Quick USB question

@larry5729

Can’t you just do a comparison of with MQA and without and see which one you prefer? Lots of people live without MQA and prefer hi-rez over MQA (Qobuz vs Tidal).

A better streamer can makes a difference. It will lower the noise floor, reduce the jitter issue associated with digital audio but only if the DAC can actually resolve the difference. The USB interface is quite problematic and requires some extra circuitry to be top notch (there are those who say it will never compete). You can put premium gas in a econobox and it won’t make much of difference but regular gas in a Corvette is quite noticeable.

I’m a believer “The first watt is the most important watt.” and that what you feed it is even more critical. Get the best input you can afford even if it causes you to rethink your budget on cables, amplifiers and even speakers. There are many ways to get big buck sound but all of them begins with the input.

@crustycoot 

The Node doesn’t see my Terramaster NAS. If I can figure out the trail, it will see my external hard drive. But I don’t leave my computer on 24/7, so I really didn’t try.

@larry5729 

No question better quality streamers make a huge difference… limited by how good your DAC and rest of your system is. I have probably used a dozen different streamers over the last twenty years and finally started getting audiophile quality streamed music when I got my first Aurender. 
 

Also, the best streaming service is Qobuz… I don’t think they do MQA. I think I remember MQA from Tidal. MQA was a good idea that came too late. Qobuz has over 500,000 high resolution albums. I would recommend that service.