Digital front end upgrade options


Hey everyone,

want to get some opinions and advice as to what may be the best upgrade path for my system.

my digital front end is currently lacking quite a bit. It’s my primary playback out of pure convenience. I currently stream tidal and qobuz through a MacBook Pro into a dragonfly cobalt. I would like to invest into a dedicated streamer. I have been looking at two units that are in different leagues. The first option would be the bluesound node 2i (more budget option) and the second would be a lumin u2 mini. So with that being said if I went with the cheaper option of the bluesound node 2i would I see any real sonic improvements over my current setup? Or would I be better suited to just pony up for the more expensive lumin u2 mini? And if I went with the u2 mini would the sonic improvements be significant over my dragonfly cobalt? I would like to think either option would be a significant upgrade but unfortunately I don’t have the option to test gear to find out for myself. Hoping to get a little insight here. Thank you all!

james1911
@christianb5s4 christianb5s4

Agreed on the above, Node 130 with better power supply and external DAC is a major improvement. That said, Lumin was a major step up as it should be for the price delta.

I'm curious if you compared just the streamer in the Node (to an external DAC, and with the better power) supply to the Lumin. I have a Node with an external LPS and I'm sending it to an external DAC.

If you have compared, what qualities, specifically, make the Lumin better? Any thoughts?

I specifically went from the Node 130 with PD Creative PSU into a Denafrips terminator plus to a Lumin U1 with X1 PSU same DAC.

 

Everything was better to my ears from bass, Soundstage, separation, mids, noise floor, etc. As it should be for 10x the price.