I leave all of my gear on 24/7. I use it 3-4 times a day so I avoid power up/down stress on the power supplies. None of it has a standby mode so it is either off or on.

Possibly out dated old school thinking today, but that was the wisdom back in the day. From my personal experience in repairing computers, monitors etc back in 80s and 90s most failures occurred during power up.

The only thing I put on mine is high expectations.

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ba-dum-tish!

Once you read enough reviews for various products they all end up the same. Something good about it, a standout plus, something bad about it, not mentioning a major flaw, measurements, ending with a good to great rating “in that category” or “in that price range”. Essentially useless for comparing gear based on reviews alone.

It is the same bs as all the JD Power Awards, there are so many narrow categories that almost every car wins an award.

Shoes but no socks? Absolutely not someone to be trusted…

My Node is my DAC so I use the line level outputs (RCA) straight into the amp.

If you are using the Node 2i as your streaming source then either Coax or Toslink would be the way to go, I would expect them to sound the same. The Node doesn’t have a USB output so that isn’t an option. The USB type-A on the back is for external storage devices holding MP3 FLAC etc., not audio signals.