upgrade advice

I tried the H160 with my Bifrost and the Bifrost provided superior sound  to the onboard DAC

Granted, It is tricked out with good cables and a V-link192 to handle the USB interface.

I was very surprised by how much difference the Bifrost made, given the reputation of Hegal - it put me off their products somewhat.

A new DAC might get you to where you want to be, but be sure to get one that does not rely on USB power. Both the Bifrost and Gungnir utilize power from the USB cable to power their USB interface - not good - a Musical Fidelity DAC would be my choice, based on how good their V-Link192 performs.

Regards...

It sounds like a reasonable upgrade path is use the Node 2 as a wireless streaming transport and feed a better DAC using its optical/coax outputs. I suppose the same DAC could be used to upgrade a CD player sound as well. Makes it a little easier to justify the cost for a good unit.

a lot of this is simply personal preference, as long as the DAC receives a high quality, low jitter signal...

I have a Bluesound Vault and the internal DAC is a piece of crap. However, connected to my Schitt Gungnir Multibit DAC it sounds wonderful.

Yansad, if you haven't already done so and your domicile is conducive then spend money treating your room.