Bluesound Node, $550
{8.7 x 1.8 x 5.7 in, 2.5lbs}
Streaming music is massive fun! You can listen to almost anything you want in very high quality.
Please start your streaming life with a Bluesound Node.
Bluesound is made by NAD. Bluesound is a cooler “brand name” for marketing than “NAD streamer.”
What’s important to know is that NAD is a powerful international audio company with very deep pockets. That’s vital.
Node has the ability to deliver FULL BANDWIDTH music to your audio system.
You can listen to CD or Hi Res quality music at full fidelity when you listen through Bluesound’s Node. Some streaming components out there will not deliver full bandwidth to you- like Sonos.
Imagine that your “water pressure” is limited to only 25% of what comes from the road- because of your choice in a steaming box. Node can deliver 100% of the water pressure. Further, it will do so without annoying glitches. You just need a solid internet signal, with reliable wi-fi if you choose to run wireless.
NAD kicked off Bluesound in 2013. Hence Bluesound was among the first music streaming boxes on the market. NAD has the technology down pat. The streaming platform works very well because of the hardware Bluesound offers, AND the support NAD continues to provide.
There are streaming boxes made by very high end audio specialists that cough, sputter and buffer. While the boxes on their own are fine, the companies who offer them simply cannot support them as NAD does. It takes those deep pockets to dedicate engineers to the task of keeping the music flowing without problems.
I have been to customer’s houses where their streamer is something expensive from England. You pull up a song and the first few seconds distort- and then the music plays fine. If you stay on that album, the music plays fine. But when you pull up a different album, the first few seconds distort again. This… is enormously irritating. I asked the customers WHY this is occurring. In each case the customer said they’ve done all the updates and called in for support- but this is the best they can do. They’re tired of the fight so they’ve thrown in the towel. If you play full albums, you might be able to
live with 5 seconds of distortion at the beginning but WHY do so? If you run Bluesound, this won’t happen. Bluesound is always running updates to make sure you won’t have caching issues. My point again is, performance relies on manufacturer support. It isn’t as simple as just buying a box and you’re done.
Node supports your music to the level of the service you sign up for. I choose Tidal. There are about 200 more services to choose from.
Node has analog and digital outs. Hence you can listen through the DAC in Node by running analog out, or you can run digital out to your fancy DAC. Node supports both. It’s your choice.
There are countless uber expensive streaming boxes out there- many with built in servers. Don’t waste your money. You don’t need a SERVER.
If you can’t stream the music you want, just play the CD. I have NO INTEREST in saving CDs or purchased files, to a server and typing in all the meta data. You can waste thousands of hours of your life with this nonsense and guess what? Some day your server is going to puke and lose your stored info anyway.
Please don’t tell me you don’t have room, or it’s too much work, to deal with CDs. How lazy are you?! It’s your house too by the way.
