Bluesound Node 2021 DAC - I sold my Denafrips Ares II

I owned a Node2i for a few months. It is a capable little streamer combo for the money. But I found it to be an inferior source component (transport) when coupled with a higher end DAC.

I believe the original poster jumped the gun here.

To be honest I have not heard the Ares II, BUT I suspect the Ares II was NOT able to show its true colors due to the Node's deficiency to act as a high quality TRANSPORT for the DAC. This is why the OP came to the conclusion that the Ares II was at par with the Node's on board DAC and a waste of time.

Just my 2 cents.

At least his wallet is happy.

Bluesound Node is ahead of it’s time. PLUS, it’s an all inclusive PreAmp… my headphone never sounded better out of its jack, then into balanced AAA 789… incredible! Four Stars

Thanks again for the all the thoughts and insights. There have been a couple of posts which I feel could explain why I came to the conclusion I did.

@jin78 you’re the 2nd poster, I think, who has highlighted that there maybe a compatibility issue between the Node and Denafrips DACs through coax. I think someone also mentioned Alvin himself had confirmed this?

@rhljazz also made a good point on Page 1 regarding the fact that all outputs on the Node are active; so a/b’ing with ICs from the Ares II, and the Node fed in to my amp simultaneously could have been flawed, and probably was not an accurate method of comparing the two DACs.

I’m enjoying reading all the different angles people are coming from with this, I’ve gained some knowledge and insights I was previously ignorant of.

@zoophaugus you could also be accurate in pointing out I may have jumped the gun by selling on the Ares II. In hindsight, if I was armed with the knowledge the contributors to this thread have given me, I may not have acted as soon as I did.

But, 🤔 I do think at this point in time, a sub was of greater benefit to the overall sound of my system, and the Ares II paid for it £ for £. So I’m left with a little feeling of not regret exactly, but "yeah ok, maybe I was hasty"

Moving forward from this, as mentioned, my next step is to mod the Node with the Teddy Pardo kit and PSU. People who have modded their Node with this and similar 3rd party upgrades, only seem to have had positive experiences.

After this,........ Nothing! I’m going change my mindset, sit back and hopefully just enjoy what I have. I do love the fundamentals of my system; Nait 5si and Quad S2s, and of course, the recently added REL and what they give me.

Thanks again guys, very much appreciated

@painter24 - I meant to ask - how old is the Nait 5si?

I had a Nait 5i from new

It came with a built-n "design feature" - you have to replace the power supply Caps after 10-12 years.

I had mine 10 years and they stoped the amp from working

• you have to send it back to the distributoe
• Pay them arouns $300 US to fix it
• turnaround time about 3-4 weeks - without an amp

Just thought you should be aware about that "feature"

Whilst I loved the sound of the 5i - this feature put me right of Naim as a brand i.e. for amplifiers, so I sold it and moved on to a Bryston

• same great dynamic neutral sound BUT with much better imaging
• AND a 20 year warranty 👍

At the time it was a toss-up between the Bryston and the Sinaudio Moon

Regards - Steve

@williewonka Hi Steve, the 5si was fresh from the Naim factory in September to my dealer. I had a demo unit on loan for a couple of months until the new stock arrived. 

Yep, the unit will probably need re-capping after x number of years, my dealers parting words when I picked up my new unit was, "see you in 20yrs".

I know it was tongue in cheek, but if I get 10 to 20 years before I have to re-cap; for me personally, that's fine. I live in England, so not too much hassle, plus there's a company called Witch Hat Servicing ran by ex-Naim engineers in England that also carry out repairs and upgrades on Naim gear, I believe they are less expensive. They also make 2 alternative speaker cable lines as alternatives to the NACA4 & 5

 Kind Regards