Just based on the glowing reviews of the Wiim Pro Plus out there, I had to check it out. I also want to test out multiple theories on SQ since everyone has a different theory. $219 is not a whole lot of price to pay for satisfying curiosity.

The second reason is I am an android phone user and one of my music apps outside of Tidal is not supported by most platform so best I can do is Chromecast, which still gets me 96/24bit.

Build quality goes easily to the Node. It’s feels more substantial and of course it has sub-out, and HDMI ARC-in. For now I don’t use these features however.

UI/Software: tie. With the recent BluOS update, I think it fixed a lot of the issues. But since I am streaming only (no local files) and I am android user, the win goes to the Wiim Pro. I don’t use EQ a lot but it’s nice to have the more extensive EQ opiton on the Wiim if you want to tinker.

Sound quality: I am still debating. There a recent Youtuber that said Node n130 sounds slightly better. I tend to agree? I made an earlier post saying that I didn’t hear any sonic downgrade. The days leading up to my sell of the Node, I did some non-blind, but volume matched, A/B testing, switching Coax and optical for both devices so as to be fair, using both direct out and also using connecting them both to my budget headphone DAC/Amp (SMSL DL200), but listening on my main speakers. Overall, and I don’t if I am influenced by psychology and other factors, what I heard was slightly better instrument separation, clarity and resolution on the Node than Wiim (whether analog out or as pure digital transport); slight but noticeable (again, it’s so slight that it could just be in my head).

So why did I still sold the Node (at a 40% loss)?

-- it is not because I need the money or I don’t understand marginal utility, I did consider keeping both around to experimentation, but:

- some people think that streamer doesn’t affect SQ at all – I am still not at that extreme but in this case the difference (if any) is no way worth 3 times the price (or times even taking into account a 40% discount)

- it seems that connecting to an higher-end external DAC would be even better SQ (if that is to be believed – another controversial topic)

- I think if I really want to Node again, I can buy one used at about the same price I am selling for, and prices will just drop further in the future as more product launches

- for my use cases, I value the convenience of the Wiim platform (again non-iphone/Apple/Roon user), which slightly edges out BluOS

- I am curious about other products, such as Node X and Eversolo DMPA6 – I also my move to an active streaming speaker or a higher end streaming amp, which probably will make the Node redundant – and it seems like manufacturers are and will be flooding the markets with such streaming DACs that in a year or so, there will be a lot of second hand unit that’s of high quality to choose from, the Wiim Pro Plus does well enough to hold me over in the interim.

- not to mention Wiim seems to be a great company and at this rate I don’t see why they cant come up with a Wiim Pro Plus 2 or something at a even higher price point that fully competes higher end products.

For now, I do miss the Node a little and I think the SQ of my system has went from a score of 75/100 to 73/100 (slight). But I thin given all of the above I still made the right move.

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