Bluesound Node Icon Streamer Review

[Truder]

Eversolo DMP A8

 

[Truder]

DMP A10

 

[mr_bill]

Node Icon
Better than A6
Same as A8
Not as good as A10 (much more expensive)

@pogo looking forward to the audiostereoplay release

 

[antcollinet]

DMP A10

I bet they're doing lots of scientifically valid blind comparisons for those reviews.

EDIT - those are not the type of reveiws that have any value or validity here. I realise you're new, but you should avoid posting such stuff if you want to get along.

 

[sapphari]

I purchased the Icon instead of the Wiim Ultra for two reasons - Dirac and the lack of a good way to incorporate a turntable with the Wiim, since both the phono stage and the RCA input leave some performance to be desired.

Overall I'm happy with the purchase. I haven't been able to get better sound with Dirac than without, but I do quite enjoy what I'm hearing without it. The downsides for me about that Icon are the ground issue (easily fixable, albeit in a clunky way), and Tidal connect drops connection often.

 

[Jimbob54]

EVERSOLO DMP A6 Master edition

Stop doing this please

Edit . On reflection , blatantly spamming . Goodbye .

 

[vinyl_slayer]

I purchased the Icon instead of the Wiim Ultra for two reasons - Dirac and the lack of a good way to incorporate a turntable with the Wiim, since both the phono stage and the RCA input leave some performance to be desired.

Overall I'm happy with the purchase. I haven't been able to get better sound with Dirac than without, but I do quite enjoy what I'm hearing without it. The downsides for me about that Icon are the ground issue (easily fixable, albeit in a clunky way), and Tidal connect drops connection often.

How is the sound with the tt ?

 

[sapphari]

How is the sound with the tt ?

No complaints. I'm using a Technics 1200 Mk3, Ortofon Club cart, and the Fosi Box X5.

 

[pogo]

A test will be published tomorrow by AUDIOstereoplay

Test result -> 'very good'
The optical input supports 192kHz.
Outstanding sound characteristics...towards analog sound...paired with incredible cleanliness.
The A/D conversion in the Icon seems to be a construction site, as it only converts in CD quality and that with an ES9826! MQA FOQUS will probably be added here.
THD+N: 0.004%
SNR: 116/127dB (RCA/XLR)

 

[mr_bill]

@pogo Excellent!

 

[jurajc]

You can sit back and relax. The Icon sounds very good and with Dirac Live it's ahead of the competition anyway.

You're right, it's fine with Dirac, but it plays nicely without it, I don't regret the purchase at all, despite the unflattering review.

 

[GXAlan]

FYI, it seems like the latest firmware disabled the use of Dirac as high precision EQ for the headphone out.

 

[pogo]

I have just written to NAD support regarding this issue, as I can no longer equalize my headphones on the M33 either
This EQ function is certainly better in terms of the measured values than using the Tone Controls with their poor implementation.

 

[antcollinet]

Outstanding sound characteristics...towards analog sound...paired with incredible cleanliness.

Do they provide any actual evidence for those nonsense statements?

 

[vinyl_slayer]

No complaints. I'm using a Technics 1200 Mk3, Ortofon Club cart, and the Fosi Box X5.

got the same pre amp i'll try the setup soon too ! Are you using dirac correction with the tt ?

 

[sapphari]

got the same pre amp i'll try the setup soon too ! Are you using dirac correction with the tt ?

I have tried with and without. Thus far I've actually been liking the sound better without Dirac. I will continue tinkering though.

 

[pogo]

A Waxwing Phono DSP is better suited for tinkering and you can store various presets depending on the recording quality. Then Dirac Live will also work better.

 

[Miniyouuuu]

I have tried with and without. Thus far I've actually been liking the sound better without Dirac. I will continue tinkering though.

I tend to think that Dirac is a Home Cinema focussed software. In order to improve intelligibility, Dirac cut bass, elevates some gaps in frecuency range, raises natural treble decay… and musicality drops. I like open sounding stage and Dirac narrow stage a lot for a stereo layout.

 

[sapphari]

In order to improve intelligibility, Dirac cut bass, elevates some gaps in frecuency range, raises natural treble decay…

The user specified the target EQ and hence has control of this.

 

[Miniyouuuu]

Even when manually copying the current to the target curve or narrowing the curtain, Dirac will affect the scene.
Dirac always implements delay and gain modifications that affect the whole frequency range even when the curtain is set to a minimum frequency range.
Sometimes I had to manually correct the automated gain and delay set by Dirac in order to minimize the impact.