Has Anyone Compared the DAC On a Bluesound NODE 3rd Gen to a Separate DAC?

All this is a good reason Bluesound should make a streamer only (call it the "Point") without a DAC and knock off $100 from the price. I guess they are afraid it would cannibalize the sales of the Node. Sad, because everyone raves about their U.I. O/S being one of the best out there.

People could start out with a Schiit Modi, Geshelli Labs J2, or Topping E30 and move on up the food chain when their wife and budget allows or just go ahead and get an Ares II as their starting point gateway drug.

Note that previously on YouTube I heard some say the Ares II didn’t pair well with the Node for whatever reason. I never found out why that was observed. Some later said there was a setting "Audio Clock Trim" that needed to be disabled. For those of you who have used an Ares II with a Node was that the key or is there a "deeper" reason such as an impedance mismatch or something?

 

Thanks, all, for the thoughtful comments and ideas!   I’ll sort through them and make some upgrade in due time.  There are a lot of good choices.  Most of the people on this forum have been on this path, and I appreciate the benefit of your experience. I’m just beginning, and looking forward to my new leisure pursuit.

I love the ifi zen stream DAC in my work space system. Research and reviews I read prior to purchasing compared with node and made major distinction in favor of ifi.

Hello,

I have done some extended testing. The BS DAC is very good. If you go to the topping you will improve a slight amount. If you go to the Arries you will get a different sound due to the ladder DAC. If you like the Denifrips sound then you have to go to the Pontus2. I have had the BS Node in DACs costing upto $14k. When you get up to that level just buy the streamer option like I did with my Ayre QX-5. Seriously. Save the money for the $1500 to $2000 DAC. Believe me, you want to jump up quite a bit so you notice the difference. Same for turntables/ phono preamps/ and carts. Run the Node through using the Coax. Nordost silver Shadow which was discontinued a few years back so you can get it for about $200. This is my recommendation. You cannot beat that app unless you upgrade to Roon. I hope this helps. 

Thx hshifi!  It sounds like you have done quite a bit of testing well past my price category.  I’ll look for the Shadow.