Considering Zu Dirty Weekend over my current B&w 702s2

Another thing to consider if you’re using the DAC in the Node would be to upgrade your DAC and digital cable.  The newer R2R DACs tend to have a more natural and organic sound that may yield the improvements you’re looking for.  Here’s a nice review of the Musician Pegasus ( $1100 that I own) just to give you an idea of the sound characteristics…

https://soundnews.net/sources/dacs/musician-audio-pegasus-r2r-dac-review/

If you can spend a bit more the new Gustard R26 is likely a nice step up in sound (you can read the review on the same site as above).  Either way, I’d recommend springing for a used Acoustic Zen MC2 digital cable ($660 new, $275 used) that I just got and it’s an excellent cable with a great sense of naturalness while maintaining great detail and was a huge improvement over my budget cable…

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649951192-acoustic-zen-mc2-digital-coax-cable-1m/

I also don’t think the Zu option is bad either, especially if you can demo them at home, but just wanted to throw out another option for you to ponder.  Hope this helps, and best of luck!

@soix

Another thing to consider if you’re using the DAC in the Node would be to upgrade your DAC and digital cable. The newer R2R DACs tend to have a more natural and organic sound that may yield the improvements you’re looking for

This is an excellent recommendation. No doubt that going from the B and W to Zu speakers is a pretty different direction. However, I strongly suspect that the Node DAC is a weak link bottleneck hindering the current sound quality. Certainly worthy of consideration. I also agree that a high quality digital cable makes a notable difference.

Charles

Thanks Charles and Soix. I’m using a Schiit Modius dac with balanced mid-tier Analysis Plus XLRs everywhere. Not ruling out what you say and I will definitely look more into the role my DAC is playing, but thought I’d give you those details in case they give you more to go off. 

Ah.  Good to know.  Schiit DACs aren’t known to be sterile sounding nor are your interconnects or amp so I’d look elsewhere.  Given all the info I think trying new speakers makes sense, and the DWs will certainly sound very different. 

I went from Wilson Watt Puppy 8 to Zu Def Supreme and although on paper a step back, it definitely isn’t. Zu is very different but in a good way. Superbly alive and really engaging