Any problems streaming 24/192 files to external DAC from Bluesound Node?

@marco1 thanks - agreed. 

I upgraded the power cable to the Node using a FURUTECH FP-S022N cable with SONARQUEST Carbon silver plated connectors (with Mojo Cable c7 adapter) and that made another big difference for streaming - and frankly a bigger positive difference for the built-in DAC function of the Node which is decent.  But I still prefer the sound of the irDAC.

According to bluesound the node only outputs 192/24 from the RCA connections which doesn’t makes any sense to me, and at must 96/24 from the digital (optical and coaxial) ports, so go figure!

@alcecena I not quite sure what you’re saying here.  Yes the node can definitely output 24/192 files via RCA coax, with fairly high quality.  And I only think it can only output up to 24/96 files via Toslink, although it’s been a while since I checked on that spec.  I have been told by folks on Audiogon that the Node (Gen 3) can also output hi res files via USB, but it only has one USB port, and I am using the USB port in my Node to receive files from a hard drive and serve those to my DAC via coax. Since my last post on this topic I have upgraded the DH Labs coax cable to a higher quality Chord Company cable and that made a huge improvement in sound quality.

kn

I also upgraded the Arcam irDAC to a Chord Electronics QuteHD which made a huge positive difference in system performance.  The Node is really very good for what it costs, and the streamer/server functions are far better than the internal DAC in my opinion.

kn

It sounds that it doesn’t make sense to you either, the RCA output I’m talking about is the “analog” one! OK, after a little more research I discovered that there is an option in the BS node where you let it know the bit rate you want to received from your provider, in my case Qobuz, so that modification allow me to receive 24/192 in the digital ports already; however, even though the MQA external DAC option is set on, I am receiving PCM , instead of bitstream format, Which to me doesn’t make sense either !  If I discovered anything else I will post it here.