2. digital
  3. 141712-17758

How much would I lose going to a Bluesound Node 2i

I'm considering going a much simpler route for digital. I play to a lot of vinyl on my Lenco TT and Era V phonostage, and so digital comprises 30-40% of what we typically listen to. My current setup is running Roon on a Synology NAS that connects wirelessly to an Auralic Aries LE, then connected to connected to my Metrum Octave DAC via Curious USB Cable and Audiophillio 2. That's a lot of links in the chain, thus the desire to simplify with a single box solution if I can.

I have really enjoyed what I've heard from MQA so far, even though I'm not getting all the goodness yet. My Aries will decode MQA but my Metrum Octave does not support MQA, so I'm not getting the full monty. I am using ROON DSP to convert streams to 96kHz and 176kHz when possible. 192kHz is not supported on the Octave.
It's my understanding that the Bluesound will provide Full Decoder support for MQA and that the internal DAC punches well above its weight, especially compared to the Node 2. So my question is whether I should expect MQA to sound better on the Bluesound than it does on my current setup, and how much Redbook will sound degraded, if at all.

I'm tempted to buy a Node 2i to compare for myself but before I do, I thought I would garner some opinions here.
Thanks!
smccull

Showing 1 response by justubes2

justubes2
203 posts
 
You might want to try the node 2i decoding Mqa to you dac. 

It probably sounds better this way. 

I had a node 2 and Auralic Aries Femto clock version.

How matter how I try to set it up, it's sonic character was why different from the Node 2.

Testing Mqa tracks partially decided led a clear conclusion that the Auralic Aries gave a totally different presentation and in a oppoaite direction sonically from the node playing non Mqa and mqa partially decided.

The Auralic sounded like typical DSD files, so a slight warming of the sound did nothing for me whether with mqa tracks or not.

To me another great choice is the Lumin which outputs mqa and has an even warmer and more natural sound than the Node.

I guess system matching is important and if your system is rather warm, the clarity and brightness in the Auralic may be a better match. 

All out a Aurender A10 might be the ticket. 
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