Bluesound Node (2021) PS upgrade to Teddy Pardo; is it worth it?

@painter24 Similar to you, I have a Denafrips Pontus II DAC but with a Denafrips Hermes reclocker upstream, and I'm trying out a Bluesound Node 2021. Doing a streaming music sound quality comparison using high res songs on Qobuz via my laptop vs the Node, the better sound quality is coming from my laptop.  This is using the Denafrips Windows drivers and a cheap, generic USB cable into the Hermes vs coax digital out from the Node.  There's some infrequent pops and distortions on the USB connection when doing other operations on the laptop, but I like the USB sound more.  The USB sound is more natural, present, and full.  The Node has more of a sterile and constricted sound to my ear with thinner mids and bass.  No modifications to the stock PSU or power cable were made to my Node.

I'll either stick with USB or look for a different streamer with a better power supply.

@painter24 A few more things of note regarding my testing.  The laptop was drawing power from the battery, the coax cable from the Node is an Audioquest Forest (cheapest of their current digital coax line), and the USB board hardware in the Hermes is Denafrips in-house proprietary for optimizing the signal clean-up.  So the better USB sound I'm hearing could be primarily due to linear power from the Laptop battery plus the Hermes' USB design being exceptional.  I don't think the Audioquest coax cable is what would be holding back the Node sound.

I know I’m late, but has anyone compared the PD Creative psu to the Pardo psu on the Node N130?

PD currently doesn’t have a power supply for the US and suggested I get a S Booster, so Pardo would be the easiest to get, but…

Thanks

@curiousjim 

PD currently doesn’t have a power supply for the US

I was planning on upgrading my node 2i using the PD Creative "Bluesound Node 2 & 2i upgrade kit – super low noise PSU + interface".  Did PD Creative tell you that the PSU above will not work in the US?

Thanks in advance

@jetter 

Hey jetter,

 I sent them an email asking what power supply I needed to go with the PD Creative board for the N130 and they said they had nothing 110 volts and told me to contact S Booster. I believe the 2i is a 7 volt system, so maybe you’ll have better luck.  I’m not sure what country you in, but that’s all I know. 

All the best.

JD