Just installed a bluesound node 2i , quality not so good

Listen to the music on it for awhile, you may find you like it. If not, return the 2i and get your $550 back if your receiver's streamer/dac rocks, its good to have options..

Have any of you saying the DAC in the Bluesound is soooooo bad ever actually switched between the internal DAC and external dac while listening?  

Yes many times, coax digital connection into my Lyngdorf ( at the time) was vastly superior to the analog connection.

Is the advice here really that the OP should buy a $1000+ DAC in order to boost the sound quality of a $550 streamer?

Not at all, I did say a $250 DAC would work wonders, plenty around in that price range, check Drop.com for some true bargains.

I switched back-and-forth between the bluesound node built in Dac to two different dacs.
An orchid dac for about $1100 and an older Peachtree dac which was originally $500 but which I got used for $100. In both cases the external dac was superior to the streamer, but the orchid was light years ahead. 
To my mind it totally makes sense to spend much less money on the streamer then on the dac.  These have become relatively stable while streamers are changing quite rapidly, still. So by going with separates, one can invest in the stable one rather than the changing one. Otherwise one spends a lot more on something that would quickly  be compromised by change.

@uberwaltz, I wasn't trying to get into it (and I was actually looking at the post above mine, not at yours). It seems to me like the Bluesound is what it is, and by all accounts is very good for what it is. I'm not sure that dolling it up with an external dac isn't the way I'd go about it. Gamblers have a term for it: chasing your losses. 

Anyway, I don't like the hostility toward each other that surfaces too often out here, and I certainly didn't mean to offend.

I have the Audiolab 6000N streamer that has a pretty good internal DAC, but I also own a Exogal Comet Plus Dac that I run all my sources through and the sound quality through the Exogal is exceptional. It's not an inexpensive DAC but for money spent, does an excellent job