To DAC or not to DAC ?

You have the right idea regarding purchasing a new DAC to use with your Bluesound.  It is common knowledge that the Bluesound DACs are the bottleneck of any of the Bluesound units.

Regarding those suggesting you replace your freya+ preamp, it is true that it is not the highest cost unit, but from every owner and professional review it appears to come as close to being one of the highest bang for the buck preamps on the market.  Maybe change the flavor with some new tubes.

Just be aware that often those recommending you flip your gear to what they have now will have totally different gear in a year or two and be just as hardily recommending that gear then.

DAC in Bluesound is way behind rest of system...Freya+ is great for the price, though for me also not as good as your amp and speakers...

Just be aware that often those recommending you flip your gear to what they have now will have totally different gear in a year or two and be just as hardily recommending that gear then.

My amp was bought last year. Prior to that I had an amp for 12 yrs. The preamp was bought 2-3 yrs ago. Prior to that I had another CJ preamp for 15 yrs. I've had my speakers for 18-20 yrs. You should not speak in generalities about that which you don't know. I love the music, NOT the gear, though it is a tool to listen to the music and therefore important

Yeah you’re really cheaping out here in the context of your system.  Why???  Raise your budget $500 or so and at least that gets you into the realm of the Soekris 2541, Musician Pegasus, Gustard X26, etc. that surely will upgrade your sound quality significantly over the DAC in the Node.  After that I’d agree the preamp should be upgraded as well as that will make a huge improvement and allow you to get much more out of your nice downstream gear.  Last, I’d avoid buying multifunction boxes (preamps with DACs, DACs with streamers, etc.) as it’ll give you more flexibility to upgrade, avoid obsolescence, and potentially get better sound quality.  Hope this helps, and best of luck. 

@fullers for a "plan-B" approach, you might be able to extend and leverage what you already own a bit more with some added effort before you leap on to swapping to other gear. It’s worth mentioning as this is a stepping stone option as an alternative. For some, plan-B can also be a permanent option for many years.

DAC: There is no doubt you can improve over the internal DAC on the Node, Node2i. I’ve heard it A/B’d several times with the internal vs. external DACs plugged in on a few different setups. Several friends use the Node as their base streamer (in nice tube systems too) while bypassing and adding a variety of $1000-$2000 external DACs via digi coax with suprising and rewarding results. I would not give up on this idea, fwiw. The Node is not a horrible base streamer when adding a really good DAC to it, externally.

Preamp: There is a bit to reivew and worth on leveraging your Freya a bit more. There are a few folks using them even with Pass Labs amps, yet many have done quite a bit of tube rolling with different tubes. If your Freya is the 6SN7 tube model, first hand I can share you can hear quite a bit of difference with really good vintage and (some, not all) new production 6SN7s out there. I have a collection of 6SN7s for my own preamp from a different company. If you have not done so yet, seriously recommending only buying good 6SN7s from an extra reputalbe tube seller with a warranty and guarantee. Totally worth the extra to buy well matched and well balanced curve-tracer tested tubes when buying vintage, IMO. For new tubes, Some of the later model new production 6SN7s from PSVANE, Sophia Electric, and a few others might be worth a try if you have not already done some 6SN7 serious tube rolling in the Freya yet. Call Schitt, they can share more too on this, maybe a few mods they might recommend if you have an older version Freya. Best of Luck.