This is a review and detailed measurements of the Bluesound Node Icon Streamer, DAC and Preamplifier (ADC). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $999.
I can't say I am overly impressed by the design as it kind of looks plasticky. There is a nice large display but doesn't support touch which is strange in this day and age. Instead there are a set of touch buttons on top. I did not use any of this and instead of downloaded the BlueOS app. I found it super confusing, taking me almost 15 minutes to figure out how to change inputs! The option is not under "Audio." Nor the "Player." Instead it is under a "Music" button on the bottom! Half hour spent doing usability testing would have shown them this to be an issue. I understand it supports Dirac but I did not play with that. I updated it as it requested on first connection.
Back panel shows impressive set of inputs and outputs which you may have a hard time deciphering due to low contrast labels:
I could not test everything but did my best to get wide coverage. I suggest watching my tutorial on DAC measurements if you are not familiar with my testing:
And lease subscribe to the channel.
Bluesound Node Icon DAC Measurements
I started my testing with streaming over Ethernet and XLR balanced output:
This is better performance than I expected, showing good level of competence in engineering:
It is however shy of some of its competitors which peg the above chart. Performance is no different if you use USB or HDMI ARC:
There are some small sidebands in all the FFT spectrum however. This will show up more in our jitter test. For now, here are the RCA results:
The unit was highly dependent on grounding. You can see this reflected in channel 2 having lower performance. This is the best I could achieve. Your mileage may vary.
Dynamic range is excellent:
Low distortion in the dashboard translates into the same in multitone and 50 Hz distortion tests:
Linearity was flat as it should be:
As noted, jitter performance is not good:
We have both random, low frequency jitter that broadens the "skirts" of our 12 kHz tone. But also a myriad of spurious/jitter tones. This shows lack of design hygiene. Next bit of bad news was the filter:
Gosh, we have one of these slow filters which we had seen in earlier Marantz AVRs. They get credit for making this optional in latest series but I could not find any such option in Node Icon menus. I strongly recommend the company reconsider this decision and provide at least one standard filter. Fortunately, the frequency response is not impacted:
But wideband THD+N certainly is:
Bluesound Node Icon Preamplifier Measurements
There is analog input which I appreciate as I have a Reel-to-Reel tape deck and know others have turntables:
While ground loop has now come back with vengeance, performance is still quite good.
Input is digitized using an ADC at 44.1 kHz:
Would have liked to see this at higher sample rate or made programmable as their competitors do.
Bluesound Node Icon Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Performance using high impedance of 300 ohm shows that the output power is just a step above "checklist" feature:
I like to see desktop products produce at least 100 milliwatts.
There is better performance to be had using low impedance of 32 ohm:
Conclusions
It is clear Bluesound has taken a major step forward in design of Node Icon. Alas, they didn't quite get the job done with the horrible choice of DAC reconstruction filter and to some extent jitter and interference in output stage. Analog input is good. Headphone output is mediocre to acceptable depending on your headphone impedance and sensitivity.
Because of the choice of DAC filter, I cannot recommend the Bluesound Node Icon. Company needs to revise this especially since it is just a firmware choice. Should they do this, it would go on my recommended list.
EDIT: Video review posted as well:
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I can't say I am overly impressed by the design as it kind of looks plasticky. There is a nice large display but doesn't support touch which is strange in this day and age. Instead there are a set of touch buttons on top. I did not use any of this and instead of downloaded the BlueOS app. I found it super confusing, taking me almost 15 minutes to figure out how to change inputs! The option is not under "Audio." Nor the "Player." Instead it is under a "Music" button on the bottom! Half hour spent doing usability testing would have shown them this to be an issue. I understand it supports Dirac but I did not play with that. I updated it as it requested on first connection.
Back panel shows impressive set of inputs and outputs which you may have a hard time deciphering due to low contrast labels:
I could not test everything but did my best to get wide coverage. I suggest watching my tutorial on DAC measurements if you are not familiar with my testing:
And lease subscribe to the channel.
Bluesound Node Icon DAC Measurements
I started my testing with streaming over Ethernet and XLR balanced output:
This is better performance than I expected, showing good level of competence in engineering:
It is however shy of some of its competitors which peg the above chart. Performance is no different if you use USB or HDMI ARC:
There are some small sidebands in all the FFT spectrum however. This will show up more in our jitter test. For now, here are the RCA results:
The unit was highly dependent on grounding. You can see this reflected in channel 2 having lower performance. This is the best I could achieve. Your mileage may vary.
Dynamic range is excellent:
Low distortion in the dashboard translates into the same in multitone and 50 Hz distortion tests:
Linearity was flat as it should be:
As noted, jitter performance is not good:
We have both random, low frequency jitter that broadens the "skirts" of our 12 kHz tone. But also a myriad of spurious/jitter tones. This shows lack of design hygiene. Next bit of bad news was the filter:
Gosh, we have one of these slow filters which we had seen in earlier Marantz AVRs. They get credit for making this optional in latest series but I could not find any such option in Node Icon menus. I strongly recommend the company reconsider this decision and provide at least one standard filter. Fortunately, the frequency response is not impacted:
But wideband THD+N certainly is:
Bluesound Node Icon Preamplifier Measurements
There is analog input which I appreciate as I have a Reel-to-Reel tape deck and know others have turntables:
While ground loop has now come back with vengeance, performance is still quite good.
Input is digitized using an ADC at 44.1 kHz:
Would have liked to see this at higher sample rate or made programmable as their competitors do.
Bluesound Node Icon Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Performance using high impedance of 300 ohm shows that the output power is just a step above "checklist" feature:
I like to see desktop products produce at least 100 milliwatts.
There is better performance to be had using low impedance of 32 ohm:
Conclusions
It is clear Bluesound has taken a major step forward in design of Node Icon. Alas, they didn't quite get the job done with the horrible choice of DAC reconstruction filter and to some extent jitter and interference in output stage. Analog input is good. Headphone output is mediocre to acceptable depending on your headphone impedance and sensitivity.
Because of the choice of DAC filter, I cannot recommend the Bluesound Node Icon. Company needs to revise this especially since it is just a firmware choice. Should they do this, it would go on my recommended list.
EDIT: Video review posted as well:
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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