Couple observations:
1) Why would you reclock using DDC when your DAC restocks? Purpose of reclocking is to remove jitter. I’m guessing your signal out of the X30 is already jitter-free.
2) Why would you consider the Mattix NT-1 when all you need is a streamer? It has an onboard server as well, which unnecessarily adds noise. For half the price, you could get the Mattix TT-1, which is just a streamer.
3) I assume you’ve compared the X30’s internal streamer to your Node and that the Node is superior?
More broadly, the thing to keep in mind is that streamers don’t have tonal characteristics, and anyone’s individual experience is likely to be different based upon their setup. The reason that different streamers seem to exhibit slight tonal or sonic differences, apart from digital processing differences like up/oversampling, dsp, etc., is primarily due to electrical engineering factors like jitter, power supply noise, and electrical isolation (galvanic isolation) impacting the DAC's performance.
So while they pass the same digital bits, the quality of the transport (handling of timing/noise) differs as follows:
- Jitter (Timing Errors): High-precision clocks reduce jitter, which can affect the DAC's analog output, resulting in different perceived soundstaging or, rarely, tonal qualities.
- Electrical Noise & Isolation: Poorly designed streamers can introduce electrical noise (EMI/RFI) into the DAC via USB or SPDIF, affecting the analog stage.
- Power Supply: Better, cleaner power supplies (linear vs. switching) reduce noise floor, allowing for a cleaner signal, often perceived as a "blacker" background or more detail.
- The DAC's Sensitivity: If the DAC is well-designed with good jitter rejection and isolation, these differences can become nearly inaudible.
In sum, the interaction of these factors influence the extent to which one can hear fully the characteristics of one’s DAC. But you do not have to spend more than $2k on a streamer to get state of the art performance - i.e., vanishingly low noise levels.