Integrated Amp $1200 or less

Agreed!! Spend your G on a DAC.  You will be FLOORED!

Source matters most IME. 
Used Chord Qutest perhaps?!?

@djones51
I understand the upgrade itch, I used to have an Anthem 225i and it’s a great integrated some I’ve seen mentioned while they are good amps would be more of a sideways move than up. The weakest link in the Node2i is the dac.

Spot on.

@b_limo
Use that 2k elsewhere, for now. Looking over your i225, xformer, mosfets, volume control type, non-digital layout, your amp is decent. Bet it could begin to sing with a good digital DAC source and great speakers. IMO spending $1500-2k on another amp might even be a downgrade. Your amp is a different grade purist integrated, when fed good source.. If you stream a lot, the onboard DAC/chipset and implementation in the Node2i is okay, good for starters, but it’s not great. Its a solid streamer after you put a good DAC behind it. Using the stock onboard dac/chipset, sounds kinda grainy, more 2-dimesional, not as natural as it can be. In the past year helped three fairly skeptical buddies and a few others with N2I units who all added on a nice R2R Ladder TUBE DAC behind the N2i -or- Arcam rPlay streamer units. Follow up the DAC with a good Digital-coax or USB, install a really good small vintage input signal tube inside the tube DAC and begin to start hearing music in a new way. Fast forward, all three of those buddies are streaming basic CD quality (non-up sampled) lossless content and never looked back. They too did the skeptical A/B thing many times (obsessively) and all three of them did not return their DACs. One had a similar amp to yours. At year-2, one of them made the amp upgrade later on, but to this day swears the DAC upgrade was the single best change in the entire system but all had fairly revealing speakers too.

It all starts at the source. Here is a thought... maybe hold off on the other cables, cords. Truly, your i225 is awaiting you to feed it good stuff for a while. Maybe save up for a really good amp or speakers later. While I’m back to tube preamp and monos, I’m also a SS/Mosfet fan too past 30yrs. Just went through this same "upgradeitis" situation with more than a few colleagues for what it’s worth. Go with a super DAC first. Ask Hilde45. :)

Outlaw 2160. I love mine

I agree with the folks advocating for a new DAC, which is a big part of the reason I recommended the NuPrime.  But as the amp could maybe be more of a sideways move, adding a good DAC for around $1200 would definitely be an upward move from the Node’s DAC.  Given the sound characteristics you seem to be gravitating toward, I’d take a hard look at an MHDT Orchid DAC.  And I agree with your thought to wait until you have more $$$ to make a significant amp upgrade since your current amp is certainly no slouch.  Again, best of luck. 

Get a good dac first like nos dac then start from there if you want a life time enjoyment and can listen all days without fatigue!