@mahler123
I'm not looking for state of the art, at least right now. I'm looking for the best sound I can find in a dac within my current budget. I'm not looking to be "blown away". I don't dislike digital in principal. You already agreed that the Node internal dac isn't adequate.
So, I really don't understand the basis for your rant.
Listening is subjective, but I couldn’t disagree more with the OP statement that the Node sounds like it’s out of the 1990s, not if it’s paired with a decent DAC.That is the point of my thread. I'm looking for a dac in the $500-$1k price range to pair with the node 2i. Not sure how you missed that.
The included DAC with the Node is very limiting—it would be like listening to a turntable with a $20 cartridge. Since the OP seems not to care, basing all his judgements of digital on low end stuff, I wonder what he is trying to achieve with this thread.See above.
Sorry to be curmudgeonly, but I get tired of people posting here “I don’t like digital, I am not willing to make any investment to be persuaded otherwise, but recommend me something cheap that will blow me away”.What thread were you reading?
I'm not looking for state of the art, at least right now. I'm looking for the best sound I can find in a dac within my current budget. I'm not looking to be "blown away". I don't dislike digital in principal. You already agreed that the Node internal dac isn't adequate.
So, I really don't understand the basis for your rant.