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Streamer/DAC combo or stand alone DAC with Node2?

greetings,

I am looking to complete/upgrade my hifi setup and would appreciate divergent thoughts on the topic.  

System:  McIntosh MA252 Hybrid, Spendor D7, Node 2 for Tidal.
Budget:  Anything under $3000.
Based in Belgium with a journey to the States in the summer.

I listen to Tidal 95% of the time. The Node2 is fine, but is now the weak link in my system.   I've heard the Chord DAVE and the Qutest, both good.  I found Mytek LIberty and Brooklyn + to not do much beyond the Node. Surprising.  

As I pretty much only use Tidal and will never use a computer or Roon etc., I want one more box to either improve the Node2 or replace it.  I don't want to open up the MQA debate, bit it would be nice to have a MQA capable device.

Suggestions please. 
alchemyman

Showing 1 response by jonathangreene

jonathangreene
4 posts
 
I have the Node2 and today got the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ 

I was running Roon over network to the Node 2 and generally quite happy but started playing around with the Pro-jectPre Box S2 Digital over USB from my Win10 PC / Roon Server and noticed a pretty substantial improvement.   After listening (it's awesome) over USB to the Brooklyn a while today I bridged the Node back in over coax and found the sound quite a bit thinner than going straight to the DAC. 

Hardly scientific of course but the DAC direct route is going to be my standard.
I have a Marantz AV7702mkii and I'm running that in direct mode from the Brooklyn ... 

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