Bluesound Node 2i vs Upscale streamers

@ianrmack ,
I believe mgrif stated it quite well.
The Aurender/Codex combo bested the Node/Codex, as well as the Node/Node-no surprise.
Just a deeper soundstage, more information, yada yada.

Would the OP be happy with the Node onboard DAC- probably, yes.

But, If he/she wanted to extract as much as possible, I would recommend going the Aurender/Codex route. If finances say otherwise, I would go with the Node/Codex. 
The Node/Codex is not a bad combo. I use it to this day.
The one thing Bluesound will allow is for a greater diversity of Streaming services, which Aurender is unfortunately limited to Quobuz and Tidal.
YMMV
bob

Cool.
But, mgrif also says that "his" streamers deliver less jitter to the DAC. I get that.

What if you use a Chord DAC that does not care about jitter at all?
Or, what if you use a W4S reclocker for $350?

Surely there is more to the value proposition of a $2k+ streamer other than just decreased jitter...?

I dont quite get the streaming thing completely yet.
However, I stream 1080p video from Apple TV to multiple UHD TVs and it's damn fine video and it's data stream is massively larger than audio.

AirPlay also says that it is "bit perfect", too.

Not sure how you get better than perfect once you address the jitter issue.

Thanks for the replies. I already have a 2i running into a heavily modified MHDT Pagoda. I am running it wired with Ethernet to my network, streaming Tidal and my own files. I think it sounds pretty good, just wondering where to go from here.

Candidly, I’m skeptical of claims by manufacturers that a DAC is immune to jitter.  And, there is more to a streamer than just jitter reduction. There is convenience certainly, but also reduction of noise infiltrating the system.  I don’t mean noise in the sense of things like “hiss” or distortion, but noise in the sense of obscuring details.  For example, I compared my Aurender against a dedicated, souped up Mac mini (solid state drive, 16 GB RAM, everything else turned off and/or optimized in every way).  The Aurender smoked it. No contest.  BTW: both were outputting via USB to the DAC.  I got the same result when I converted the Mac mini USB to SPDIF through a nice converter to isolate it.  
I think the only way for you to find out if this is the way to go is to try one.  Plenty of companies/stores will let you demo them or buy with a solid return policy.  Try one.  If it doesn’t do what you want/need, return it.  My suspicion is that you’ll probably like what you hear.

I hear you. It’s a $2k+ “gamble” to install a new streamer and deploy its “workflow” methodology. Maybe there will be a difference.

however, for me, that’s where I draw the line.
maybe my node 2i feeding a chord Qutest DAC gets me to “92%” of what streaming digital can be. I,m just not willing to spend $1,000-$2000 per incremental 1% to get somewhere that is otherwise undefined and therefore not valued....for me.

sure, I bet there’s “better” out there.
but I’m happy here...;-)