B.S. Node 2i brick (yet another one)

@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. 

@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. :)

@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

@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.

Thanks again!!