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Bluesound Node Icon Streamer Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
antcollinet
Grand Contributor
Hi, and welcome to the forum.
There can be no audible difference between streamers if you are using an external DAC.
I would suggest one of the Wiim models.
But in any case pick based on features, services supported, etc. Not on sound quality.
pogo
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That's not correct.
For example, an N130 with Dirac Live would perform better than a WiiM.
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Oh you are back. Yeah, and you are saying the same stuff.
I would suggest just waiting for the Onkyo P80..
Dirac , hdmi , akm dac and phono stage.
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antcollinet
Grand Contributor
OK - i thought it was obvious. Let's add a caveat.
Assuming any DSP done by the streamers to deliberately alter the sound - is the same.
Last edited:
danadam
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At the moment I only have 320 kbps MP3 version of it. Still, it seems to have more high frequency content than yours:
Though it looks like that it is only at the moments when the anvil hits
I did: ADI-2 Pro FS --> E1DA Cosmos ADC at 24/96
And ADI-2 without QRONO beats them both. So did QRONO actually have any effect on the results you got?
danadam
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From that paper:
That applies only for inter-channel time delay (ITD).
Good old, properly filtered 16/44.1k can easily achieve that and even much better, to the order of nano- and pico-seconds.
Roland68
Major Contributor
Only believe statistics that you yourself have falsified.
From that paper:
That applies only for inter-channel time delay (ITD).
Good old, properly filtered 16/44.1k can easily achieve that and even much better, to the order of nano- and pico-seconds.
@PenguinMusic Thanks for the notice, but please do spell my user name correctly next time so I get notified, like not vvvobrev but @vddobrev
PenguinMusic
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Apesbrain
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I wouldn't expect to hear any difference. Please let us know if you find otherwise.
Hi, I tried it with a Wi-Fi Pro and the Node 130, and they sounded different. I liked the Blu-ray more by a hair. By the way, I liked the Wi-Fi app much more than the Blu-ray app.
Best regards.
PenguinMusic
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Hi,
The thing about music streamers is a thing I hopped into some years ago.
I have tested several things, starting with a music server installed on my computer where I have almost unlimited space (I think I have about 140To storage at home.... not sure why ) and then the computer hooked to a DAC feeding a headphone aplifier.
I have then migrated to a NAS running a media server and transmitting data to the DAC and then transmitted to headphone amplifier.
Then I've been in the Raspberry pi4 experimentation. With DAC cards and the only "headphone amplifier card" I found (not enough juice to power it properlyfrom the Raspberry pi4), so feeding the headphone amplifier directly.
And after all those experimentation, one thing was completely clear : I tried about every possible media server I found. The one that best fitted my needs was Emby Server. I like it so much that I subscribed to Emby Premiere even if I do not use the "Premiere" features (well except displaying Lyrics).
And I decided to try to go the all-in-one route. A device that could be used as music server, music renderer, DAC and headphone amp. And that does it all in above average quality (measured... and audible).
What I found out is that a lot of devices exist, but only few offer the "full Monthy". Some have poor DACs, some miss the headphone amp or have a really poor one, some can be driven only by the proprietary software that often is quite crappy...
Of course, while looking for that wholy grail, I stumbled on Bluesound. I read reveiws and all did rant about it's superb software. So, one day I decided to jump in and found a super cheap second hand device (not the Icon Node, but the Node 2 I think).
It lasted about 3 days... because of the stunningly horrible software everyone was praising ! I would recommend all people that state that this software is state of the art to take a look at other third-party altrernatives like Emby, Symfonium, BubbleUPnP or, heck, even mConnect or HiFi-Cast !
At that time : no sorting aalbum by album artist (just by album or by artist) and not possible to sort the albums of the same artist by the release date, just alphabetically !
Maybe that has changed since then but at that time this was beyond comprehension to me !
Also what was beyond comprehension was that the device was not found automatically on the network. You needed to know it's IP address to name it... What ? I have had dozens of devices that showed up automatically.
And then of course, the cherry on my cake : no ability to browse the content by any app other that the propprietary crappy Bluesound app !
So I was out to find something else. I tried a lot of different devices that had it all (which excludes Eversolo that has no headphone amp !) until I found that you could get devices that are run by an "open" Android system. In other words : a "desktop DAP"
I went for the Fiio R9 and, with the Rose (can't remember which one but it had a weird volume control that seemed a little fragile) NONE was fit for my needs.
So with the R9 I and a hard drive connected to it I can :
- install whatever media server app I want (I installed Emby Server for Android) and use it as a media server that I can access with several different apps ;
- install any app that can be used as a renderer (I use Neutron Music player with a paid license) and use it as a music renderer accessible by any app I can imagine ;
- have a serious DAC (it sprots an ESS9038Pro chip) ;
- have a serious headphone amp (it is given for 7200mW !)
No cables, no hassle... For 1490€ or 790€ if you want the little brother with lesser DAC (2 X 9068) and headphone amp (only 5400mW I think) and a nice display to give a look to what you're listening to...
So my question is : apart from the looks (I admit it is important) and maybe the hardware control buyttons for Volume and track skipping (even though I don't think those are super useful) who would be interested in a device like the Bluesound Icon Node ?
For sure not me... All I can say is that with the Fiio R9 and Rose I was finally listening to music again instead of fighting tecvhnical issues !
Regards.
The thing about music streamers is a thing I hopped into some years ago.
I have tested several things, starting with a music server installed on my computer where I have almost unlimited space (I think I have about 140To storage at home.... not sure why
) and then the computer hooked to a DAC feeding a headphone aplifier.I have then migrated to a NAS running a media server and transmitting data to the DAC and then transmitted to headphone amplifier.
Then I've been in the Raspberry pi4 experimentation. With DAC cards and the only "headphone amplifier card" I found (not enough juice to power it properlyfrom the Raspberry pi4), so feeding the headphone amplifier directly.
And after all those experimentation, one thing was completely clear : I tried about every possible media server I found. The one that best fitted my needs was Emby Server. I like it so much that I subscribed to Emby Premiere even if I do not use the "Premiere" features (well except displaying Lyrics).
And I decided to try to go the all-in-one route. A device that could be used as music server, music renderer, DAC and headphone amp. And that does it all in above average quality (measured... and audible).
What I found out is that a lot of devices exist, but only few offer the "full Monthy". Some have poor DACs, some miss the headphone amp or have a really poor one, some can be driven only by the proprietary software that often is quite crappy...
Of course, while looking for that wholy grail, I stumbled on Bluesound. I read reveiws and all did rant about it's superb software. So, one day I decided to jump in and found a super cheap second hand device (not the Icon Node, but the Node 2 I think).
It lasted about 3 days... because of the stunningly horrible software everyone was praising ! I would recommend all people that state that this software is state of the art to take a look at other third-party altrernatives like Emby, Symfonium, BubbleUPnP or, heck, even mConnect or HiFi-Cast !
At that time : no sorting aalbum by album artist (just by album or by artist) and not possible to sort the albums of the same artist by the release date, just alphabetically !
Maybe that has changed since then but at that time this was beyond comprehension to me !
Also what was beyond comprehension was that the device was not found automatically on the network. You needed to know it's IP address to name it... What ? I have had dozens of devices that showed up automatically.
And then of course, the cherry on my cake : no ability to browse the content by any app other that the propprietary crappy Bluesound app !
So I was out to find something else. I tried a lot of different devices that had it all (which excludes Eversolo that has no headphone amp !) until I found that you could get devices that are run by an "open" Android system. In other words : a "desktop DAP"
I went for the Fiio R9 and, with the Rose (can't remember which one but it had a weird volume control that seemed a little fragile) NONE was fit for my needs.So with the R9 I and a hard drive connected to it I can :
- install whatever media server app I want (I installed Emby Server for Android) and use it as a media server that I can access with several different apps ;
- install any app that can be used as a renderer (I use Neutron Music player with a paid license) and use it as a music renderer accessible by any app I can imagine ;
- have a serious DAC (it sprots an ESS9038Pro chip) ;
- have a serious headphone amp (it is given for 7200mW !)
No cables, no hassle... For 1490€ or 790€ if you want the little brother with lesser DAC (2 X 9068) and headphone amp (only 5400mW I think) and a nice display to give a look to what you're listening to...
So my question is : apart from the looks (I admit it is important) and maybe the hardware control buyttons for Volume and track skipping (even though I don't think those are super useful) who would be interested in a device like the Bluesound Icon Node ?
For sure not me... All I can say is that with the Fiio R9 and Rose I was finally listening to music again instead of fighting tecvhnical issues !
Regards.
New review on soundstage.
Measurements: https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...atid=433:preamplifier-measurements&Itemid=142
Measurements: https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...atid=433:preamplifier-measurements&Itemid=142
The measurements do show more detail than Amir’s testing.
Just shy of and beyond 2kHz, there is a steep rise in all THD data, peaking beyond 1% at 20kHz for the 16/44.1 data. This is not a purely frequency dependent phenomenon, but rather an issue with distortion with an input signal magnitude of 0dBFS. We reached out to Lenbrook Industries (Bluesound's parent company) to ask if they were aware of this issue. They responded that they were aware, that overload at 0dBFS from steady-state signals (sinewaves) is a conseqeunce of their special filters (though overload with musical signals should not occur), and finally that the sofware team was looking at making some adjustments to fix the issue. Below are the same plots, but with a -2dBFS input signal. We see . . .
. . . very different results beyond 2kHz, with THD ratios never exceeding 0.0002%.
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