Any Bluesound Node2 owners

IMO the Node 2(i) is one of the best-bang-for-buck HiFi products around.
I agree with those who suggest just using it for a while before investing in fancy cords or cables.  I do prefer it wired (ethernet) to WiFi, but especially if you have fairly fast internet service,  WiFi  might work fine for you.

I also agree that instead of buying a stand-alone DAC to use with the Node 2, you might want to wait until you are ready to upgrade the whole shebang. Any of several integrated DAC/streamer/preamp products at around $3K would offer a nice one-shot upgrade. The Matrix Element X, iFi Pro iDSD, or a used Auralic Vega G1 would deliver USB and balanced outputs along with any improvements to the DAC. 

Benchmark dac3b

    Im wondering why all the recommendations are for expensive DAC’s, then i thought, whats the sense in getting a comparable DAC to the burr/brown thats in the node2.

I understand now :0)

I am with @amg56. Although my system costs roughly a magnitude less than his main one. 

Kgveteran, you may want to try this tweek in Tidal for serious listening sessions.  
There is a feature labeled “Loudness Normalization “.  The purpose of said feature is to maintain the same volume output from the different recordings on a Playlist.  So, if you’re listening as background music or don’t want to adjust volume from song to song it is a convenience feature.  IME, the sound quality is improved with the Loudness Normalization feature disabled.

To accomplish this:  Enter your Tidal app.  Click “my collection “ in the lower right corner.  Next up, click the gear wheel icon in the upper right corner.  This will open the page where you will see the Loudness Normalization button.  Turn it off and see if it makes any difference to you.

It is easy to revert at any time for the convenience listening.