If you’ve heard an iFi Zen stream, anything better under $1k?

I have the Node 2i with PD Creative power supply upgrade.  I felt this was a nice improvement.  Bass, soundstage, transients, etc all better.  Are some of you saying the ifi sounds better than an upgrade Node of any generation?

My experience with the ifi Zen was with the original release when they would send the upgraded power supply, I think that's a BIG part of the sound and would for sure suggest upgrading as a must.

So, the question now is, how does the new Node compare with the iFi Zen Streamer with their dedicated power supply on both price and performance.  Anyone?

@soix

i have both here but have not had the time (nor motivation recently) to carefully set up a comparison... i was planning to a few months back but then started messing with roon and sonore opticalrendu and related power supplies

i did not feel it fair to compare the node 3 stock vs the zs with the nice lps i am using, as i don’t have a way to use a better ps to drive the node - as i said earlier the zs definitely sounds more relaxed more natural with a nice 12v lps driving it

will come back to this sometime in the next little while

I have the newest Node with LPS and external Dac too. Surprising to read about loose bass and high noise floor.  My system easily shows faults like those.  Not present.