Bluesound Vault 2i and a Qutest DAC

Myself and many others on this forum have used Chord Qutest with Bluesound Node 2i with great success (In my case with Bryston Amp & Preamp driving Thiel CS 2.4 speakers, but in my case with Melco N1A functioning as the NAS).  November of last year a Roon Nucleus functioning as server/streamer took over as my principal streaming source in my main rig with my Node 2i moving over to my desktop system.  You can check out my current rig here:  https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8156

Thanks all. I clearly have nothing to lose by buying both and testing them out. 

Been a long time since I’ve listened to a Theta Miles, modified Pioneer player but I’m not surprised it sounded better than a Bluesound Vault on its own. I do remember at the time when the Miles came out I along with the dealership that carried both, preferred the CAL Icon and Tercet over the Miles. Haven’t heard any of these players in years but I own a Vault and with a modern standalone DAC it will significantly be better over these older players in every area. Use a good coax and not the toslink and a better power cord on the Vault as it does make a difference. Also pick up a Supra CAT 8 cable as it is really good and very affordable... yes, better than the CAT 5 cable it comes with. Have not heard the Chord but based on its reputation I suspect it will walk all over your Miles.

Adg101... good to know and I appreciate the cable advice. Thanks.

Yes, in fact I did the exact same thing with the same DAC for some time and it does substantially improve on the dac inside the bluesound. If you use a top end coax cable to go into the qutest dac you will get great results.  Now looking at your current components you might want to get yourself something better than a vault.  I now have an Aurender N100H server/streamer and it is fantastic.  I use an MHDT Pagoda NOS DAC and wow...great sound.