Bluesound Node Review (Streamer)

[liviurosioara]

https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/360000199908-What-Music-Services-does-BluOS-Support-

Thanks. Still not clear to me if you could use directly the Amazon Music app or not. The user experience is much different than the Amazon API.

 

[MaxBuck]

Thanks. Still not clear to me if you could use directly the Amazon Music app or not. The user experience is much different than the Amazon API.

I believe one must use the BluOS app. That's pretty much how it goes with any service other than Apple Music.

 

[lpdot]

Thanks. Still not clear to me if you could use directly the Amazon Music app or not. The user experience is much different than the Amazon API.

Checked the Amazon Music app: it doesn't list the Node as an endpoint.

 

[reddavin]

You can use Amazon Music as a native app in BluOS

 

[MattHooper]

Ok, so I have some issues with the Bluesound NODE.

Admittedly I still haven't done really in depth use, but a few things have come up:

1. Quite a bit of missing artwork

2. Won't do playlists of my ripped CD library from USB disk. I thought I must be doing something wrong but...no...after chasing the issue down on line it seems this server really isn't about streaming from your own library. It "will" do it, but grudgingly and with limitations. It seems more about streaming. Bit of a bummer.

3. One little thing about the UI on the app, that actually turns out to be very annoying: If I've called up an album, or especially if I'm scrolling through the long lists of internet radio stations, sampling them: once I've selected a station or track there is NO GRAPHICAL INFORMATION BESIDE THAT TRACK THAT IT'S PLAYING! For instance on some streamer apps a "play" triangle will appear beside the playing track, or dancing meter graphic, or something indicating "this track is playing."

Yes, the track in question does open up in a teeny play window at the bottom with pause/play button. But the problem is, especially when on an album I'm not as familiar with I can't remember the track lists, so if I want to just move on to the next song I have to either have remembered which track I clicked on, or I have to look at the bottom play window and then scan the album list, find where that track is, the "oh, ok, I want to hear the next track." Which gets especially annoying when the album has enough tracks they go off screen.

Worse is surfing through the various internet radio stations (which I love to do). So if I open "Electronica music stations" it might show a list of 30 or more stations. I click on one to sample it and scroll the list to peruse, but since there is no "playing now" indication on the station I chose, and if I want to choose the next one in line, I have to look at the currently playing station window to see the station, the re-scroll the list, find it, then choose the next one. This is made especially difficult when many of the station logos are almost too hard to see in the tiny play window, so I'm squinting my eyes to read the damned little logo, then scrolling through the list of 30 to see spot it, so I know that's the one I chose, and can choose the next one.

It's amazing how just a little oversight like this, making it JUST a bit more annoying for something you do a lot, can really impact the usefulness of the app.

Anyway, this now has me looking at ROON, which I understand can play on the Bluesound. I know very little about ROON, except that it's always looked like a time suck, given the number of threads I see with people "working on their ROON library" seemingly ad infinitum. I'm looking for something that makes things easier, not harder. In a nutshell, would ROON improve on the issues I mention above?

 

[yllanos]

Ok, so I have some issues with the Bluesound NODE.

Admittedly I still haven't done really in depth use, but a few things have come up:

1. Quite a bit of missing artwork

2. Won't do playlists of my ripped CD library from USB disk. I thought I must be doing something wrong but...no...after chasing the issue down on line it seems this server really isn't about streaming from your own library. It "will" do it, but grudgingly and with limitations. It seems more about streaming. Bit of a bummer.

3. One little thing about the UI on the app, that actually turns out to be very annoying: If I've called up an album, or especially if I'm scrolling through the long lists of internet radio stations, sampling them: once I've selected a station or track there is NO GRAPHICAL INFORMATION BESIDE THAT TRACK THAT IT'S PLAYING! For instance on some streamer apps a "play" triangle will appear beside the playing track, or dancing meter graphic, or something indicating "this track is playing."

Yes, the track in question does open up in a teeny play window at the bottom with pause/play button. But the problem is, especially when on an album I'm not as familiar with I can't remember the track lists, so if I want to just move on to the next song I have to either have remembered which track I clicked on, or I have to look at the bottom play window and then scan the album list, find where that track is, the "oh, ok, I want to hear the next track." Which gets especially annoying when the album has enough tracks they go off screen.

Worse is surfing through the various internet radio stations (which I love to do). So if I open "Electronica music stations" it might show a list of 30 or more stations. I click on one to sample it and scroll the list to peruse, but since there is no "playing now" indication on the station I chose, and if I want to choose the next one in line, I have to look at the currently playing station window to see the station, the re-scroll the list, find it, then choose the next one. This is made especially difficult when many of the station logos are almost too hard to see in the tiny play window, so I'm squinting my eyes to read the damned little logo, then scrolling through the list of 30 to see spot it, so I know that's the one I chose, and can choose the next one.

It's amazing how just a little oversight like this, making it JUST a bit more annoying for something you do a lot, can really impact the usefulness of the app.

Anyway, this now has me looking at ROON, which I understand can play on the Bluesound. I know very little about ROON, except that it's always looked like a time suck, given the number of threads I see with people "working on their ROON library" seemingly ad infinitum. I'm looking for something that makes things easier, not harder. In a nutshell, would ROON improve on the issues I mention above?

ROON will help on #1 and #2. I have no idea about #3, I don't use that.

 

[Timcognito]

Yes ROON will help but is now $15/mo. It does have some getting used to issues but far less than the BluOS where the programmers there acknowledge issues but do not fix them. I beginning to think they are limited by the court settlement with Sonos, or why wouldn't they fix simple things like playlist or playque management. If you look at the feature section of there topics web page it's riddled with complaints. So sad because hardware side works very well.

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200017256-Feature-Requests

 

[MattHooper]

Thanks to both of you. Regarding this:

ROON will help on #1 and #2. I have no idea about #3, I don't use that.

As for #3, which is the fact the Blueos app doesn't indicate which track is playing - do you mean you don't use a Roon app for playing your music?

Yes ROON will help

Can you answer: does the ROON app show any sort of "playing now" indication beside a track that has been selected?

ALSO: How is Roon for internet radio stations?

 

[MaxBuck]

Thanks to both of you. Regarding this:



As for #3, which is the fact the Blueos app doesn't indicate which track is playing - do you mean you don't use a Roon app for playing your music?


Can you answer: does the ROON app show any sort of "playing now" indication beside a track that has been selected?

ALSO: How is Roon for internet radio stations?

I'm a little confused. Every time I play a streaming track on the Node, my Android version of the BluOS app shows the name of the track, play progress (H:MM:SS expired and remaining) and in most cases a graphic showing the album cover. Am I not understanding your problem?

 

[MattHooper]

I'm a little confused. Every time I play a streaming track on the Node, my Android version of the BluOS app shows the name of the track, play progress (H:MM:SS expired and remaining) and in most cases a graphic showing the album cover. Am I not understanding your problem?

I think you are missing the problem - it was hard to describe.

If I choose an album on my BluOS (iphone) the list of tracks show up. I press on a track. A small window opens at the bottom of the app with that track showing, album cover, and progress bar. Selecting that small window enlarges it to full screen. I assume the same on yours.

My issue is that there is no indication in the LISTED tracks, which track is playing. So on other apps, if I'm looking at a list of tracks and I select a track to play, the track itself will be highlighted in some fashion to indicate THIS track is now playing. It might turn a different color. Or a "play" triangle may appear beside the track, or a little animated VU meter may pop up (as in APPLE music) beside the currently playing track. I find having the track IN THE LIST being highlighted far more helpful when I'm navigating around selecting different tracks to play. Otherwise I have to continually go back and forth between the play window and the track list to discern which track is playing.

 

[Timcognito]

I use android but clicking the

button on any BluOS screen should reveal all tracks in the play que on any screen and the current song with line and pulsing icon and clicking again will make the list go away. I find clearing the play que often helps with mishaps.
For internet radio I mostly use the presets section of the BluOS not ROON because use those for background listening and jump around a lot, finding quicker.

 

[MattHooper]

I use android but clicking the View attachment 245419 button on any BluOS screen should reveal all tracks in the play que on any screen and the current song with line and pulsing icon and clicking again will make the list go away. I find clearing the play que often helps with mishaps.
For internet radio I mostly use the presets section of the BluOS not ROON because use those for background listening and jump around a lot, finding quicker.

Thanks. Just tried it. Unfortunately not helpful for what I want - actually adds yet another step between me and what I want to see. I don't want to have to first add tracks to a playlist and then choose the playlist to see what is playing. I want any track I select to automatically tell me it's playing.

 

[Rottmannash]

I think you are missing the problem - it was hard to describe.

If I choose an album on my BluOS (iphone) the list of tracks show up. I press on a track. A small window opens at the bottom of the app with that track showing, album cover, and progress bar. Selecting that small window enlarges it to full screen. I assume the same on yours.

My issue is that there is no indication in the LISTED tracks, which track is playing. So on other apps, if I'm looking at a list of tracks and I select a track to play, the track itself will be highlighted in some fashion to indicate THIS track is now playing. It might turn a different color. Or a "play" triangle may appear beside the track, or a little animated VU meter may pop up (as in APPLE music) beside the currently playing track. I find having the track IN THE LIST being highlighted far more helpful when I'm navigating around selecting different tracks to play. Otherwise I have to continually go back and forth between the play window and the track list to discern which track is playing.

So I just played the 1st track off Qobuz via Bluesound Node 2i of the Beatles "Revolver" super deluxe and after playing the track I clicked on the 3 dots, chose view album and when this was done a blue line was underneath the track playing. That is the only way I can tell which track of an album is playing.

 

[yllanos]

Thanks to both of you. Regarding this:



As for #3, which is the fact the Blueos app doesn't indicate which track is playing - do you mean you don't use a Roon app for playing your music?


Can you answer: does the ROON app show any sort of "playing now" indication beside a track that has been selected?

ALSO: How is Roon for internet radio stations?

This is a screenshot of BluOS (Qobuz) running on my PC:

For most modern streamers out there nowadays, there is the concept of "queue". So, in BluOS, whenever you play something from an album or list, every item gets added to a queue from your selection onwards, and all items will be reproduced in that sequence. In the screenshot above, you will notice the second song from my current queue is somehow highlighted (top right), indicating that is the current item playing. More or less the same thing happens in Sonos and some other systems I have tried.

In Roon, when you get to a list or an album, there will be a button to play the whole thing (which in turn will basically add all items to a new queue):

But if you select a specific item from a list/album, a slightly different option will appear:

So you can play starting from that item, just play that specific item or just add that item to current queue (as next song or all the way at the end).

While you are playing, and have a look at the current queue, you can see a small icon to the left of current item to indicate an active item:

All above works the same no matter if you use streaming services or your local library.

Other than that, I have no use for internet radio, sorry.

Did I answer your question?

 

[lpdot]

I use android but clicking the View attachment 245419 button on any BluOS screen should reveal all tracks in the play que on any screen and the current song with line and pulsing icon and clicking again will make the list go away.

Clicking on the artwork will switch to the queue as well.

 

[lpdot]

Ok, so I have some issues with the Bluesound NODE.

Admittedly I still haven't done really in depth use, but a few things have come up:

1. Quite a bit of missing artwork

I believe the Node does not search and download any artwork, like for instance Plex does.

So you need to be careful about having the cover files in the album folders and ensure they are consistently named using 'safe' patterns: cover.jpg or folder.jpg. Or they could be embedded in the files - some applications like mp3tag can do that. From what I see the Node recognises such cases reliably.

2. Won't do playlists of my ripped CD library from USB disk. I thought I must be doing something wrong but...no...after chasing the issue down on line it seems this server really isn't about streaming from your own library. It "will" do it, but grudgingly and with limitations. It seems more about streaming. Bit of a bummer.

Are the playlist files the regular .m3u type?

Because if you have CUE sheets for albums ripped in a single file, that's not supported for sure.

P.S. It's not just about the .m3u type as such - the playlist must not contain absolute paths to files.

 

[Timcognito]

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/216863587-Welcome-to-SmartPlay-Using-the-Play-Queue

 

[MattHooper]

This is a screenshot of BluOS (Qobuz) running on my PC:
View attachment 245447

For most modern streamers out there nowadays, there is the concept of "queue". So, in BluOS, whenever you play something from an album or list, every item gets added to a queue from your selection onwards, and all items will be reproduced in that sequence. In the screenshot above, you will notice the second song from my current queue is somehow highlighted (top right), indicating that is the current item playing. More or less the same thing happens in Sonos and some other systems I have tried.

In Roon, when you get to a list or an album, there will be a button to play the whole thing (which in turn will basically add all items to a new queue):
View attachment 245449

But if you select a specific item from a list/album, a slightly different option will appear:
View attachment 245450

So you can play starting from that item, just play that specific item or just add that item to current queue (as next song or all the way at the end).

While you are playing, and have a look at the current queue, you can see a small icon to the left of current item to indicate an active item:
View attachment 245451

All above works the same no matter if you use streaming services or your local library.

Other than that, I have no use for internet radio, sorry.

Did I answer your question?

Ugh. If I read that right...is one stuck with this "queue" business when playing from ROON? I hate that stuff, and the way apps expect that you are making playlists all the time.

I just want this:

See a list of the tracks on an album, or list of internet stations etc. Press the track - the track plays and is highlighted in some way, without any more steps.
I also want to be able to make lists of favorites from my USB external drive.

 

[MattHooper]

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/216863587-Welcome-to-SmartPlay-Using-the-Play-Queue

That shows just what I'm talking about. In the video it shows an album track list. The track is selected but it does not highlight in any way. It just shows up in a play window at the bottom of the screen. All the rest of that Que stuff is overcomplicating things (for my purposes). I'm not playing DJ when I'm listening to music!

 

[MattHooper]

I believe the Node does not search and download any artwork, like for instance Plex does.

So you need to be careful about having the cover files in the album folders and ensure they are consistently named using 'safe' patterns: cover.jpg or folder.jpg. Or they could be embedded in the files - some applications like mp3tag can do that. From what I see the Node recognises such cases reliably.


Are the playlist files the regular .m3u type?

Because if you have CUE sheets for albums ripped in a single file, that's not supported for sure.

P.S. It's not just about the .m3u type as such - the playlist must not contain absolute paths to files.

Thanks for your reply, but I have no idea.

I ripped my CDs using itunes years ago. I wanted the best artwork so I manually found the artwork and using the itunes process attached it to the albums.
It worked just fine for the logitech server using a Raspberry Pi. Very little issues with artwork. Why would a newer more dedicated system be worse?

Will using ROON solve the artwork issue and make it more reliable?