Streamer/DAC combinations

Davegolf2424

Upgrade to a good DAC; the Denafrips Pontus 2 (used $1,400 or so), new $1,850 would be a great addition. It will work great with the Node, but is good enough to keep through your next round of upgrades.....and yes this will be very noticeable over the Node's DAC.

As Soix mentioned, a Denafrips Iris DDC will take things to a different level and allow you to go I2S from the Iris to the Pontus. An Iris they can be found used for about $400 or a little more.....if your node has a USB output

You will get a good number of streamer suggestions, so I'll leave that to to others.

Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions!   I appreciate the input.  An external DAC is the obvious way to go.  Seems like the Denafrips Pontus II is the most popular suggestion.   kmcong mentioned the PS Audio Directstream DAC Mk1.  Thoughts about that DAC  vs the Pontus?  With the pace of improvements in the last few years, is an older generation of a higher level DAC going to outperform a new generation of a less expensive one?  Keep this conversation going,  it's been great to see the different points of view.

PS Audio DSD Mk1 is a really nice DAC. PS Audio is FPGA so I wouldn’t call it older generation as Ted Smith custom programmed it and it upsamples everything to DSD - latest Sunlight firmware is only few years old.
Worth looking into and would be choice between it and the Pontus.

I’m using an Aqua LaScala DAC. Very musical with my LUMIN U1 with upgraded XL - Power supply. 

Consider the MHDT Labs Orchid tube based DAC (single tube), about $1200 new.  You see used ones on occasion around $800.  Very musical and liquid sound, but still plenty of detail.  It’s been my primary DAC for several years.  Recently tried a Denafrips Venus II to potentially replace the Orchid… nope, much prefer the Orchid.  I think I’m going to have to spend over $5K to better the Orchid.