[AMammal]

Originally Posted by Jdsmoke

Yes, the one released in June

We have 3 of the Node 2i in our house. I have one set up to our Rogue RP-5 and Stereo 100 amp feeding Klipsche Forte III's. Another on the Dennis Had LP3a and 6v6.

My wife and I did an informal blind test between the Node 2i and an old Musical Fidelity M1 DAC with/without a Schiit Eitr used to "upgrade" the usb input as it is a first gen and very limited spec-wise. We could hardly discern a difference, and slightly preferred the Node 2i's sound to the M1 Dac signal. Granted, that is a very old DAC, (circa 2010).

I have done unscientific and purely anecdotal listening tests with the Luxman P1u and Audeze LCD 2 headphones and couldn't tell a difference between the Node 2i internal DAC and the Musical Fidelity Dac, or a Schiit Modi. YMMV.

It makes sense to use it with a DH amp and then maybe down the line you can add a Dennis Had pre-amp. This progression may get you more bang for the buck?



Disclaimer:
While I dabbled with high resolution file formats, I have settled on "redbook" quality files and most of my music library is CD quality flac files. There is an OBVIOUS increase in quality when listening to these from the NAS on the Node 2i, vs streaming (Qobuz or spotify), but all are enjoyable.

Hope this helps even though it is super late and you probably already made your decision, lol.

Cheers!