To DAC or not to DAC ?

@fullers for a "plan-B" approach, you might be able to extend and leverage what you already own a bit more with some added effort before you leap on to swapping to other gear. It’s worth mentioning as this is a stepping stone option as an alternative. For some, plan-B can also be a permanent option for many years.

DAC: There is no doubt you can improve over the internal DAC on the Node, Node2i. I’ve heard it A/B’d several times with the internal vs. external DACs plugged in on a few different setups. Several friends use the Node as their base streamer (in nice tube systems too) while bypassing and adding a variety of $1000-$2000 external DACs via digi coax with suprising and rewarding results. I would not give up on this idea, fwiw. The Node is not a horrible base streamer when adding a really good DAC to it, externally.

Preamp: There is a bit to reivew and worth on leveraging your Freya a bit more. There are a few folks using them even with Pass Labs amps, yet many have done quite a bit of tube rolling with different tubes. If your Freya is the 6SN7 tube model, first hand I can share you can hear quite a bit of difference with really good vintage and (some, not all) new production 6SN7s out there. I have a collection of 6SN7s for my own preamp from a different company. If you have not done so yet, seriously recommending only buying good 6SN7s from an extra reputalbe tube seller with a warranty and guarantee. Totally worth the extra to buy well matched and well balanced curve-tracer tested tubes when buying vintage, IMO. For new tubes, Some of the later model new production 6SN7s from PSVANE, Sophia Electric, and a few others might be worth a try if you have not already done some 6SN7 serious tube rolling in the Freya yet. Call Schitt, they can share more too on this, maybe a few mods they might recommend if you have an older version Freya. Best of Luck.

@mceljo I have upgraded the tube to a Western Electric 396A that I paid about $90, but I don’t think that I can hear a definitive difference from the GE tube that it replaced.

By chance have you tried using better digi-coax cables? The GE and Tesla tubes sound notably more transparent compared to the WE396/2C51 tubes in my own MDHT Labs Orchid DAC. The WE is much less transparent, a bit more veiled over in some systems, and so much so that I really cannot use it in my all-tube system. Maybe yes with a more detailed SS amp/preamp setups like I had years ago. I’ve tried four different digi-coax (Cardas, Analysis Plus, Audioquest, others) and was suprised to hear a difference with DAC tubes after advancing to better Digi-Coax. Ended up with an OCC copper digi-coax cable for the stremer to DAC, and OCC interconnect cables again from the DAC to my preamp. Now i notice every single tube change in my DAC for better or worse.