Bluesound node 2i

I think it depends on how clean your wireless is. If you are in an apartment building or condo and have lots of neighbors that are clogging up the wireless channels, you're like to have more dropped packets which can cause issues. Generally, the 5Ghz band is less crowded and is more likely to give you better performance. 

I live in a city, but in a neighborhood where the houses are a fair distance apart. I have four Node 2is as part of my network (along with a higher quality Bryston streamer on my main 2-channel system) and have used them both wired and wireless with good results. 

Thanks for the replies. We live in what I think is called the x-urbs.  It's not the deep country, but I have 3 neighbors within a 200 yard or so radius, so I really don't think contention is going to be an issue. I could always run a wire, but it would be a pain...

@howardlander 
It seems like you won't have any trouble using wifi in your neighborhood. I live in a city rowhome and had issues with neighbors (5gHz router).

Regarding an ethernet connection, I changed to wired when I was tweaking my Node2i for better performance. My findings were CAT6 was an upgrade over wireless, then changing to CAT8 provided noticeably better sonics possibly due to shielding on individual conductors. Music sounded fuller with more weight vs. Wifi.

I highly recommend that you use a quality aftermarket cable for the Node, it's a noticeable improvement. A C7 cable is required (also called a figure 8 cable). With this upgrade, Wifi vs. ethernet sound quality will be negligible.

I started out WiFI to the Node.
Cat 8 is much better for me

I have a Vault 2 which by necessity is wired.  Sounds great.  In another system I have a Node 2i run wireless on the 5ghz band.  Sounds great.