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Bluesound releases 2024 ICON streamer

For me, BluOS and all the possibilities including additional hardware solutions would also be a plus.
Interesting. I hated BluOS. So much that my Node 2i is now just sitting on a shelf. I was going to give it away to a friend, but hesitant to do that to a friend. When BluOS worked it was fine. When it didn't (which was too often), WAAAAY too much frustration.
 
I've been listening for about 3hrs now and honestly I'm *shocked* how good it's sounding. It's even more surprising considering I'm streaming with Spotify and still using a mediocre amp. Super super stoked about it.

What did you have before for comparison? What is your gear?

One annoying thing about the app (I'm new to Bluesound) is when I tap the + or - button for volume only once or twice, it automatically resets itself back to the level it was at before I adjusted it. If you press several times (>2), it will stay at the newly adjusted volume.
I would report it to Bluesound support so they can fix it in a future revision.
 
Interesting. I hated BluOS. So much that my Node 2i is now just sitting on a shelf. I was going to give it away to a friend, but hesitant to do that to a friend. When BluOS worked it was fine. When it didn't (which was too often), WAAAAY too much frustration.
That's nonsense.
 
Still no proper tets published on this ?
The Icon is currently being tested by STEREO. A report has been announced for issue 03/2025.
 
His idea with the RCA wasn't wrong, but I would have tapped the ground signal from the XLR plug on the Icon.
This would have been a more direct ground connection between Icon and amp/speaker.
@darth I would also ask Genelec for ideas if you haven't already contacted them.
 
Coming up to a month on my Icon. Using it connected to dac or directly to powered speakers with xlr. Can't say I hear any noise, I also bought the remote and for power on off and skipping tracks and volume control it makes things a bit more convenient. Waiting for the Dirac update now and still within returnwindow for me. Not as much bells and whistles as my DMP-A6 and Wiim Ultra but it sounds great
 

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What did you have before for comparison? What is your gear?

Currently using a Crown XLS1000 amp and LS50 Meta with the Icon. Also a sub that I built with a Dayton driver and plate amp, but mostly listened without it last night. I haven't seen that exact model of Crown measured but what I interpret to be the 'v2' of that amp was measured here with a measly SINAD of 75dB. This is partly why I was so surprised at what I was hearing last night. I am excited to replace the Crown with a Hypex or Purify from Buckeye.

Prior to the Icon, I was using the same Spotify Premium source with Apple DAC dongle into a Denon AVP8000, Denon into the Crown powering the KEF. That Denon is ~30 years old and was quite a nice unit in it's time, retailed around $3000.

Most recent setups I've listened to in other rooms were a Moon system into the same LS50 Meta (at my local audio shop), and a friend's Cambridge EVO150 with B&W floorstanders. All of these setups sounded good to me but last night's listening was really engaging.

Another thing I wish the BluOS app had is a level control for the Sub Out.
 
Another thing I wish the BluOS app had is a level control for the Sub Out.
You can certainly adjust this on the sub. If Dirac Live is used in the future, it won't matter anyway.
 
The point of the suggestion is to be able to make the adjustment from the listening position.
 
The Icon is currently being tested by STEREO. A report has been announced for issue 03/2025.

That's interesting.
If you look at the WiiM Pro Plus, they measured a SNR of 94 dB and 0.012% THD at -9 dBFS.

The newer Node N132 has a SNR of just 84 dB, but the distortion is 0.007% THD at -9 dBFS.

The Node Nano measured poorly.

If you look at advertised performance:
N132 is -118 dB SNR and 0.0007%
Icon is -129 dB SNR and 0.0004%

So if the Icon is really 10 dB better in SNR, it should beat the WiiM Pro Plus, which is similar to the WiiM Ultra in measurements.

Stereo.de said that the new Node : "Classical music and orchestra in particular demonstrated the superior spatial imaging of the new Node. The sound was noticeably better removed from the loudspeakers, individual sound sources were at the same time better focused and their dimensions were more clearly perceptible."


The old PowerNode had lousy channel separation

If we look at the WiiM Amp, it is better but still weak

By contrast, dual mono preamp

And premium streaming amp

Do a lot better.

So *if* the Node Icon has better cross talk than WiiM products, it might translate into the difference presented. (The WiiM’s 67 dB crosstalk is around the threshold of audibility.)
 
You will soon be able to access different sub levels from the listening position via various Dirac Live slots (presets).

Do you have any info that the Bluesound Node will have multiple Dirac slots? The older Arcam SR250 era only had one slot, for example. No guarantee that we'll get 3 slots. It seems like adjusting the volume is a worthwhile request, especially if you choose not to use Dirac.
 
Already returned mine, but can still shoot out an email
@darth I would also ask Genelec for ideas if you haven't already contacted them.
They responded. No solution from their end it seems. They indicated that it's an issue with the streamer and to just try what the bluesound support article says using a RCA to XLR cable. But did say that may not work either.

They didn't mention where exactly am I supposed to put in the XLR cable since the analog in XLR slot on the speakers are already in use for the actual audio channel. I guess the only place I could have plugged it in would be a spare input slot on the subwoofer (not individual speakers) as that has more XLR channel inputs beyond the L and R channel. Not sure if they wanted me to dump it into the AES digital XLR input for the speakers.

In any case even if any of that would have worked, running extra wires to the 3 active devices (L, R, Sub) would just be adding to my wire mess. At that point I might as well just inject a grounded DAC between the bluesound and speakers and let that DAC take care of the loop. Since at least I can shove away the DAC in a closet and still run the same amount of wires to the speakers. This in turn means that I am just not using the internal bluesound DAC and I am essentially using the $1000 device as a glorified HDMI receiver. Not to mention that I lost all volume control when using USB out functionality with my DAC and DDC. It always got stuck on fixed volume output.

Which is why I just returned it and switched to something much cheaper like the WiimU that acts as the glorified HDMI receiver and allows volume control of an external USB DAC/DDC. And then in that DDC I converted that USB to AES and sent that to speakers further reducing my wires by 1 (AES digital connection is daisy chained unlike analog signals that run in parallel since it carries 2 channels per wire).
 
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