Which DAC is better?

The Hint doesn’t dac doesn’t support MQA but it will still sound better than the node, despite its support of MQA. Don’t let that technicality trip you up as you move up the sonic ladder. You have both the node and the hint now, so use the hint to get the best sound you can with what you currently have.

If you decide to upgrade to a better standalone dac in the future, at that point consider whether MQA support is important to you.

The DAC in the Node 2i is very good. I have tested this. It is as good as a $700 DAC.

my personal experience is that this statement is not correct (there are numerous $700 dacs on the used market the outperforms the internal dac in the 2i)

well - on second thought - maybe the statement IS correct - it may be as a good as ’A’ $700 DAC... that would be a somewhat poor sounding one though

In my experience most modern DACs sound very similar.. It's definitely worth the price of a cable to see if you can tell them apart.

"well - on second thought - maybe the statement IS correct - it may be as a good as ’A’ $700 DAC... that would be a somewhat poor sounding one though"

That's funny, and appreciated.  Agree, you buy the Node for the streamer and Bluesound OS.  Use the dac until you can upgrade, and OP already has a superior option in his integrated amp.

We have the new node it’s DAC is not bad and certainly better than 2i however we use a coax cable (DIG 3 Morrow) and we found that the DAC in our Anthem AVM 70, in our opinion), larger sound stage and a slightly cleaner sound. It’s so subjective, though your ears can decide which it’s sound.