I wish I had a better answer for you. I bought 2 Nodes and the Vault2 about 5 years ago with the idea of doing a multi room setup. The Vault and one of the Nodes died. One of the Nodes is still working in a secondary system where it doesn't get much use. My experience with BS CS was essentially the same as yours. I tried everything, different power sources, sacrificing goats and chickens, and a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Everything was off warranty (in the Node2 case, by less than a week) and long story short I was SOL.
Eventually I ponied up for new streamers. Essentially these things are computers that are gussied up to look like audio components. I have had laptops purchased at this price point (Dell) that lasted about the same duration. I read a review for a NAD streaming amp that essentially sounds like it has the Node crammed in it and woe to anyone who goes that route. What bothers me is that with the Bluesound on the market now for several years, and these stories of unreliability being ubiquitous, you never see this mentioned in a product review
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BTW you replaced the caps? Did Bluesound do the work? Did you buy the unit from them? Did the warranty run out? Lots of questions. I have a Bluesound Node and Vault. After the warranty period on the Node was over I replaced the power board with an aftermarket. It sounds quieter now...and customer service was great with me, when I had to call them.
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@doug1234 ,
I agree with you, and according to other members their reliability is terrible, but on the other hand, $600.00 doesn't buy much these days in high end audio.
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i have had 5 nodes (3x 2i, 2x n130) in various parts of 2 homes we spend time in, since early 2020, all have performed flawlessly, no issues whatsoever
obviously these are very low cost, exceptionally popular for those getting into streaming, i would imagine thousands have been sold, there will be some failure rate, inevitably
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@roxy54
I agree with you, and according to other members their reliability is terrible, but on the other hand, $600.00 doesn’t buy much these days in high end audio.
I have been using a Node 2i for a few years now and it has worked flawlessly, as has @jjss49 reported above.
I purchased my 2i on a website that gave a 10% discount for first time buyers and so it came in for somewhere around $500 dollars, meaning I have no worries about resale, etc., it’s just a fun little piece of equipment.
What I am getting around to respectfully saying is that in my estimation you opinion regarding their reliability is not accurate. I think based on my reading here that their reliability is fairly exceptional. Especially when you consider that there are probably a thousand (?) Bluesound units sold for every other brand sold.
Just a difference of opinions.
And I will be ticked off like @doug123 if mine bites the dust.
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@2psyop I cant do the reset because I never see a red light. I did replace the caps (I'm an expert solderer and very comfortable with this sort of repair). Warranty is only one year, I'm on year 3. Do you want to sell your original power board? It might be worth a shot to try that before throwing it in the garbage.
@jjss49 @roxy54 That's awesome you guys have good units, I'm jealous! Based on what I've read these things are ticking time bombs.. 3-4 years and they die - this seems to be the average lifespan, so you're not quite there yet. I rarely used mine btw, maybe a few times a week. My caps were not popped like others posts though, it just stopped turning on one day.
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doug,
Let me check later to see that I still have it. If I do, I will just send it to you.... no problem.
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@doug1234,
Sorry for the misunderstanding Doug, but I don't own one, or any other streamer. My comment was just based on an observation. I seemed to me; and I could be wrong, that a number of members had complained about their reliability in the past.
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I have not had good luck with Bluesound.
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not to be argumentative, but just add some perspective and balance to this thread, which seems to be trying to make bluesound’s node (and their other products) seem unreliable as a blanket, generalized statement
1 - details matter, specifics matter... i believe early versions of the bluesound vault (which has built in hard drive memory to store music, in addition to stream) had some issues with reliability at roll-out, mostly with the storage drive failing... not good, but this isn’t the node, which doesn't have an internal drive
2 - nodes, from the 2, 2i now n130 are the big big seller... think of it as the honda civic of streamers, for everyman, offers huge value at a very modest price point (yes i know new civics are 25-30k cars now... ugh, but you’ll get my point i hope) - so oodles of them are sold, and some small percentage, very small percentage, have problems... but you go onto honda web user sites, and they are full of complaints about honda civics because only these owners self-select and post angrily... does this mean civics are a crappy unreliable car? heck no, if 300,000 are sold new annually and 200 of them have issues, and 80 of the those customers are pissed and complain bitterly on the forums, should you buy a vw golf instead ’because civics are unreliable garbage’???
this isn’t to minimize the frustration of the few civic or node owners who have ones that go bad, this also doesn’t mean nodes won’t start failing en masse when they stay plugged in 24-7 for 6-7-8 years, doing what they do...
but we should maintain some perspective...
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doug I have the ps for the node 2. If you want ...PM me and I will send it to you.
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Ruh Roh,
I just bought a N130…..
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I have a BS Node 2i running continuously since February 2020 with zero problems.
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You really aren’t talking about a lot of money to replace.
my BlueSound Node 2i is flawless.
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My BS Node 2i has been running continuously since December 2019.
Haven't hit the alleged, infamous 3 year mark, but so far it's been great!
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@2psyop Oh wow, I'm really grateful for that! I've sent you a PM. I'm very interested to see if its just the power supply that's to blame, or if the unit itself (in my case) is defunct. You are awesome!
BTW, did you guys know NAD made the power supply? Their logo is on it. I don't know much about who developed the hardware, but I was surprised to see that on there, and a bit wary to buy modern NAD gear now too.
@larry5729 I actually didn't call them. They are local and very nice, but I know they are just going to tell me its out of warranty and to call BS.
@jjss49 I hear you.. I don't know if mine is considered an early one, but its a 2i, so its newer than the 2. If it were true that they sold hundreds of thousands of players and only .07% were bad, then they would be fixing them for free (or charging reasonably) to avoid the negative press. I mean, when you look at the board inside, you can see that at $600 a pop, they have huge profit in this device, and the power supply, a totally separate board made of common components, cant possibly cost more than $25-50 to them. I think the storm is coming - the lifetime of the power supply seems to be 2-3 years so all the folks that bought them a couple years ago will be posting a message just like this one in a year. :)
The real reason I'm ok with lambasting BS online is the terrible support I received. They really don't care to retain customers - the kiss of death in the high end audio world. A $75 discount on a refurbished 2i is not support, that's a "go away customer" response. I believe in early years of the company they were receptive, but now service appears have gone to India, and we all know how that goes.
@roxy54 Oh, no worries! Thanks. I agree with you that $600 isn't a lot of money for audio gear. I have high end stuff in my main system, but $600 certainly isn't cheap for a mini streamer like this. I rationalized paying the premium to get a quality unit. :)
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The "Dreaded Red Light Of Death":
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I've got one vault over the 3 year mark and 4 nodes that have been flawless. I bought a couple of the nodes on eBay a couple of years ago so I'm not sure of the age of those units.
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Now you tell me, just ordered 1.🤞
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I’ve had my node for over 7 years now, I’ve put in a linear power supply from Poland, and have never had problems. I have two other nodes in other parts of the house that work flawlessly. Now, software issues yes, I have had my share, but hardware reliability is flawless.
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Would highly recommend the excellent new Zen Stream. Or if you’re willing to use an rpi based unit with upnp/variable software then the new Mercury streamer by Pi2design (well I believe) will blow away the node 2i in sq.
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I work for an electronics retailer, and we use Node130s in ten separate demo displays which have been playing day in and out (pretty much 12 hours a day) since the product was released. Before the 130, we used the 2i in all of those locations. Never had as much as a hiccup. I can also report that based on returns/service reports, the number of issues with the product is lower than any other streaming device we carry with the exception of Auralic (by percentage).
@jjss49 made an excellent point; people generally don't post online to say "this works well" or "no problems here" so the majority of customer reviews will be folks with an axe to grind, which makes it appear there are "nothing but problems" with the product in question. This happens with literally every brand and model, be it electronics or appliances. My favorite is argument along the lines of "I had a walkman fail when I was in high school so I'll never buy another Sony product".
This is not to make light of your issue, I would be frustrated too, and the $75.00 off for a refurbished unit does seem a little stingy.
Regarding the NAD power supply, Lenbrook is the parent company who owns BlueSound, NAD, PSB, and Dali brands, and many of those products use the BluOs platform.
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My Node 2i is refurbished, 3 yrs old. I installed PD Creatiive power supply upgrade. The original has a few reliability issues corrected. Otherwise they predicted 2 yr lifespan.
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doug
The PS is on it's way. I had some time before going to work and stopped by the post office to get it out to you. Just a reminder, I purchased another PS from PD Creative out of Poland and the one I am sending you is the original out of that Node 2. It's working and no issues. Let's cross our fingers it will solve your problem because it's easy to install. Good Luck.
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I find this type of most companies across the board. They will NEVER give you a new model, but give you a refurb. Now, what constitutes a refurb to most companies varies. I worked for an outlet (not a manufacturer), whose idea of a refurb, was to turn on the power and if the pilot light came on, it was considered good. Thankfully most major companies are better than that, but they are still limited. When A customer sends in a 'Black Box' on an RMA, they often are not able to either spend the time to find the customers issue or because of the peculiarities of the system and associated components, are not able to reproduce it, so you are going to get someone else's problems and it will usually pop up eventually. It becomes a catch-22 when it comes to some company sending you a $20k device. You paid for a properly working device and they had hopes of making some bucks off of each one they sell. Greed on their part usually wins.
Now when a company has an issue like a recent purchase as I had with an NU Audio (Designed) device, and the CS agent tells me that they "ONLY had a 30% failure rate" imagining that this was a small number, then you really have a problem. If this CS agent's Supervisor ever hears the recording of that conversation, I doubt he will be keeping his job very long.
Now some things to watch out for when following through with an RMA.
You also have to consider their practices on shipping when it comes to RMAs. How are they shipped? Who is the shipper and how are you presented with a shipping label? In one incident a manufacturer gave me Two RMAs on two different items to be sent to two different parts of the country. They didn't tell me which label was for which item. It took me days to get them to understand the problem. Then there was an incident where I sent an item in the original box with the original packing and then had the shipper package Inside another box with extra packing for extra security. First, they tried to tell me they never received the item, but I had the signature of the Wearehousman that signed for it upon receipt. Then they tried to tell me it was damaged in the shipment. I asked to see the photos of the damaged BOX it was shipped in as it was receiver which is a standard procedure and they CLAIMED they never took ANY PHOTOS. They were forced to honor the RMA because I held their feet to the fire. Then on the most recent item, they wanted to do what is called a Cross Shipment. That is supposed to be Both parties shipping at the same time making the waiting time MUCH less. But that isn't what they offered in reality. They wanted me to PAY a Deposit of the FULL PRICE of the item, and they would ship a new one to me and then I would ship the old one back in the same shipping carton with an enclosed prepaid shipping label. Now that may sound simple but first, I could NOT get them to say that the Deposit was ONLY a temporary deposit and was refundable. If this had been a $200k item that is a lot of Spare change to have sitting in their bank account and NOT yours. and then there was some question of if they would honor the return of the deposit. Also in their fine print, it stipulated that they ONLY allowed 14 days for the returned item to get back to them from the date that THEY first shipped the replacement to you. With the current problems with slow shipping in this country it could take 20 or 30 days for an item to be shipped across the town you live in, and then there is the time takes for the return shipment. Fortunately, I was able to get a supervisor to honor a shipping label for me to sip first and then they return the new or repaired item. Now deposit is needed, and no additional cost to them for shipping. How simple is that?
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Not bricked but...
Bought new in March this year. Initially worked but last night after playing for 30 mins it stuttered and music coming out of speaker became a loud buzzing. Turned everything on and off, but did it again within a few seconds. All sources work as before.
Emailed retailer this morning (UK time) but yet to hear back)
If anyone has any tips in the meantime would be grateful
Pieter
Virgin BB (data only) to iPad w Spotify. Node RCA into Pass INT-60 RCA
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I have the BlueOS in my NAD unit and has worked flawlessly (including updates) since I got it used three years ago.
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Sorry to hear of your difficulties.
it sounds like you are better equipped than most to problem solve. It would be interesting to hear your conclusion.
At 3 times the price, I wonder how much better the NAD C 658 is?
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@bruegel ...I would do a complete factory reset to new in box status. Then reinstall like it’s the first time.
Should reset everything.
Disconnect the player from electrical power.
-If you have a PULSE FLEX with a BP100 Battery Pack, disconnect the battery pack as well
- Wait 10 seconds
- Reconnect the power
- Once the LED turns Red, touch and hold the Play/Pause LED on the touch panel (It will immediately turn Green and then back to Red) - do not let go of the LED
- Once the LED turns back to Red, continue to hold the button for 30 seconds
- After 30 seconds, the LED will begin to blink red - then release the button
IMPORTANT: Removing your finger from the LED at any time before the LED begins flashing red will cancel the factory reset and leave the player in Upgrade Mode. Just start the steps again to factory reset the player.
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Doug,
What do you have to lose by contacting your retailer? You might be surprised they will help you. They certainly carry more clout.
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Thanks - will try when I get home. Will report back in case it helps others
Pieter
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I have had an entire house full of Bluesound for the last 5 years and have had nothing but issues with almost all of the units. BS said it was wifi so I hard networked most of the units and problems persisted. The good news is that after all this time I have finally had zero glitches for the last 2 months. The red light problems were a feature BS added after the 2i came out. It is related to software updates and the units getting hung up. A factory reset will not fix it. Reloading the firmware online or from a usb stick fixes it. Sometime it takes a few tries. I've had 5 devices red light, some multiple times and every one has been cleared by firmware update. I had a new Node2i that red lighted after a couple of weeks and I sent that back before I found out how to fix this.
In my setup, I have found the root cause of the static noise problems, the volume going full on or full off, groups failing to output sound, groups getting out of sync, are all bugs that are related to using the Bluesound App that everyone raves about. Using the buttons on top of the device to select playlists or change the volume causes problems as well. Tried Amazon music and even down graded Tidal to Hifi just to make sure that hires or MQA were not causing the problems.
Currently I only use the BS App to set up groups and never touch it again, and never touch the buttons on the units. Tidal Connect is the only app that communicates with the nodes/speakers and we have not had any issues for over 2 months. We used to have some sort of issue almost daily. Any issues that have come up now are Tidal related due to the Tidal app resetting itself (Tidal does not like my older i devices) and having to reload/restart a playlist.
The main reason that Bluesound was chosen in the first place was for whole house sound and CD quality. It's taken 5 years to get it to work and only because of Tidal connect. I'm not a huge Tidal fan, but other than Spotify there are no services with a working "connect" feature that I am aware of.
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Went through factory reset twice. First time stuttered the went to buzzing within a minute. Second time failed to connect to node at all. Wii try again at weekend when have more time
Pieter
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i sent 3 IFI Zen Streams back, no problems with the Node.
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Hate to see anyone have problems but never read such a long thread for 600 bucks. Hopefully you get it sorted out.
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@2psyop You are amazing! I cant wait to see if its my power supply or the main board that is at fault. Thank you SO MUCH!!
@mofimadness FWIW, I cant do the factory reset because I never get the red light at the top - its that dead!
@larry5729 I coincidentally ended up near them yesterday and went in.. they said the same thing any salesman of BS products will say - "wow we’ve been using their units for 10 years and not a single failure... contact the manufacturer.."
@vint_age I’ve heard this a lot, even from my dealer. There have been a lot of problems with the app, but I think, in general, most of the bugs are sorted. Mine from a software perspective has actually been ok, but I am not using all of the features really. I rely on tidal for most of the UI stuff and only really use the bluos app for volume. With all of that said, I did have to occasionally pull the plug and reset the node because it locks up, maybe 1-2x a month.
@marco1 $600 is a lot for some, and not a lot for others. :) Plus, its good to share this info for others downstream.
@riccitone I have another thread going in search of a replacement streamer for the node (In the event 2psyop's replacement PS doesn't help). I have some particular requirements for said device..The zen has no optical input. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/looking-for-2-1-digital-preamp-recommendation
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@doug1234 - hope everyone knows I was just being facetious. Should have used a 😀
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Just wanted to echo that the Zen Stream might not be the "answer" to the Node issues. Many have mentioned that it has terrible Wi-Fi connectivity that is often flaky (even with a very strong signal) or even if hardwired to ethernet.
Another issue for Tidal users is that some say it stutters on the first song you start every single time. I can't have that. I'm not THAT patient.
Hoping iFi will either correct those issues or will soon come out with a "MK. II" version that does. As I'm interested in using a better external DAC anyway, I don't see the utility in buying a Node with an built-in one I'll never use.
Good luck in getting your problem resolved. Yeah, some might not consider $600 much of an investment, but I do. Items should last at least 2X the freaking warranty period at a minimum at most price points.
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I had node 2i no problems. The DAC was lamo, but good value for the money. NAD must not advertise with Audiogon or this thread would have been deleted.
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hey guys look at jjss49 comment. He gives a good perspective on the issue. With some help maybe doug can get this node running again. It’s frustrating but just bashing Bluesound does not really help IMHO. Any reps from Bluesound, help a brother out...
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@2psyop OMG OMG OMG You sir, saved the day!! I changed the power board and it fired right up, so it looks like my failure was a little bit different than most - not cap related, but something else on the power board fried, maybe a transistor. Perhaps this will help someone else out in the future to identify how theirs has failed.
Again, thank you SO MUCH for helping a total stranger out. I owe ya one!
FWIW, I wouldn’t have bashed them if they gave any decent care to their customers. I got near zero support - this is not the BlueSound of old days. People need to be aware how they are treating customers now because I think they historically had a good reputation for support. But, clearly things have changed and they’ve sold out, changed management, are struggling, or whatever.
Ps- if the node didn’t fire up, I was going to purchase the Yamaha WXC-50 which looks like it has all of the features I’d need, and would be a healthy replacement.
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doug That is awesome. Hey you know I have met some good people here and got some great advice. This PS would have sat in my closet and the box collecting dust so I am happy it went to good use. I hope others here can get along and help another audiophile like I have gotten help over the years. Happy listening!
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Digital power supplies are normally not robust when taking power hits
High frequency spikes and RF noise is a killer. Small sound gear like streamers and DACs won't handle bad power. Did you have power protection? You do not need esoteric, just something to filter and regulate from my experience.
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@2psyop
Well done, sir! It’s nice coming across instances of persons genuinely supporting one another around a shared passion. Seems like the world could use a lot more of that lately. Again, well done.
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I have already had 4 or 5 flawless years of service on my Node. I guess if it breaks tomorrow I would still think a used $350 item was a pretty great deal. I understand that these items are not forever though.
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After four factory resets finally got it up and at it again.
Thanks for the help. Having suffered from the sarcasm and smugness of members before, I've noticed how much more positve and helpful the forum has been of late. Refreshing and much appreciated.
Found this
on streamer upgrades especially helpful
Thanks
Pieter
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Have one in my office system and it operates flawlessly and is several years old.
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