alvinnir2 - I was in the same situation as you but now it’s somewhat changed. I purchased and installed a power board upgrade modification for the Node 2i. My Node 2i can now use a linear power supply but I haven’t done that yet because the upgrade included a MeanWell medical grade SMPS and I’ve been very impressed with the sound quality after the new power board and the SMPS burned-in. It took 100 to 120 hours of audio play time in addition to leaving the Node 2i on 24x7 (i.e., not powered down). I logged the music playtime because I was curious how much burn-in would be required.
I heard similar improvement as described by people who switched from the Node 2i to the Lumin U1 mini. Better bass definition and much more detail. In addition, I hear much more “fleshiness” between the speakers, better imaging, much improved soundstage depth. It’s definitely not rounded off. In fact, it really needed the burn-in period to sound organic. Bass guitar has an incredible leading edge and cymbals shimmer.
I’m trying to decide if a Lumin mini would add much more or if I should just get a LPS and call it complete. And then the burn-in required for a LPS. The Sbooster on my DAC took a long time. I couldn’t listen to it for the first 50 hours. It’s a great product when finally burned-in!