How good is the Pre-amp from bluesound node icon?

[pogo]

The winner is Dirac Live

 

[mr_bill]

@Theodorus
Great comments - please keep us informed on your tests, I really enjoy them and find them valuable.

 

[Theodorus]

Things are changed here after comparing the Rotel rb990bx vs a Hegel h390 wich I could compare at home .
The h390 did win the battle and now is playing only as a power amp and the node icon takes care for preamp, dac and streaming part.
The preamp/dac part from this Icon is really very good.

 

[mr_bill]

@Theodorus , I just reread your earlier comments and this one and it is amazing to me that the Icon matches H600 pre/dac via xlr and betters the H590 pre/dac!

 

[vddobrev]

Amazing experiences!
I share similar!
I have my Node Icon connected straight to my amp NAD M27 via XLR, and it is outstanding serving my second zone! I previously had M66, and Node Icon is at similar level of performance, based on my opinion, I have no measurements to share. Granted, it was the XLR connection that made it for me, I was not so impressed with RCA.

 

[jurajc]

Hi everyone. Sorry to interrupt your discussion, but this sounds familiar...Can you advise me on what amplifier I should buy for Node Icon and Jamo C113 for near field listening?? I listen to internet radio - rock, Tidal and CD player. But it is possible that I rarely turn up the volume.

 

[Shorty]

I would ignore all of the subjective sound impressions. Without any decent controls, they are all just fantasy. The fact that they use a network filter should already raise all kinds of red flags. And why not just name the cheapest streamer in the “test”? Likely it’s the WiiM ultra. The price matches, as well as the cable difficulties:

This is simply ridiculous, given that the device is fully transparent. All the subjective stuff is nonsense!


Being a conductor doesn’t make one magically immune to biases. If you do these comparisons, at the very bare minimum you’ll need to level match the devices to within .1 dB of volume. Otherwise volume differences will trump anything else.

We’re now on page 2 of a totally clueless discussion about perceived differences.


Wake up, guys! There are plenty other forums where your religious beliefs are being taken serious, but on this forum you’re only making fools of yourselves….