New streamer? N150 vs U2

@leorousseau DAC, power supplies and streamers. They’re all integral to the thread when discussing a Node vs something else. 
 

@doni thanks for the clarity. It helped.

@gdnrbob Bob, the DAC is the elephant in my audio room. I’m not sure how much I like the Chord Qutest. It’s very smooth and delicate. It use’s very little power, similar to the Sbooster and the BS Node 2i, so I keep them all powered up 24x7. Important with our high electric costs here. I still have a Cary DAC-100t in my system connected to a Mac Mini. The 2014-era Cary sounds better than the Qutest on many classic rock songs. It’s “meatier”. I’m not sure what the proper audio term is. The Qutest is definitely better on jazz and on female vocals. And the Cary DAC has better soundstage width and depth. I run Amarra audio software on the Mac and it makes a big difference in sound-quality. I frequently compare the same song on Amarra to the anode 2i.

@txp1 You have to consider your room, speakers and all system parts too. 

Both are good streamers (if all the other stuff is dialed in) but wait ... there's more.

Unless yr. Bob Fosse, parts of digital streaming have robust ethernet cabling (you have), filtering, PSU, clock work (not orange) and all that jazz.

The the Aurender N150 will not work with ROON.

Will you use Roon? A lot have said no only to change that pronouncement. 

Like you I started with a BlueSound then upgraded (twice) and can tell the difference. I also had an Sbooster and upgraded from that (instant wow), Obviously it's not just the streamer as they like all the timings. 

I own the N150 and Node w/PD upgrade.  No experience with Lumin.  Don't currently own but have had the Qutest.   No question the N150 is an upgrade from the modified Node.  Will you hear too much difference with the Qutest.  I didn't.  IMO you money is much better spent upgrading your DAC first.

“The the Aurender N150 will not work with ROON.”
And what a BLESSING that is….ROON is a hot mess in my experience! 

@lalitk Sometimes I think the SQ usung the Roon shell isn’t quite on par with my native app and other times I can’t tell at all. Roon’s interface is far superior to my native app. I’ve listened to a few different Aurenders from mid to high end and naturally the room/system was what did/didn’t grab me. I use a Lumin w/ a Roon Nucleus pulling from Qobuz and my stored flacks. The free trail works poorly using a computer as s core (….let’s not go there) so to get worthy SQ a Nucleus core is needed.