Need tips to better my sound

@labguy,

As many of us suggested above, buy the Blusound Node 2i which comes with at least 15-30 days return policy from quite a few online retailers. Once you have node 2i in-house, do an A/B comparison with Node 2i internal DAC vs. ZDac. Also sign up for free trial with Tidal to compare SQ with Spotify. Many finds Spotify SQ acceptable but without a doubt Tidal and Qobuz offers much better streaming sound quality.

In the end, Trust your ears and make an informed decision.

Sweet!!
 Problem solved thanks guys🙂

mapman
First let’s clearly call out the fuse recommendation as totally baseless other than that there are some obsessed with fuses here for whatever reason.

Aw, geez, another person who’s all thumbs. 👍

Join the Navy. Then you can make a uniformed decision. 

What soix said.

At the $150/yr special you will not find better SQ for the buck than Qobuz.
You can blow $360/yr on Tidal+Roon and get NO better SQ.
Not intersested in proprietary MQA.  Either is Linn, Schiit, etc.
It "does not solve any problem that the world currently has."
I can barely listen to Spotify any more, even to a BT speaker in a motel room. At $120/yr it sounds to me like it's worth $1/week. AND Spotify is digging in against upgrading to even lossless. You can effortlessly transfer your personally made playlists via the Soundiz page. (One p/l at a time for free.)
With a spdif cable from Blunode 2 or 2i to your z you can compare the SQ of both DACs to give a sense of direction on you HiFi journey.
OR
You can grab a closeout Blunode N100 ($300 Amazon) before they are gone, hook to ethernet (its WiFi sux) and toslink it to your z (the N100 internal DAC also sux.) Just resist swapping any cables on the N100 because you need the proverbial dick tweezers to access the jacks.
Also know that all Blunodes will play local lossless+ tracks via flash drive or SSD. (The N100 only suppies enough current for up to a 500 Gb Silicon Power external.) This is easier and quicker than adding music to my Synology NAS, no foldersort.exe needed on SSDs. And it reduces the need to make playlists for easy folder play.
Just be aware that all streamers that I have tried here require sporadic (~monthly) rebooting along with the router (node) to renew the handshake. (This is most likely ComCrap's fault.)
OR
You can put a $160 orange fuse into your yamamama.
Please report on SQ improvements if you go that route.
I really mean it.