Best output - Bluesound Node 2i to KEF LS50 wireless

[1russianguy]

What would be the best way to connect the node 2i to the active KEF LS50 wireless speakers? optical out or RCA out?

I think that optical out to the speakers would bypass the onboard DAC in the Node 2i and Tidal MQA unfolding would max out at 24/96. RCA out would utilize the onboard MQA-certified DAC in the Node 2 and Tidal MQA files would unfold to a max of 24/192. Thinking the optical out would be cleaner and MQA isn't a big deal for me.. thoughts?

 

[AndyG]

What would be the best way to connect the node 2i to the active KEF LS50 wireless speakers? optical out or RCA out?

I think that optical out to the speakers would bypass the onboard DAC in the Node 2i and Tidal MQA unfolding would max out at 24/96. RCA out would utilize the onboard MQA-certified DAC in the Node 2 and Tidal MQA files would unfold to a max of 24/192. Thinking the optical out would be cleaner and MQA isn't a big deal for me.. thoughts?

Im not sure if using optical out of the node is going to bypass his internal dac, try RCA, I heard the dac from the node is very good

 

[gregvet]

I don’t necessarily have an answer, but it is worth bearing in mind that the kef speakers apply digital sound correction automatically to every input, including the analogue. So, if you send an analogue signal to them from the bluesound, you will be using the bluesound DAC to convert to analogue, then the kef’s will be converting back to digital in order to apply sound correction, before converting back to analogue again using the Kef’s DAC.
So it could be argued that it would be more sensible to feed a digital signal to the kef’s as it cuts out two conversion steps, one in the bluesound and one in the Kefs.

as to which sounds better, only you can decide for yourself

 

[Gray]

as to which sounds better, only you can decide for yourself

True and if you own both products, let's face it, you're in the perfect position to experiment