Bluesound Node Icon Streamer Review

[C0mbat]

Good afternoon, today I installed an icon, before I had the node 130 and the difference in sound is noticeable in favor of the icon, using it through the DAC of my Copland CSA70 there is not that much difference, where the difference is noticeable and using the DAC of the icon itself, I just ordered the microphone to calibrate the Dirac, to me there is another improvement.

Did you use Dirac Live? I'm interested to know if you can use it as a one off to correct the eq and then stop your subscription? Or do you have to keep paying for Dirac in order to keep the eq settings?

 

[Rja4000]

Did you use Dirac Live? I'm interested to know if you can use it as a one off to correct the eq and then stop your subscription? Or do you have to keep paying for Dirac in order to keep the eq settings?

It's one off, perpetual, license, linked to one specific device.

 

[noisey]

As far as I know, there's no recurring payments, no subscription fees. The Node Icon should come with Room Correction Limited bandwidth preinstalled. From there, you're able to upgrade to full bandwidth with a one time payment of $99.

Bluesound NODE ICON (N530) – Dirac

DIRAC LIVE FOR Bluesound NODE ICON (N530) Get your license Your Bluesound NODE ICON (N530) is fully prepared to run Dirac Live, the world’s most...

www.dirac.com

 

[C0mbat]

As far as I know, there's no recurring payments, no subscription fees. The Node Icon should come with Room Correction Limited bandwidth preinstalled. From there, you're able to upgrade to full bandwidth with a one time payment of $99.

Bluesound NODE ICON (N530) – Dirac

DIRAC LIVE FOR Bluesound NODE ICON (N530) Get your license Your Bluesound NODE ICON (N530) is fully prepared to run Dirac Live, the world’s most...

www.dirac.com

Thanks. As far as I can see it's not free. It costs $159 for limited bandwidth or $259 for full bandwidth. I know it's the benchmark but that leaves a sour taste when room correction is free with the WiiM.

 

[Rja4000]

Thanks. As far as I can see it's not free. It costs $159 for limited bandwidth or $259 for full bandwidth. I know it's the benchmark but that leaves a sour taste when room correction is free with the WiiM.

Limited bandwidth is usually better.

 

[mr_bill]

Good afternoon, today I installed an icon, before I had the node 130 and the difference in sound is noticeable in favor of the icon, using it through the DAC of my Copland CSA70 there is not that much difference, where the difference is noticeable and using the DAC of the icon itself, I just ordered the microphone to calibrate the Dirac, to me there is another improvement.

Thanks vicens for your comments.
So my take away is that as a streamer only (into your external dac) your node 130 and icon are pretty similar?
Is the Icon as a streamer/Dac - is the Icon Dac noticably better than the Copland Dac?

 

[ivayvr]

Thanks. As far as I can see it's not free. It costs $159 for limited bandwidth or $259 for full bandwidth. I know it's the benchmark but that leaves a sour taste when room correction is free with the WiiM.

I doubt that you can realistically compare Wiim room correction to Dirac.

 

[Mnyb]

Q: if one uses the digital out ,the horrible DAC filter is omitted i assume ,but you never now it could be software ?

It has Dirac , but is there any manual PEQ and how many bands ?

The analog input ADC how does it work in practice can you trim levels hard to find a spec of this

 

[Roland68]

Q: if one uses the digital out ,the horrible DAC filter is omitted i assume ,but you never now it could be software ?

DAC filters are applied either within or after the DAC chip. Anything else would be completely pointless.
Depending on the device's design, configured DSPs could affect the digital signal.

 

[GXAlan]

Q: if one uses the digital out ,the horrible DAC filter is omitted i assume ,but you never now it could be software ?

It has Dirac , but is there any manual PEQ and how many bands ?

The analog input ADC how does it work in practice can you trim levels hard to find a spec of this

Using Digital Passthrough with Bluesound Players

Bluesound Players offer a comprehensive solution for MQA playback, decoding and rendering audio up to 24-bit/192 kHz. When connecting an external DAC to the Bluesound NODE or VAULT, the maximum out...

support1.bluesound.com

Note: The Bluesound NODE ICON introduces QRONO D2A, an advanced DAC optimization technology engineered to significantly improve the timing and audio performance of the internal DAC. Because of this feature, all 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz audio content is upsampled to 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz when output via the Optical and Coaxial outputs. For a bit-perfect signal when connecting to an external DAC, make sure to enable Digital Passthrough. Enabling Digital Passthrough will affect the performance of the Analog outputs including the Headphone output


2) Only Dirac or tone controls. NO PEQ.

3) the ADC is good hardware but there are minimal features. They put a fancy chip for marketing but realistically, it’s intended for connecting a LP turntable but there’s no phono preamp.

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - Bluesound Node Icon Streaming Preamplifier Measurements

www.soundstagenetwork.com