Bluesound Node 2 or Auralic Aries Mini

[Iceman16]

Hi all, Can you please give me some thoughts if you have any experience with these 2 music streamers. I currently use my laptop connected to Chord chordette gem via usb. I think the Node2 does’nt have a usb output which is the only way I can connect to the dac. In terms of sound quality which do you think sounds better (I know it’s subjective) but please share your opinion.
Thanks

[fiddlemaker]

Hi all, Can you please give me some thoughts if you have any experience with these 2 music streamers. I currently use my laptop connected to Chord chordette gem via usb. I think the Node2 does’nt have a usb output which is the only way I can connect to the dac. In terms of sound quality which do you think sounds better (I know it’s subjective) but please share your opinion.
Thanks

I've just bought the Aries mini and I'm very pleased with it. The lightning DS app works very well and is a doddle to set up. I would think that if you plan to use your existing DAC, the difference in sound quality between the Aries and the Bluesound will be negligible, so it would seem to make sense to go for the one that has the USB output you need and is £50 cheaper...

[WESTLOWER]

Hi all, Can you please give me some thoughts if you have any experience with these 2 music streamers. I currently use my laptop connected to Chord chordette gem via usb. I think the Node2 does’nt have a usb output which is the only way I can connect to the dac. In terms of sound quality which do you think sounds better (I know it’s subjective) but please share your opinion.
Thanks

I had the Bluesound Node2 for a year or so, its internal DAC is OK. Nothing great and a tad hard. It's easy to use and
the interface is good with iPhone etc. But i wanted to use it to connect to a better DAC in my living room system and alas it had to go for lack to usb out connectivity. I ended up going the Rpi3 LMS route and it worked well.

ps. Actually thinking back, the board burnt out something or other and the SQ started to distort at certain points.
I returned it to BlueSound who fixed it and returned it. Just thought you should know!

[Iceman16]

Thanks John and Adam for your input guys. I actually have a Bluesound node2 here which is still sealed and unused. I might aswell sell it and get the Auralic mini to connect to my dac.

[WESTLOWER]

Wise if you want to use an external DAC

[fiddlemaker]

Hi Jayson, if you go for the Aries mini I'd be very interested to hear how you find the onboard DAC compared with the Chord.