The smartest purchase in a streamer REMAINS the NAD Bluesound Node. The Bluesound has been the best streaming value for half a dozen years or more. It still is!
NAD knows the young whippersnappers out there would like a cooler name than “The NAD Streamer.” Hence NAD has dubbed its streaming products Bluesound.
Now, we old guys know all about NAD and its rich history of great performing gear at affordable pricing. We would have been fine with The NAD Streamer. But, we can live with Bluesound too.
The Node streams wired, or wirelessly. Of course wired is always preferred. It is UNBELIEVABLE how often we visit customers’ homes and their Internet service and/or Wi-Fi is poor.
They’re paying real money but not getting what they paid for, due to the provider, a lousy router or some other curve ball. Make sure your service is behaving as it should.
Node has analog and digital outs. You can run analog right into your preamp and call it a day. Or, if you have an upstream DAC, you can run digital out into it. Then, Node is acting just as a streamer. NAD knows you might have a modest system and need the analog out. Or, you might be a higher end guy and need digital. Either way, Node 2i is the correct streamer.
When a company makes a streamer, it isn’t done. The company needs to have deep enough pockets to support updates. NAD does.
There are many high end names out there who offer streamers that CANNOT dedicate resources to keep up with all the changes going on. I have heard streamers in customers’ homes that sound very good. But they have idiosyncratic behavior.
I have seen systems where you select a song, wait five seconds, and then the song comes in several seconds late- so you miss the first few seconds of the tune. That’s no fun.
I have seen systems where you touch a particular song on the iPad and the tune below comes up, not the one you selected. The owner tells me he knows about this- so he just touches the tune above. Huh? Really?
I have experienced systems where the streaming session is going great until- it just STOPS. The customer reboots his streamer and all is well. Till when?
The point is, NAD has this figured out. Bluesound Node sounds great, whether analog, or feeding your DAC. NAD is doing the updates so your Node will play nice. At this point in our hobby, everyone should take advantage of great music by streaming. Bluesound makes it sound great and work reliably.
