Advice Needed: Bluesound Node vs Vault

I think the OP has it right.  The Vault2 charges more for the convenience of adding storage and a ripper.  Whether that premium is worth it is in the eye and wallet of the beholder 

The Bluesound ripper generally does good rips, superior to iTunes, perhaps a notch below dbpoweramp.  I’ve used all 3 of these extensively.  Still, if you are comfortable doing your own ripping, a program like dbpoweramp costs under a hundred, still cheaper to add then the ripping part of the Vault2 

I used Powerline Adapters for the first couple of years but they were problematic.  It turns out that when the signal crosses a breaker there is a significant drop, something like 40%, and to get from my router to my listening room required a 2 circuit jump.  The PLAs would work for a while, then ultimately overheat and die after a few weeks.  If your listening area is on the same circuit as your router you probably won’t have any issues.  I ultimately bit the bullet and paid a few hundred bucks to Ethernet Wire the house, which helped my Apple TVs, Blu Ray Players, and some non Audio IT stuff in the house.
   I’m having my first problem with Bluesound since the above cabling issue.  The color scheme on the Vault2 cycles between red and blue, it’s overheating, and the app isn’t working.  This started Dec 23 when I did their latest update, the one to add AirPlay.  I first noted the issue on XMass Eve and haven’t been able to fix it with the usual rebooting of the BS and the router.  I’m off today and hoping Tech Support is available.

Well, seems like I’m SOL.  Tech support not available today, reopening tomorrow but I have to go to work and Tech Support won’t help unless you are at home.  That’s not going to happen for a while

Factory reset didn’t work either.  

You might be on to something there, as the download appeared to have a problem.  How do you download the manual update?  I didn’t see a download update areaon the BS website but I can look again.

Huh I tried to do that but somehow I don’t the page that you are referencing.
I tried a factory reset again and this time it worked.  I did the reiindex music collection and rebuild index and the only problem is that my NAS won’t play.
i have two separate folders—the Vault and my NAS—the Vault and the Internet Radio works well but while the NAS shows up, no sound comes from the files.
I have Oppo players in the same systems as the Vault2 and the Node2 and using the network function of the Oppos I can play files from the NAS so the problem has to be the Bluesound 

Their customer service is always great.  The problem is their availability.

Well, due to the Holidays and and my work schedule, it may be a few weeks before we are able to do his.  This is a first world problem—90% of my rips are still available to me on the Vault2, and if I use my Oppo as the controller, I can access all of the NAS, and I still have a few thousand shiny silver discs to spin—so I hate to sound a whiner (actually I am a whiner, I just hate to be so obvious).
However, this won’t be the first time that I haven’t been able to use it and had to make a date with their IT department weeks in advance.  
  Looking back at it I think most of my troubles have been related to software upgrades.  I think that djones May have hit the nail on the head—the software downloads don’t make it to home base, which confuses the whole unit(s), which then overheat worryingly.  Perhaps I will do future downloads manually.
  Apologies to the OP for hijacking the thread, but prospective purchasers are best informed if made aware of issues.
  The other thing is that posters here regularly criticize the Bluesound products as budget items that can’t possibly compete with streamers that cost 5-10 times as much, and many of us Bluesound owners rejoin that as long as one uses external DACs, they sound exceptional.  Where they may have cut corners is on the networking part.  Perusal of the Bluesound forum suggests that I am not the user who has these issues.  It may be that certain routers are more likely to be affected, as I use the stock router that ATT provides, but I have an IT guy that set up my NAS who says the router is fine.  Anyway they sound great and have a heck of a lot of functionality but at this price I guess something has to give.