Bluesound Node versions SQ

I had 2 Nodes that got hung up and died on updates, both past the warranty period.

Dirac is nice but you might investigate shm.  They are Hong Kong based and make streamers coupled with Dirac.  Or if you have DAC, I really recommend the Wiim Pro, and then add a separate Dirac Unit from shm .  That will keep costs low.  The Wiim is a great piece of budget kit with a fun app.

@invalid , I’m sorry to hear about your issues with your bluesound node 2, I’ve not had any issues.  I took a look at the stock power board that came out of my N132 for the LPS upgrade and see exactly what you mentioned.

@ironrick6 what did you decide to do?  FWIW, I have a Qutest and Node N130 and both are powered by a Teddy Pardo dual power supply.  The Pardo supply improved the Qutest a little and the sound of the Node a lot.  This digital front end is affected by what power cord is used on the power supply and really sensitive to quality of coax connecting the Node to the Qutest.  IE, this combination is good enough to benefit from better cabling, and investment there rewards.  While the streaming function of this system is very good, where it really shines is functioning as a server (SSD and Audioquest carbon USB cable serving MP3/4 to hires PCM files) providing super enjoyable listening on par with my analog setup. 
 

I recently bought a Node Nano for my office and although I have not compared it directly to the N130 as a streamer, the price to performance ratio for that device is remarkable.  And no surgery required to upgrade the 5V power supply, just plug and play.  In this case, fierce competition from Wiim has really benefited the consumer.

kn

I came across the statement:

"Why are we trying to stick a $300 streamer on a $1500 DAC?

stay in the same ballpark for optimum results. "

My first thought was, "because the guy who is asking actually knows how these devices function???" 

I have a pretty well matched rack of gear in one room, and pieces and parts to play with in others, and I was looking at the Bluesound Nano to simply deliver the ones and zeros to a DAC that was already on the shelf. No need to match the looks, size, color, or anything else... simply to connect to the streaming provider (or local files) to deliver the ones and zeros to a DAC. It's a transport, and as others have said, unless someone can post exactly why a certain devices cannot deliver the stream of data and how it affects the data going into the DAC, the criticism is moot. That said, even though this is an older thread I'm responding to, a lot of us are still doing research on things for specific needs, not to simply hemorrhage cash on a device because we spent a lot already on a different device to make it visually match, or be of the same perceived status of another. The Nano is a serious consideration for me as I own other BluOS devices and have been happy with how they work around the house (never thought I'd care, but it's great). Other streamers I've seen are simply based on a Raspberry Pi placed in a fancy housing. Buying big expensive gear is easy, but I don't know anyone who would be impressed or would ever be able to tell a difference if they cared, so the tinkering with lower-cost high-reward listening is part of the fun. 

For those that can perceive a difference in streamers & are curious as to why there is a very good YouTuber under the name Analogholic that has done a great video in layman's terms about streamers. He also has quite a few other topic videos that I feel are a great service to the audio community. Quite a few on the topic of digital. 

As far as Nodes & their sound quality I think that the Nano is extremely good as a transport. It went well with my Pontus 15th & Laiv uDac. I think it even sounds pretty good with my more analytical RME dac. I have the Icon as well..& for transport duty I like the Nano better. You do have the option of adding an external PS with the Nano & you get an obvious improvement. To upgrade the ICON it will run you about $550 U.S. for the Teddy Pardo/Bluesound upgrade. 

I also tried the budget WiiM Ultra a few months back. I was absolutely amazed with all the features the Ultra offers for that price. Very nice device. It just didn't mesh well in any of my systems as far as sound quality. Just meaning that it didn't sound as good to me as the other budget type streamers I had on hand (Zen Stream & Primare NP5) I'm not dissing the Ultra. Great device. 

But yeah, the Nano is pretty smooth with a nice dark background as a transport. I used a Sbooster & Neotech NEVD-2001 Coaxial. Though when I first hooked up the Nano I used a cheap IFI PowerX that was powering a switch but ended up using Wifi with the Nano. Cheap powerX switch mode was a nice pairing. 

I felt the ICON sounded best using its toslink output..but I haven't even tried the USB or Toslink on the Nano. I came across a used Nano for $200 a couple weeks & bought it just to check it out. I started with the coaxial output & I just haven't bothered to try the other outputs to yet.