Most all solid state DACs won’t alter bass nor decay.
Soundstage width issues could be channel matching and/or crosstalk.
The Benchmark, Chord, and PS Audio ones would be excellent. the Benchmark and Chord are awesome, I just really dislike their asthetic. I would not recommend buying the PS Audio one new though, it is not worth >2x the Benchmark or Chord.
As a DAC, the Node 2i has a SINAD (Signal over Noise and Distortion) of ~87dB, so not good enough for 16Bit (CD, MP3, etc.), while the Benchmark and Chord are between 110dB and 115dB.
Now, 87dB may be good enough with music masking the noise/distortion in addition to your room’s floor noise, but as an absolute audibility threshold it falls short.
Soundstage width issues could be channel matching and/or crosstalk.
The Benchmark, Chord, and PS Audio ones would be excellent. the Benchmark and Chord are awesome, I just really dislike their asthetic. I would not recommend buying the PS Audio one new though, it is not worth >2x the Benchmark or Chord.
As a DAC, the Node 2i has a SINAD (Signal over Noise and Distortion) of ~87dB, so not good enough for 16Bit (CD, MP3, etc.), while the Benchmark and Chord are between 110dB and 115dB.
Now, 87dB may be good enough with music masking the noise/distortion in addition to your room’s floor noise, but as an absolute audibility threshold it falls short.