Advice Needed: Bluesound Node vs Vault

I don't want to have to rip all my CDs again and could not see any reason to purchase the Vault over the Node 2.

I've already ripped hundreds of CDs to an external hard drive that is visible on my network. They are neatly organized by artist/album and I could care less if I see album art or not.

One of the things I like about the Node 2 is that I don't have to have my TV on to listen to music.  I upgraded my Oppo BDP-103 to a UDP-103 and bought the Node 2 so I could continue to enjoy Tidal in my main system.  Before getting the Node 2 I used the Oppo to stream Tidal.

I'm very happy with the Node 2.  I am using my Auralic Vega instead of the Node 2's internal DAC and am very happy with the ease of use and sound quality.  I picked one up for $200.  One of the best bang for the buck "audiophile" purchases I've ever made!

Thanks big_greg, I was thinking sort of along those same lines. I've already ripped some of my CDs a couple years ago. Not a ton, but maybe around 40 or 50. I already went through the process on my PC to get the album art and they are all neatly arranged in folders, like yours. I had no problem using them with my old Squeezebox Touch until the external HDD they were on died. I have the original copies still on the laptop. It's been a few years since I did it, but I don't recall it being that difficult of a process and the album art isn't critical priority for me either. I think the answer coming out of all this is the Vault isn't worth the extra money *for me* so I should stick with the Node 2i. Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to reply

The Bluesound ripper generally does good rips, superior to iTunes, perhaps a notch below dbpoweramp.  I’ve used all 3 of these extensively.  Still, if you are comfortable doing your own ripping, a program like dbpoweramp costs under a hundred, still cheaper to add then the ripping part of the Vault2 

I was going to get the Node 2i and stopped by my dealer to buy one.  We went through the specs between the Node 2 and 2i and there wasn't anything new in the 2i that mattered to me and he had a couple of the Node 2s coming in from a trade in.  I was able to pick one up for $200. 

If you're going to use the analog outputs, the sound quality is purportedly better on the 2i and it has Airplay 2 (which I don't have any use for).  I am running my Node 2 to an external DAC, so the "better" analog output sound quality didn't matter.  If you plan to use an external DAC and don't care about Airplay 2 you might be able to get a good deal on a Node 2.

Keep in mind when getting a Node 2, as I have mentioned in a previous response to this post, the name for artwork in each folder with music is Cover.jpg. This is the default for Bluesound now.
https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/200271926-Why-is-some-of-my-Album-Cover-Art-shown-a...
If you have 300 albums of music, each with it’s own folder the embedded artwork or separate artwork file must be Cover.jpg.