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

I appreciate sound from bluesound and from a marantz avr.  But level of appreciation is quite abit lower when compared to avr.  
So appears I will keep the bluesound streamer capability which seems fine and lots offered, only use tidal and Spotify for now. And I will pursue an external dac and guess spending will be 1 to 2k.  A lot better than replacing avr with a high priced preamp which I would only be getting for sound improvement with stereo and not all the home theatre sounds which are handled quite well with avr.

  

I think of the Bluesound as merely a transport for streaming services / Roon. It will remain pretty stable and capable of performing this function for a while. But DACs will change - either because of technology or we just want to try something different, i.e. chip vs. R2R. It's fun to have that flexibility the Bluesound + [DAC du jour] affords...

I had a Node 2 for 2 years and found it had adequate sound.  I had seen reviews of the Node 2i and the comments were that it was significantly better mostly from a updated layout of the circuit board NAD learned from the Masters series with no major changes in the parts from the Node 2.  I bought one a 2i and at first noticed a small improvement.  After a several days break in, it opened up and was significantly better.  For $549 I think it's great for the money.

Terrific review of the Node 2i in Sept 2020 issue of the Absolute Sound. 

@contuzzi

"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?"

well yes... of course... it is easy to do as the digital and analog outputs on the node play simutaneously -- otherwise how would one have the proper basis for commenting?  the ONLY way to know is to listen, extended, as well as A vs B, with db levels properly equilibrated

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i started streaming in february when the covid thing made us stay home a lot... i have been a hifi nerd since the 80’s in college, been through countless components and systems, but had procrastinated about streaming music for a few years

since climbing the learning curve on streaming i have now been through half a dozen streamers (no computer streaming) and to this point, fully 20 stand alone DACs from $400 to $4000...  it has been fun, and quite enlightening

the node 2i is a killer product, so well designed, does so much for the money, such excellent user interface (not to be taken for granted), but for what it costs they had to limit cost and performance somewhere, and the DAC is where they did it

having said that, they made a smart choice by making the sound of the internal DAC very smooth and inoffensive (as opposed to ragged and strident), but this occurs at the expense of transparency, transient capability/impact, imaging and ’air’

that is the first thing you notice plugging in a proper dac vs the node dac - like a chord mojo or 2qute or ayre codex or a denafrips ares - so much more richness, texture, speed and clarity in the music (if your system is even reasonably resolving)

as you move up in dacs from there, you more layering, more holographic imaging, more ease and natural flow to the music -- all the while feeling no loss of detail, it is just presented more naturally more effortlessly

a final note -- one thing that is ironic to me with the node is that for $500 they give you full MQA unfolding for Tidal Masters... premise being to get folks to try MQA for modest outlay.... problem is, the node's onboard DAC’s smoothing and cloudiness obscures most of what MQA brings to the party... so, given the success of the Node in its large sales volumes, i'm actually not sure if the MQA proponents are getting their intended marketing boost, or actually the opposite effect of having many with the node question its value...

A big improvement is to be had using Supra CAT 8+ ethernet cable. A 2-meter cable runs $59 including shipping from seller zendada on eBay.  Many lengths available.

Although its advertised as CAT 8+, that is a bit of advertising license, its really CAT 8, but made a big difference with my 2i.