How many of you believe in MQA?

David,

Sorry for the confusion about the number of Albums Vincent Ingala has put out.  You are correct, it is 5 albums.  I had him confused with Herbie Hancock.

By the way, I was at the RMAF two weeks ago and I asked several exhibitors to play Vincent Ingala's song Nasty on his Coast to Coast song and before I knew it exhibitors were playing it by other exhibitors.  This is an incredible demo song.  I also had them play Herbie Hancock's song Watermelon Man on his Head Hunters album.  That too was played by a lot of exhibitors.  Great demo song for bass and separation.  Really shows off speakers.  I play these two songs when I want to hear what my system can do.  Sure glad I added a pair of REL S3 SHO's to my system.  Still dialing them in to make them seamless.

Big Greg,

I was talking about improving the sound quality of the DAC inside the Bluesound and being able to control TiDAl remotely by use of my iPhone and PC notebook.  Eventually, I will add a DAC in the $1,500 to $2,000 range to unveil more of what is there in MQA recordings.  I also am not hung up on MQA.  All I care about is being able to hear more detail and to play more 24 bit hi res recordings.

Again, everyone has really helped me to understand what I can do.  Still wonder if anyone owns the Bel Canto eOne stream?  Does this piece, costing triple the price of a Bluesound really sound better than the base sound of both units being connected RCA analogue?  So far, I think adding a Chord DAC to the equation might be a good move down the road should I decide to give up on MQA.  The jury is out on MQA anyway, as there are a lot of us who resent someone developing a format to take revenues from multiple sources.  If MQA becomes the norm, this guy is going to be rich, if he isn't already.

Larry,

The DAC in the Bluesound is really good.  Try it first and see how you like it.  The Bluesound has everything you need to control it remotely, you just need to download an app for whatever device (phone, tablet, PC, laptop, iPad, etc.) you prefer to use.

I have both of my Node 2's connected to external DACs and there is an improvement in sound quality, but it's not a dramatic one.  In my main system I am using an Auralic Vega DAC.  In my bedroom system, I'm using a Mytek Liberty DAC.  The Vega doesn't do MQA and that doesn't matter to me.  The Liberty does do MQA and it sounds nice, but it's not as "natural" sounding as the Vega.  The Liberty retails for $1K and the Vega when it was new retailed for $3,500.  I think both improve the sound quality of the Node 2, but it's not as dramatic of an improvement as you might get with room treatment, better speakers, a preamp upgrade, etc.

I have no experience with the Bel Canto unit you mentioned, so won't comment.

My advice is to listen to the Node 2 for a while and see how you like it.  If you're happy with it, you're all set.  If you'd like to hear better sound quality, consider the MHDT Orchid DAC.  It's well under your budget and will bring a more "analog" like sound to your system and will retrieve more detail than the Bluesound's DAC.  It won't do MQA, but I doubt you'll care. 

I don't have a recommendation for a DAC that will do MQA, the Liberty is the only one I've tried and I think there are better sounding DACs even if they don't do MQA.

The Node 2i supposedly sounds quite a bit better than the original Node 2.

Larry, did you connect the Bluesound to your system yourself?

The bluesound node is a dac / streamer...  what were you using previously as your dac and have you a/b compared the two dacs (node / previously used dac).

Do you know how to a/b compare the two dacs?  If not, maybe we could help.  What is lacking in the bluesound dac?  What is lacking in the streamer?  

Its really odd that you bought a new streamer / dac and then right away ask about what kind of dac and streamer you should connect to your new dac and streamer...?

Again, when you were sold the Bluesound, what did he say it was?

Just a bit of clarification.  Larry, your Node 2i outputs Tidal/MQA by analog RCA, with the quality limitations discussed above, and by SPDIF Coaxial, but very few DACs decode MQA signals coming in that way.  The Mytek Liberty and Brooklyn DACs do, but the Pro-Ject PreBox S2 Digital does not...its MQA decoding is limited to the USB input.  With this item you do have to use a computer to stream your music...not an app on your tablet or smartphone.  But for that I'd have bought one of these myself! 
On the OP's main question, using my Tidal account and Node 2i, I find some Master files sound distictly better than regular CD quality files on Tidal...enough so to justify having the option, IMO, but some do not and in fact sound worse.  I suspect this has all to do with the integrity of the source file and less to do with the MQA process.
On balance, a desireable option, not a panacea.

I am currently looking into the Teac NT-505 as a better solution, but I am wary of the app used to control it.  I like Roon, but that's another expense.  As a Prime member I want to know if the NT-505 will be able to stream from Amazon Music.  Anyone know?