After reading Bob Carvers amp test from 1985 I find it hard to believe amps sound different to the human ear. If you are not familiar with it you split a sound signal putting the same signal into the amps you want to compare. The output of both amps is fed into a differential amp. Both amps need identical loads, instead of speakers use dummy loads which more identical than two identical speakers. A differential amp is an amp that subtracts one input from the other and it’s output is only what is the diffrence between signal A and signal B. You can put this output on an o-scope and see the difference, or put it into a third audio amp with speakers, crank it up and the only sound you hear will be the difference between the two amps (noise). If the the volume is not adjusted the o-scope will have an ever increasing or decreasing signal, now adjust volume to a flat signal level on the scope to eliminate volume as the diffrence you hear. Now play music, rock, jazz, classical. Even with 1985 amps the differential output was negligible, nothing to hear. This proves not only that there is little diffrence between amps it means the specs on modern amps are so far beyond human senses it doesn’t matter. The diffrence between stereo systems is speakers, recording quality and the room. The speaker is the diffrence you pay money for. What you pay for in a amp/pre-amp is the inputs, outputs, build quality, controls, knobs, and of course beauty, but they all produce sound the same as far as a human can know.
This is what the world needs. I use only Flirc / stock RPi’s and a Pi2AES, all with Ropieee. I want someone with the “real” gear to do a proper blind test on my gear 
If I may be so bold as to suggest that “audiophiles streaming Tidal” is an oxymoron… Who knows what the heck your getting when you stream Tidal… Try the test again with an actual known hi resolution source…
The Lumin Has 3 choices
- Tidal
- Qobuz
- Spotify
In Canada we don’t have Qobuz, Spotify Does not work with roon, so we are stuck with Tidal:)
If you use Roon, don’t you have some local (as on your core) hi res test music? If not, how about put a few hi res files on a jump drive… Both the Node and Lumen has the ability to play from that… If you don’t have any test files try some place like 2L High Resolution Music .:. free TEST BENCH or some stuff like Ryan Adams : Free Music : Free Audio : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive…
Everyone knows music lovers play vinyl and any streaming is secondary.
I must of been sick and didnt make that class
Just to confirm did you connect these streamers via analog into your system or via digital into an external DAC?
All ANALOG using the streamers DAC
Did you do the same blind test using both the D2 and Node native platform / app ?
We did, no difference
And the source for both tests was Tidal / MQA ?
At the end of the day, the 5 heard what they heard, can’t argue with their experience. At least you know you are happy with cheaper gear. 
so that’s great…
I honestly find it very surprising you heard no difference on analog outputs, with these products. This conflicts with my personal experience with the Node.
How much critical listening experience do these 5 have?
Was switching instant between devices, to allow comparison?
The Pi2aes is a great sounding device. Noticeably better than the Node 2i in my setup.
The system that was being tested costs with speakers and wire $65000
The 5 listeners have been into high end audio anywhere from 10 to 40 years
All have some pretty good system ranging from $65k-$500k
We did have a DCS Bartok there definitely heard a difference
Seems odd you would not hear a difference between a TI/BB PCM5242 chip and a pair of Wolfson WM8741 DAC chips, 1 chip per channel…
What preamp and amp were you using?
Secondary?
Hmmm
Maybe not that high in my house 
Picture in the first post
Was using a Krell
The willingness of customers to pay that much.
True in some cases, but not all.
If you are into measurements, the Node 2i doesn’t measure that well… Your friends at ASR say so.
From ASR tests:
Bluesound specs the unit at 0.005% and measurements are actually better in both channels. Resulting SINAD though (signal over noise and distortion) is not great at just 88 dB. This is well short of the dynamic range of the CD so the statement that the unit supports high-resolution, 24-bit playback is moot.
This performance is easily bettered by modest low cost DAC’s.
Again… I’m very surprised listeners couldn’t hear the differences.