which I did.

Now the fun begins! I can start making all kinds of comparisons: HiRes FLAC's vs MQA content? Effect of the DAC on sound? How different are results between a small, modest system and one that's borderline extreme? What's to be learned?

The Small System:
The Node 2i was added to a modest bookshelf system: Sprout100 DAC/amp, the "klein aber fein" MB Quart One's on stands with Triangle's small Tales 340 subwoofer.  For a small bookshelf system this sounds surprisingly good. So how does the Node 2i sound?  What's better, using the Node 21's DAC or the one in the Sprout100?  Can I hear any difference between Tidal's MQA's and Qobuz's HiRes flacs?  Or any of the above at CD quality?  It became immediately obvious that there are too many variables to make good comparisons or draw solid conclusions.  For starters, the 2i's coax and analog outputs aren't level matched (the digital output is substantially louder). I'm left with only the most tentative and subjective conclusions.  Still, I consistently preferred the 2i's DAC over the Sprout100's.  It just sounded more natural.  This was most apparent with MQA content.  Yet I couldn't tell much difference between Tidal's MQAs and Qobuz HiRes stuff.  Both sounded excellent given the limitations of this system.  But enough to prefer one file type over another?  Not to my ears.
The Big System:I think this really boils down to comparison between DACs more than anything else.  Everything else washed out.  The system is a 100% rebuilt and upgraded vintage setup:  Krell KBL preamp in balanced mode -> ML No. 332 amp -> Maggie IIIa's. The DAC merits more detail -- the Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 MKIII fed through the Assemblage D2D-1 upsampler and de-jitterer.  No, not the celebrated MKII, the even better MKIII.   This combo really deserves its own thread.  It only goes to 24/96 but soundly demolishes every other DAC I've heard over the years.  [To those who say newer DACs outperform old ones because of "digital progress" or some such, I say "quite incorrect."  At least when the old one is fully balanced from in-to-out, uses I2S.e interface, 8 PCM1704's, the PMD200 DSP filter and tube analog stage.  This is a reference DAC built of unobtainium.]
Anyway, I went through all kinds of permutations of file type, Tidal vs Qubuz, MQA vs CD vs flac, etc etc etc.  CDs were upsampled to 96khz on the D2D-1.  It sometimes seems to help and never seems to harm.  The bottom line was surprisingly simple:  Any and everything through the SFD-2 MKIII was better than anything else.  It just sounded more real, better imaging, greater delicacy, slam etc etc.  CDs sounded better through the SFD-2 than the same MQA files through the Node 2i's own DAC to the preamp.   But questions remain. It's not surprising that the 2i's MQA decoder and DAC would be bested by a super-DAC that would probably cost US$15k these days.  But what if it went to 196khz?  Am I missing something?  I doubt it, my ears probably aren't that good, but who knows?  There's also the question of the Node 2i itself. This is a nice unit, but not near the caliber of the rest of this system.  Would a better streamer/MQA decoder close the gap?  Probably.

And so the fun continues.  I'm greatly enjoying the ease of properly streaming. Comments, questions, suggestions welcome.  Happy Holidays to all!