I'm thinking that software development, API's, etc play into the price of streamers.
Common phone apps, small and relatively simple, are downloaded to millions of phones and through advertising, generate money to cover development costs.
When a company builds a streamer, hoping to sell 10,000 or 50,000 with no advertising income, the more complex development costs are spread over fewer devices. The streamer must be compatible with lots of providers and different protocols. Plus, they often have to create an iOS and Android app to accompany the streamer.
The node 2i can stream directly or in some cases, through the mobile app. It supports Spotify connect, roon, bluetooth, Google cast, etc. All that interoperability costs money to create and often involves paying a fee to those services or protocols.
The Node 2i does all that very well. When you pay less for a streamer, you may lose quality, interoperability, a user friendly interface, or all of the above. When shopping for a lower price streamer, do a lot of research, read reviews, etc... make sure it does what you need it to do, and has a UI (user interface) that doesn't drive you crazy.
Yes, I have a Node 2i and like it a lot. I'm using it with an external DAC (not high end at all) and it sounds slightly better than it's internal DAC did. The internal DAC wasn't bad at all...but would be out of place on many of the higher end systems owned by subscribers to this forum.
The only thing missing, in my opinion is a BlueSound receiver that could be plugged into aux inputs on systems in other rooms for nice, whole house sound. The BlueSound Pulse speakers have streamers built in, can serve as endpoints for well synchronized sound originating from the Node 2i and they aren't bad as wireless, remote speakers go...but the don't come close to most, spare stereo systems most of us have. I bought one Pulse, the big one. Its wasn't cheap and the sound was a little disappointing...so it remains in the kitchen, where nothing resembling critical listening will occur.
