2. digital
  3. 141712-17758

How much would I lose going to a Bluesound Node 2i

I'm considering going a much simpler route for digital. I play to a lot of vinyl on my Lenco TT and Era V phonostage, and so digital comprises 30-40% of what we typically listen to. My current setup is running Roon on a Synology NAS that connects wirelessly to an Auralic Aries LE, then connected to connected to my Metrum Octave DAC via Curious USB Cable and Audiophillio 2. That's a lot of links in the chain, thus the desire to simplify with a single box solution if I can.

I have really enjoyed what I've heard from MQA so far, even though I'm not getting all the goodness yet. My Aries will decode MQA but my Metrum Octave does not support MQA, so I'm not getting the full monty. I am using ROON DSP to convert streams to 96kHz and 176kHz when possible. 192kHz is not supported on the Octave.
It's my understanding that the Bluesound will provide Full Decoder support for MQA and that the internal DAC punches well above its weight, especially compared to the Node 2. So my question is whether I should expect MQA to sound better on the Bluesound than it does on my current setup, and how much Redbook will sound degraded, if at all.

I'm tempted to buy a Node 2i to compare for myself but before I do, I thought I would garner some opinions here.
Thanks!
smccull
headphonedreams
527 posts
 
I think there are a lot of development right now which makes it really hard to say if a specific brand, component or even a category will still be here 10 years from now. 

I can really understand that you want to have a simpler solution. I have been thinking about getting a somewhat good one-box solution in the future. Or maybe two boxes plus speakers. If I suddenly get a lot of extra money for stereo equipment I might then change and get a larger room full of separates.

For now this solution looked interested and I think we will see more of them the next 5 years.

https://www.miveraaudio.com/forum/the-puremusic-family
dtximages
365 posts
 
I'd like to hear yall's thoughts on where the Cambridge CXN v2 fits in this conversation. Seems like it ticks most of these boxes and has a better DAC structure.
dtximages
365 posts
 
I just got the Bluesound Node 2i and switched out my Cambridge CXN v2 and cannot hear any difference. I'm definitely much happier with BlueOS as the Cambridge Connect app even with Tidal is awful.
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