Just got a new Bluesound Node. Very disappointed!

To the original poster, I would return the B/S Node and perhaps try another one from another vendor to hopefully not get one from the same batch run. If it (the first one) is defective you’ll find out.

Sadly this goes for nearly anything in manufacturing the last two years. Manufacturing items in fits and starts due to Covid, supply chain issues, particularly the chip shortages, has lowered overall statistical quality of many items from streamers to cars.

Since we know many have the Node and are happy with it at its price point, this tone anomaly does seem to indicate something is amiss. Good luck!

And thanks to @Alvin1118 for the heads up about the Auto Clock on the BS Node. Something to keep in the back of my mind if I ever get one.

The only problem I’ve had with my node is tech support and that’s lately. 

@last_lemming 

Beyond the basic troubleshooting, there are plenty of threads here on how to get best possible sound from BSN. If you’re new to streaming, there is a bit of learning curve (probably not as deep as your analog) so you need to be patient and allow BSN to settle in your system. When using a external DAC, make sure you’re using a good digital SPDIF or USB cable. You mentioned hearing a slight metallic sheen in your music with BSN, here are couple of things you can do to restore naturalness to the music, 

1) Upgrade Ethernet cable to Supra CAT 8 (buy from eBay seller zendada)

2) Upgrade PC cable to Shunyata V14 - C7 or similar

3) Try a inline LAN filter like Acoustic Revive RLI-1GB-TripleC (buy from eBay)

All of the above tweaks + external DAC should help you get most out of BSN in its stock form. There is power supply upgrade as well for additional $258 but I wouldn’t go that far yet. 

Did you turn off the clock as another poster suggested?  This has a huge impact on sound quality.  It always makes a positive difference when you have an external DAC

I just got my node setup yesterday. Had a lot of problems initially and with the help of their it persons got it working great. No problems with the sound yet. I did buy the unit used from another individual, so I don’t know if there were problems before. 
  That said, I did a factory reset (pay attention to the led colors) , deleted the BLos app, and reloaded it again. After about 45 min , everything was up and running. 
  One suggestion I might make is to remove the Dac from th signal path to see if that makes a difference. Second , change the inputs coming into your preamp and evaluate. You might have done this already to track down the gremlin. This process would show what the problem is. It might be even bad cables or a connection problem. 
I know it is frustrating, I had the same type of problems with my turntable hookups. Rerouted cables did the trick for me with that. Good luck.