Bryston BDP-1 vs Bluesound Node 2i

Yes I did buy it.  Not sure. That's why I made this thread to see if anyone else has noticed an upgrade from an older high-end unit to a newer entry level unit.

I think I expect it to sound better perhaps because of the AES output but we'll see.  Very difficult to A/B test.

The Roons = Roon
MPD= Music Player Damon, that renders Qobuz/Tidal or local file storage. and is managed by Manic Moose on the Bryston BDP series (1,2,3 and Pi). Its an alternative to Roon and Spartan but the SQ is Top Notch. I jump back and forth between MPD and Roon.

Twix = between
Manic Moose is scheduled for a rewrite soon so your new BDP should run that.

I did a Roon trial with my PC, but not from my Node or BDP3.  I have seen many comments that Roon causes a notable degradation in SQ, particularly from HiFi reviewers in the U.K.  Manic Moose is hopeless, IMO.  I think that Bryston has exactly 1 employee who over sees the platform.  I can’t see that a rewrite will do anything except be a band aid.  Bryston should use third party apps and be done with it

@mahler123 I have not seen many claim that roon degrades sound.  I don't believe it degrades anything on my end.  Peter Li at Lumin even recommends using it over their native app.  

Not to get off on whether Roon is worth it or not though.

I really just want to know if this old beast of a bryston would be better than a new Node.  

Thus far, I haven't got any real answers, but I did get sold a Bryston unit! haha.  So, certainly not a total fail :)

I have seen a few people comment that they hear a difference between Roon and other apps. Before I started using Roon a few years ago, I was using jriver and didn't notice any change in SQ switching to Roon. At the time, I was using a Windows PC as my media server, and my system was not as good as it is today, so this could have been obscuring the differences.

Since then, I have completely changed my system - literally every component - except Roon. My system is dramatically better than it was several years ago, but each upgrade has been very easy to discern (some more than others, of course). I can't say for sure that Roon is as good as other streaming systems SQ-wise, but it sure sounds good to me on my system and doesn't seem to be limiting my ability to make improvements through component changes.

And while I love to change things in my system to experience the differences, I have absolutely no interest in giving up Roon.