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Pls Recommend Streamer Under $500 for Tidal “HiFi”

I’m searching for the best sounding streamer under $500 that supports Tidal’s “HiFi” lossless playback. I understand that r2r DAC is desirable, and if possible, I’d like to use the streamer as a DAC for my CD transport and play and store files from my NAS. The unit doesn’t need to have a preamp / integrated amp as I’ll be connecting it to my existing preamp which is feeding vertically bi-amped Energy Reference Connoisseur 70 speakers. Thanks for your suggestions!
128x128sleepwalker65
asahitoro
244 posts
 
@junzhang10  the OP wants under $500.
jworth
37 posts
 
The last post by Double Dutch is incredibly useful to me.  Thank you!

sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65 OP
832 posts
 
First impressions on unboxing the Node 2i:

”I wonder how much this fancy box and cloth bag that the Node 2i came in cost me?”

“I hope the crappy throw-away interconnect cables that are included didn’t cost me much”

”Why would they fold the CAT5e cable?”

Grrrrr...
itsjustme
681 posts
 
Roon partners here:
https://roonlabs.com/partners.html
Bluesound's on the list
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65 OP
832 posts
 
Setup and First listening impressions of the Bluesound Node 2i:

Setup was a breeze. The iPhone app immediately found the Node 2i, which I had plugged into the same network that my wireless access point resides on. After applying updates the unit came to life and I added my Tidal account. Strangely, there wasn’t a menu option to choose Tidal MQA. 

I found menu navigation in the iPhone app fairly inorganic. There didn’t appear to be a way to jump between music playing sessions and individual device tweaks without navigating all the way to the root menu. There should be a simpler way. 

Sound quality seemed good on a non-critical listening session with a pair of Yamaha powered studio monitors connected. I am unclear about the symbology I’m the track list: on the right side of the list, the second last column shows a grey circle with a squiggly line, perhaps the intent was to look like an oscilloscope display of an audio signal. Does that have any bearing over whether the stream is MQA or not?
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