Chord Qutest——>No difference

@teh_chucksta 

Another thing that made a nice difference, if you are wired to your modem/router, is this from eBay (he sells all lengths):  

Supra CAT 8+ ETHERNET cable 2-meter Made In Sweden THE BEST FOR NETWORK AUDIO  $64.00  Free shipping

seller zendada (10,788) 100%

This is very good cable from a good company.  He uses a bit of artistic license calling it CAT 8+.  It really is CAT 8. 

If you buy it, be sure to order it from seller zendada.  I made a mistake and ordered it from another seller who ended up being in England, cost $20+ shipping and a month to get to me.

Being well familiar with Arcam gear having owned several Arcam components and currently using an Arcam AVR….

I think it will be difficult to hear the difference that the qutest will bring. Arcam already has a warm robust sound signature so it is already warming the sound signature from your blusound node. 
 

your wife is probably spot on that it makes the music sound bigger as that would easily be the effect of the qutest in an Arcam system. 
 

to help bring out the differences more for the better qutest  I would look to upgrading cables in your audio system, interconnects and speaker cables included. Arcam has enough resolution to benefit from getting better cables. 
 

I love the Arcam sound for my surround sound system. Warm clear properly weighty midrange sound without added high frequency hype or sizzle and doesn’t have one dimensional bass like most AVRs out there. 
 

I owned a Qutest as well for some time and know that it is a good dac still in its price range. 

@sudnh i ordered a couple of new digital cables (BNC to RCA terminated) coax cables that should arrive any day now. Let me break them in for a week or so and I’ll post my findings.

As I prefer a warm sound, I went with Arcam early on, though down the line I may swap out my preamp for tube-based Rogue Audio.

@jetter I considered your proposal but it’s just not feasible in my home.