I had the Yamaha WXC-50 and reviewed it here https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...11#post1038011

I meant to update the post and never got around to it, but I returned it to Richer Sounds. I was very happy with it, sound quality was excellent, ease of use was simple and it worked as a DNLA renderer from JRiver. The issue was with Spotify, specifically Spotify Connect, which is mainly what I bought it for. It kept freezing and play would stop, with the only solution being to reboot everything, only for it to happen again maybe an hour or so later. After some Googling it seemed a common problem at that time, so I gave up with it. Had that worked OK I would still have it. I didn't like the Music Cast app, but didn't need to use it, so binned it. A lot can change software wise in 2 years though, so I'm sure that's been updated as well.

You can read the Spotify issues by Googling 'yamaha wxc-50 spotify connect problem'

From other reports the issue was more with Spotify, rather than Yamaha and I just had a look again and can't see any recent problems, most seem historical to around 2018, so it looks like they sorted it.

From research at the time the NP-S303 is pretty much the same thing as the WXC50 operationally, in a more 'HiFi' rack box, which is a good thing. I think for the money it's a good unit, I would try it out if you can?

I have used a Node 2i and spent a lot of time setting one up on a Network for a friend. I've also reset and installed new firmware on all his other Bluesound devices (Vault and Node2), so they can be kept up to date, or fixed if the firmware has problems, which does happen.

That's what I would go for personally, very good unit the Node 2i both sound wise and ease of use. Everything works well, Spotify Connect, Roon streaming from a NAS etc and the Bluesound app is straightforward to set-up and use.

But Yamaha devices are good too, so choose which suits best?