Bluesound Node N132 Streamer review

[PenguinMusic]

Hi,

Got a Bluesound Node from about First generation a few years ago.
Bouight it used from someone selling it for a really nice price.
It stayed in my home for exactly 98 minutes before I took it out of my listning chain.

Why ?

Because it was such a dumb device :
- it did not recognize the UPnP IP adresses by itself ; you had to enter the adress manually ;
- each time a single track was added, it scanned the whole library again which resulted in the device not being available for 15 minutes or so...
- the software was hoorible : no sorting by "Album artist" available ; no sorting by release date available...
- horrible sound ;
- super poor power headphone output makes it almost unusable :-(

Any renderer using DLNA does better with free third party software : Symfonium, Bubble UPnP, mConnect... or UAPP or Neutron if you need PEQ !

Things have probably improved since then, but Blusound is not for me. Sorry. But good work

 

[Michael Kelly]

I wish I had an AP analyzer.

I just have the APx500 flex software subscription. (expensive enough)

My hardware is mainly the RME, with some additions (E1DA APU -useless here-, Scaler, and an UFX III for low noise measurements -also useless in this case + some USB filter, a good DMM,...)

The below link explains what I'm able to measure

RME UFX III Audio Interface review

Unbelievable work! Awesome review and so much information. Thanks a ton for verifying what I've already known for many years. I'm a long time user of RME interfaces. I Have an original UFX in my studio, two Babyface Pro's, and one Babyface Pro FS for location recording and various other bits of...

www.audiosciencereview.com

As you may see, the RME alone is sufficient for the kind of performance we have here.

But for measuring digital jitter, I'd need something else.

What I've done, though, is measuring the analog jitter noise through an attached DAC.
I'll add this measurement to the main post.

Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, that does not expose the true digital jitter coming out of the streamer. The typical DAC jitter test actually inserts purposeful jitter by toggling the least significant bit and measuring how the DAC responds to it. This is not the same as the digital Jitter that is more of a temporal, i.e. time, based effect.

In full disclosure, my company designs and sells digital streamers.It's difficult to compare the digital output of our unit with others when most others are not measured the same way. I noticed that at a @amirm used to do a more specific digital only jitter test, but that seems to be Not the case anymore.

I can do it internally on our own APX 500, but I am loath to publish that less I run a foul of another vendor claiming I'm being unfair. I'd much prefer a relatively neutralsuch as this do those things. also, I don't feel like buying all that other equipment!

 

[Rja4000]

I'd much prefer a relatively neutralsuch as this do those things

Without judging if that's relevant or not,
How would I do that?
What kind of measurement, and what hardware+software would allow it ?

 

[Michael Kelly]

Without judging if that's relevant or not,
How would I do that?
What kind of measurement, and what hardware+software would allow it ?

The APX500 does it different than the AP2722 I had before. I am not aware of any other tools out there that can do this measurement.

 

[deltanine]

WiiM plays nice with Amazon (bit perfect), from the mini up.

Interesting! Can you share some links that demonstrate this compatibility? I think I remember reading some back and forth about WiiM & Amazon being bitperfect… then oh wait it’s not. That was a while ago. Would be happy to see some alternatives to blue sound. It functions well… just wish the app was better integrated with Amazon…. Like an Amazon ‘connect’

 

[Burnside]

Bluesound uses the skill interface. So every time you have to say "Alexa, ask Bluesound, <skill specific command>".

WiiM properly integrated with the Alexa MRM SDK so their devices show up as an "Echo Speaker", just an audio sink essentially. This means you can set them as the default speaker for either multimedia or all Alexa audio, throw them into multiroom media groups with other Echo speakers etc. Most importantly, they can be used with the native Alexa multimedia VUI e.g. "Alexa play music" etc.

And it should be noted that the skill interface supports Amazon HD (16 bit) quality at best, if not just lossy MP3 (same for the Heos etc skills).

Interesting! Can you share some links that demonstrate this compatibility? I think I remember reading some back and forth about WiiM & Amazon being bitperfect… then oh wait it’s not. That was a while ago. Would be happy to see some alternatives to blue sound. It functions well… just wish the app was better integrated with Amazon…. Like an Amazon ‘connect’

Uniquely in my experience, not only do WiiM devices support Amazon Music bit perfect from the WiiM Home app, but they also do that when using AlexaCast from the Amazon Music app (and by extension, via Alexa voice commands), something that Bluesound steadfastly appear to refuse to do.

Edit: screenshot of WiiM home app showing 24/192 track being sent from the Amazon music app to my WiiM Ultra, but it could equally have been my WiiM Mini.

 

[Burnside]

What is the difference between WiiM and BluOS integration of Alexa?

CONTROL AND ENJOY MUSIC WITH VOICE

With support for the most popular voice assistants, you can use voice commands to play saved playlists, select your favorite radio station, adjust volume levels, or even group Players together and play your music in perfect sync throughout the house.

www.bluesound.com

See this description by Naim’s software director a while back.

From this old thread, Bluesound seem to be awaiting some new API (ignoring one that already exists) before deeper integration with Amazon Music: https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/e...on-Music-Connect-Function-coming-to-BlueSound

 

[elmoe420]

See this description by Naim’s software director a while back.

From this old thread, Bluesound seem to be awaiting some new API (ignoring one that already exists) before deeper integration with Amazon Music: https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/e...on-Music-Connect-Function-coming-to-BlueSound

Yeah the responses from Bluesound make no sense to me. The Alexa MRM SDK has been available for years and we have working proof in the WiiM Mini that there is zero requirement for a microphone built-in to the device to achieve certification. There must be some context that we are missing which Bluesound doesn't want to comment publicly on. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if that Bluesound employee posting on that thread has no personal subject matter expertise and so we're suffering from a game of telephone with the bizarre explanations provided.

 

[deltanine]

And it should be noted that the skill interface supports Amazon HD (16 bit) quality at best, if not just lossy MP3 (same for the Heos etc skills).



Uniquely in my experience, not only do WiiM devices support Amazon Music bit perfect from the WiiM Home app, but they also do that when using AlexaCast from the Amazon Music app (and by extension, via Alexa voice commands), something that Bluesound steadfastly appear to refuse to do.

Edit: screenshot of WiiM home app showing 24/192 track being sent from the Amazon music app to my WiiM Ultra, but it could equally have been my WiiM Mini.

View attachment 440675

View attachment 440678

Awesome thanks for sharing - lack of casting to the node is tragic - big win for the Wiim!