To DAC or not to DAC ?

I have a bluesound node 2 in my system that I use to feed my standalone Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC.  I had honestly never even connected the analog outputs on the bluesound node 2 before today, but your post prompted me to do so.

I've read that the bluesound node 2 has a very "tube" sounding DAC.  My initial response when I first switched from the standalone DAC to the bluesound node 2 was that it had a much softer tone.  I left some music playing in the background and it's clear that the bluesound node 2 doesn't sound bad in my system.

I decided to take a more direct approach and did an A/B using one of my current favorite songs (Go Tell it on the Mounting by For King and Country) and the Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC was clearly superior to my ears as there was more air around the different parts of the music, I could hear "into" the music, and the bass was tighter with a more viceral presentation.

I have upgraded the Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC, so here's what it would take to duplicate it:

Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC with upgraded OPA627 opamps and GE5670W tube - $289 regular (on sale currently for $229)

Sparkos Labs SS3602 Dual Discrete opamps - $80 (x3)

I have upgraded the tube to a Western Electric 396A that I paid about $90, but I don't think that I can hear a definitive difference from the GE tube that it replaced.  I was able to pick up the Sparkos Labs opamps for about $65 each on eBay by making an offer.  If you wanted to pick your own tube, you can get the DAC without any upgrades for about $30 less.

You should be able to duplicate my DAC for $500 to $600 to your door and I think that you'd find it to be an upgrade to the bluesound node 2.

One cool thing with the Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC is that it has parallel solid state and tube buffer outputs and my understanding is that the three opamps are all in the signal path of both outputs.  I found the Sparkos Lab op amps to be a significant upgrade.

I think that my DAC performs above its pricepoint, but I can't say how it would fit into your system.  I have a Pathos Classic One MkIII amplifier with Focal 836V speakers for reference.

I'd second the tube rolling option to potentially improve your system.

I have no experience with a SCHIIT FREYA +, but did recently do some tube rolling in my Pathos Classic One MkIII with amazing results.  I had a less than ideal setup before (still sounded great), but replacing them with a quality set of vintage Mullards the improvement was enough to almost seem like I got a new amplifier.  I have two more sets of the tubes on the way to hold onto for the future.  Another Pathos owner recommended and sold the tubes to me.  By far the best $90 I've spent on audio equipment.

You should be able to find someone that's rolled some tubes in your premaplifier and can point you in the right direction.

@mceljo I have upgraded the tube to a Western Electric 396A that I paid about $90, but I don’t think that I can hear a definitive difference from the GE tube that it replaced.

By chance have you tried using better digi-coax cables? The GE and Tesla tubes sound notably more transparent compared to the WE396/2C51 tubes in my own MDHT Labs Orchid DAC. The WE is much less transparent, a bit more veiled over in some systems, and so much so that I really cannot use it in my all-tube system. Maybe yes with a more detailed SS amp/preamp setups like I had years ago. I’ve tried four different digi-coax (Cardas, Analysis Plus, Audioquest, others) and was suprised to hear a difference with DAC tubes after advancing to better Digi-Coax. Ended up with an OCC copper digi-coax cable for the stremer to DAC, and OCC interconnect cables again from the DAC to my preamp. Now i notice every single tube change in my DAC for better or worse.

Tubes will make a difference. But the don't generally make a dramatic imnprovement.

Here are 2 DACs that will make a significant difference in the price range.

1) Topping D90SE. Maybe the best mesauring DAC and it sounds so clean and detailed. I love this DAC with my warm CODA amp. It costs $900 new. This one uses the ESS chip while the D90 uses the chip which had the factory fire (forgot the name)

2) The Gustard X26 Pro. I just sold it for $925 last week. It is on sale today for $1275

GUSTARD X26 PRO Full Decoding ES9038Pro*2 Chip DSD512 Bluetooth 5.0 X (shenzhenaudio.com)

This is a warmer DAC and not as detaieed as the Topping D90SE or Benchmark DAC3B, but pretty close. It also has NOS | OS mode with 4 filters for each mode. The sound does change with the filters. This is a great DAC for the price. I sold it to buy the Musetec 005 which is also on sale today for $2969. So that is a big jump in price.