Bluesound Node Icon Streamer Review

[JIW]

Cheers for the testing. Seems an odd choice though for sure to not allow user selection... or to set it to the slowest. Node Icon uses two ES9039Q2M's, which have 8 filter presets and a programmable filter.

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JSmith

Those filters can also be bypassed if desired as well as the following IIR. For the 8xFIR, both the 2xFIR and the following 4xFIR can be bypassed individually. There is no slow filter on the chip that is only -0.5 dB at 20 kHz with 44.1 kHz sampling rate, i.e. at 0.454FS. They are all below -3 dB.

 

[morillon]

observing the behavior at 0db seems to make you forget that at these frequencies, in real life, your recordings......there is not much left in terms of level
funny...

"""ahhh the power of images"""
;-)

 

[Rja4000]

Just to clarify, on the Node Icon there is also auto-sensing for the inputs,

Same for the Node N132.

 

[mermayer]

Just to clarify, on the Node Icon there is also auto-sensing for the inputs,

But not for USB-C audio input.

 

[GXAlan]

@GXAlan measured CCIR 18.5+19.5kHz IMD with his Icon and results are awfull.
Probably due to this filter.

Yeah, not probably, 100% due to the filter because moving to higher sampling rate makes it normal.

$700 over the Wiim ultra and the only meaningful difference I can see is XLR out?

Dirac that runs at 192 kHz
(so it should have a lot of filter taps).

AirPlay 2

eARC instead of ARC

Privacy policy


The real competition is something like an Onkyo or Denon AVR. You pay a huge premium to have it all in a small box.

 

[ISchmidt]

But not for USB-C audio input.

Strange, strange...

 

[Rja4000]

Yeah, not probably, 100% due to the filter because moving to higher sampling rate makes it normal.

Ah, you're right !
Multitone 32 is 192kHz.
That's why we don't see it there.

 

[GXAlan]

Ah, you're right !
Multitone 32 is 192kHz.
That's why we don't see it there.

It’s interesting though. This Multitone at 48 kHz, the multitone doesn’t generate the imaging artifacts at an audible level. It generates ultrasonics, not unlike DSEE HX from Sony.

There’s no excuse NOT to allow users to choose QRONO versus a sharp filter. I guess the excuse is that it doesn’t make an audible difference either way.

But as bad as the CCIF measurements are, in real content, I have been extremely happy with the Node Icon for the combination of very low noise (which is audible with my Meyer Sound X40, which I think has ultra high gain and only needs 1V to hit 130 dB), Dirac to let me switch between a focused and more diffuse presentation (Dirac makes it more diffuse actually), and reliability.

The Fosi ZD3 is good, but HDMI CEC is broken with my Sony TV and AppleTV. It powers on.

My WiiM Ultra had a lot of noise on the right channel. It, for sure, represents a huge bargain.

My AVR/AVP’s are just as reliable as the Node Icon, but for the exact location of my setup, the size doesn’t work and I am paying a hefty premium for the smaller physical footprint.

QRONO may very well be some sort of adaptive algorithm. They say it’s tuned for individual sampling rates, but I don’t know if there are more than one filter, HDCD style.

 

[elmoe420]

Dirac.

Ok, so 870$ more than the WiiM Ultra for XLR and Dirac?

How much XLR and Dirac are worth cost wise is of course a personal choice but that's a lot more money.

 

[dtaylo1066]

Kind of sad that with a few hours of work they could have produced a much better machine. Perhaps target consumer does not really care about a DAC filter. I am happy to keep my WiiM Ultra for now. Dirac is a bonus, but for a kilobuck you need to be doing way better than the WiiM. I can get around the WiiM lack of balanced out quite easily and inexpensively.

 

[mermayer]

Strange, strange...

Info from the the BluOS support:
USB Auto-Sense functionality should be working correctly. However, the Auto-Sense feature is looking for a change in the connection from Off to On. If your Mac Mini is already ON and then plays music, this will not be registered by the Auto-Sense feature. When you power ON your Mac, this should correctly register as a change from Off to On and Auto-Sense will trigger.

 

[kyuu]

eARC instead of ARC

Meaningless for stereo. You only need eARC for lossless multichannel.

Privacy policy

Kindly don't spread this FUD. Requiring the location permission is due to that permission covering bluetooth/wifi scanning, which is used for the initial setup. It has nothing to do with collecting GPS coordinates and transmitting them anywhere. You can disable the permission after the initial setup is done.

The real competition is something like an Onkyo or Denon AVR. You pay a huge premium to have it all in a small box.

All what? Beyond Dirac and Airplay this product literally offers nothing of value over a Wiim device, and in some ways it's actually inferior (app/UI sucks, stupid filter choice due to Lenbrooks perpetuating MQA garbage).

 

[ISchmidt]

... All what? Beyond Dirac and Airplay this product literally offers nothing of value over a Wiim device, and in some ways it's actually inferior (app/UI sucks, stupid filter choice due to Lenbrooks perpetuating MQA garbage).

but sounds much better (I know it!)

 

[elmoe420]

All what? Beyond Dirac and Airplay this product literally offers nothing of value over a Wiim device, and in some ways it's actually inferior (app/UI sucks, stupid filter choice due to Lenbrooks perpetuating MQA garbage).

Also no Squeezelite or proper Alexa integration.

WiiM just needs to release an Ultra Plus with optional Dirac for those that want it. I'll bet they can do this for a lot less than 1000$.

 

[kyuu]

but sounds much better (I know it!)

OK. (I can believe that with a good Dirac calibration you can get better sound, but that's the only way in which it can plausibly sound better.)

 

[GXAlan]

Meaningless for stereo. You only need eARC for lossless multichannel.

eARC offers superior automatic lip sync correction.

You can disable the permission after the initial setup is done.

It’s frustrating that they are sloppy with request for precise location as opposed to just Bluetooth. They have VU meter modification just for iOS and if you have one of the best engineering teams, yet seem to ignore something like this. BluOS runs everything at root too, so they have bad security practices too.

When I had my WiiM Ultra it would struggle to find the Ultra, even though it could find the Pro when I disabled the permission.

Beyond Dirac and Airplay this product literally offers nothing of value over a Wiim device

Agreed.
https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...on-quick-user-measurements.60798/post-2228145

“So, dollar for dollar, if you want RCA out, it seems like the WiiM Ultra is the best choice.” -Me, Feb 15, 2025

But you haven’t tried Dirac on your JBL AVR… If we just needed PEQ, the Tonewinner 16 channel AVP would be everyone’s favorite processor. Your statement is almost like: “beyond an extra $10, a $20 bill offers literally nothing over a $10 bill.”

I think the better comment is: “beyond a smaller physical footprint, this offers essentially nothing over a Denon or Onkyo AVR.”

But if you want
[ ] Dirac
[ ] HDMI eARC
[ ] Small footprint
[ ] Airplay2

Not a lot of options other than this and Node N132. If you don’t need Airplay2, MiniDSP Flex HT/HTx are interesting options, for sure. If you don’t need Airplay2 or Dirac, WiiM Ultra is a no brainer when thinking about cost. Doesn’t change the fact that WiiM should rewrite the permission request. If you don’t need a small footprint, an AVR is better.

 

[GXAlan]

Also no Squeezelite or proper Alexa integration.

^^This. If you run Alexa, this isn’t great because you cannot just say Alexa, play ____ and you have to say “Alexa, tell BlueSound to play ____.

(yes, I know you are the one who told me
that, but wanted to add context for others)

 

[kyuu]

Doesn’t change the fact that WiiM should rewrite the permission request.

I don't really understand what you're getting at here. In order to use bluetooth/wifi scanning, they have to request that permission. How could they "rewrite" the permission request?

 

[SuicideSquid]

The notion that it sounds better is not demonstrate through any kind of proper testing.

Is the notion that it sounds worse supported by real world testing?

I understand that there's no good reason to do it this way and best practice is to have a filter that fully attenuates everything above 22-24kHz; however, if it doesn't actually affect what we hear, is it worth withholding a "recommended" note on an otherwise well-engineered device?

 

[elmoe420]

^^This. If you run Alexa, this isn’t great because you cannot just say Alexa, play ____ and you have to say “Alexa, tell BlueSound to play ____.

(yes, I know you are the one who told me
that, but wanted to add context for others)

Yeah, this alone is what sent the Bluesound Node back into it's box and caused me to switch to a house full of WiiM devices. Basically the 5 other people in my family would end up listening to music on an Echo Show speaker rather than our actual sound systems because of this.

Also if you are deep in the Echo ecosystem there are more benefits to the WiiM's Alexa integration:

https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...-node-n132-streamer-review.61071/post-2240620