My Dad has a MA8950 with the DA2 DAC and it really is a great sounding DAC module. I think you would have to spend $$$ to better it. It's that good.
Coax is usually better than Tos because the quality of optical depends on the Tos jacks on the source and the DAC .
If you read some threads on the DA2 card you'll see that people have spent a good amount on a DAC to find that it's splitting hairs.
Plug the Node in via a good Coax and you're off to a good start. Enjoy