Got a Node 2i, what's next?

If you're not satisfied with the Node 2i, you can make it sound better with an external DAC.  I went down that route, trying it with a Mytek Liberty and an Auralic Vega.  Better, but still not that great.  

For me, replacing it was a better and more sensible choice than trying to band-aid it with power cords, ethernet cables, or an external DAC.  I chose a TEAC NT-505 which was much better sounding than the Node / Auralic Vega combo (the Vega cost more than the NT-505).  I'd also look at the Lumin streamers. 

The NT-505 must be at or near end of life, TEAC was blowing them out on Walmart for about $1200 ($2000 originally).  You should be able to find one for not much more than your budget.

Save a little more money than your current budget and flip the Node 2i if you're not happy with it.

@vinylzone.
You have a lot of $$$ invested in your vinyl front end and I assume the rest of your system is of high quality as well. yet you are only thinking of investing $500 - $1000 on a DAC, it sounds like you have already delegated your digital front end to be so much less than it could be. I was once like you, a vinyl diehard, but much has changed in the digital world lately and if you really stepped up your game and spent more, I think you would be very pleasantly surprised. Why not consider buying current production second hand gear. If it then doesn’t rock your boat, you can easily sell it and recoup your costs.

A lot to process since last night. I want to make a few points/clarifications.

I am only using Amazon HD for a streaming service. I am not currently planning to expand to other services. The BluOS phone/tablet app works just fine for this, and my technologically challenged wife is happy. especially with the presets on the phone app.

On the Node 2i, network is hard wired back to the router. Variable volume is off. 0 problems due to streaming, better than using roku, so I’m happy there.

I don’t think the Node sounds awful, just very digital in a 90’s sort of way. When I still was giving digital a try back in the 90’s, I had a Sonographe SD22 CD player that was somewhat analog like to the limits of what CDs sounded like at the time. I guess a more analog sound is what I’m looking for, not to get a digital setup to rival my analog.

When I say digital will be a at best a secondary source, I am talking about in my system. I don’t want to get into debates of what formats are capable of. I like analog, and am still actively buying records. My analog front end will always be my primary source, at least until I am unable to get up and change records :).

The $500-$1000 budget is self imposed. I could go a lot higher, but there are other priorities in my system that I’d rather put money into for the foreseeable future. Once those are done, I might feel differently about what I’m willing to spend on digital, but that’s a ways off.

Congrats on the Node 2i! While I don’t have one, I’ve bought PowerNodes for (granted not very audiophile) family and friends based on the reviews alone and they are really happy with them.

Another vote for RME ADI-2 if you can swing it. Really excellent, neutral but not dry. Much better than Ayre Codex in my experience. With the Ayre I was always itching to go back to my PS Audio DirectStream; not nearly so much with the ADI-2. There’s also a few good comparisons online to the Chord Qutest, where the ADI held up pretty favorably. I don’t know that it will be THAT big of an upgrade over the Node internal DAC though. I thought the Node 2i was pretty good as is?

What I like about the ADI is, as you’d expect from pro gear, they have achieved bulletproof performance through a high degree of technical sophistication. Eg it performs and sounds as it should with a very ordinary power supply. Sure, its performance is capped by the internal switching supply and op amps, so it will never sound like a MSB Reference or what not, and some DACs at 3-5x the price will better it in aspects. But it gets 80-90% of the way there with zero effort. I’ve noticed that while I prefer my DirectStream, it’s not as consistent - eg the “sounds better late at night” phenomenon is way more pronounced with the PS Audio, which is also sensitive to power cords. The RME I can just throw on with an rPi over USB and Mogami interconnects and it will sound reliably great.

There are a couple things things to watch out for with the ADI. It is pretty much dead neutral, so if you are looking to add some flavor to your system or make digital resemble vinyl, look elsewhere. And if you really need to use it with balanced XLR - the performance seems somewhat compromised via RCA. Sounds like that won’t be an issue here.

With respect to all the other opinions here, I would not worry too much about R2R vs. bitstream. My experiences do not align exactly with the character some are ascribing, especially “musicality” which is highly subjective. I don’t find one architecture to be inherently more musical; the most I can say is that ladder tends to have sharper leading edges, which makes sense since it has theoretically infinite slew rate, while the gentler analog filters of bitstream might make it a bit smoother and more coherent top to bottom. In any case, the overall implementation of the entire DAC matters much more. Case in point: my previous reference DAC was based on PCM1704 ladder, passive IV and tube output stage. My current - bitstream FPGA - could not be more different in technical approach.

As always, just $.02!

Cheers,
TAWW

IMHO, I wouldn't limit yourself to balanced outputs. I think for this application it's not going to make THAT significant a difference. For one thing, when you connected your Node to your preamp, you were using unbalanced RCA interconnects anyways. And when you do get a DAC, you're still going to have a "digital" signal between Node and DAC. I wouldn't sweat it. <G>

I do agree that the Node2i benefits greatly using an external DAC. The integrated one is adequate, but only just. I tried a Jolida first and while an improvement, I knew there was better out there for not that much more money. I'm currently using a Border Patrol and am very happy with it after it's burn-in. I spent a little bit more and had some Morrow audio interconnects made for it and it will do me for some time in my current system.

Happy listening.