What's a really great Streamer/DAC box for just streaming Tidal?

Hi Dave/Troy,

May I ask why the Bluesound Node 2i will not perform optimally through USB? You would be bypassing the internal DAC (which sounds decent) of the Node 2i to the better Qutest DAC. Provided you have a really good USB Cable (iFi Gemini, Audioquest or Curious) going into the Qutest I don't see why the combination would not work as well as suggested. 

Audiotroy thanks for clearing this up. I did not know that. Doh! I have both the Chord Qutest (main system used with Sony Vaio laptop, Audirvana + Fidelizer Pro and iFi gemini cable) and the Bluesound Node 2i (living room system) and never experimented with using both together. 

To the OP, I guess I just wasted your time. Sorry! 

Thanks for the suggestion. I did chance upon a forum where someone had the Innuos Zen + Qutest combination and he was very very pleased with it. The Innuous has been on my wishlist since then and all the more now that you've brought it up. However, I'm quite satisfied with the sound I'm getting from my Sony Vaio laptop (gasp!) with Audirvana + Fidelizer Pro for the time being.

If you can stretch your budget a bit more I'd like to suggest a combination of: Bluesound Node 2i streamer ($500) + Chord Qutest DAC ($1,895). Caveat: you'll have 2 separate boxes but the bright side is that they're both quite small so minimal footprint. The Bluesound BluOS app is quite snappy and easy to navigate and the Chord Qutest is the bees knees. I think you would have to spend a whole lot more to best the performance of this combination however admittedly aesthetically speaking its not the best. Also, I realize the price of the combination is close to $2500 which can get you a  one-box solution as the Auralic Altair G1 but I doubt that its internal DAC will sound better than the Qutest (granted I have not heard the Altair G1 but have read glowing reviews). 

If your budget is fixed at $1500 I have a friend that is very happy with the Cambridge Audio CXN 2 but I haven't personally heard it yet (though I trust his ears) and as mentioned above the app leaves much to be desired.