Bluesound Node 2 question

Thanks for that helpful post. The Node 2 sounds like just what I'm looking for.

Shakey

Look at the Western Digital My Cloud series. There are many, many options there and the unit was kinda easy to set up. I have the 4tb version. To give you an example of how the Bluesound products use files on the drive, my files look something like this...

On your controller (Ipad or Iphone or Android phone)
Choose desktop Icon "BluOs"
Choose Icon "Library"
Choose from list of "Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists, etc"
A picture (jpg file) of those Album covers you have in your library will come up or a list of all your stored songs, genres, playlists, etc.
Hit "Play" button"

On your HDD or NAS drive (I use a My Cloud 4 TB)
Music will be in a folder, for example...
Shared drive, WD MyCloud",
"My BS Music" (folder),
"Library" (folder),
"Acoustic Alchemy" (and many, many other folders listed by artist name in alphabetical order. My folders are listed by Albums),
"Natural Elements" (folder with album name),
"Positive Thinking" (folder with album name),
01 Drakes Drum.aif (song),
02 Natural Elements.aif (song),
03 next song.aif (song),
04 next song.aif (song),
Cover.jpg (The cover art jpg file)

It is important to note that artwork must be labeled this way for bluesound to find and display..

• folder.jpg, cover.jpg, folder.png or cover.png in the same folder as the located music
• A Jpeg or PNG embedded into the metadata of the music file

I have used Cover.jpg without a hitch.

Note: This is a list of music files Bluesound will recognize and play: MP3, AAC (M4A, MP4), WMA, OGG, FLAC, ALAC (M4A), WMA-L, MQA, WAV and AIFF (AIF, AIFC). I don’t think AAC files with the extension .m4p will be recognized by Bluesound.
Also, all my files have been organized (originally) by Itunes. Bluesound has not had any problem with this organization file system, except with the artwork. I had to change that format.

I hope this helps a little for anyone trying to figure out how Bluesound finds and plays music.

Also Ozzy, I have the music on the WD My Cloud connected to my wireless router via ethernet cable. The signal is found by the Node 2 on my home network. Not too hard, but I did have to contact customer service to configure it when I had setup glitches. They are really great and can help with setup by getting into your network remotely.

So I was thinking about something like the Western Digital Mycloud 2 TB hard drive. Seems to work like a NAS. Thoughts?

Shakey

The Node 2 is a great streamer without the "for the price" qualifier. Regarding the external hard drive.  You can use any sized external USB drive but that is not the optimum configuration. The problem with large USB drives is that the system has to re-build the index each time you power the unit on.  The larger your music collection, the longer it will take to rebuild the index.  The Node system really works best with a NAS.

Thanks for all the replies. So you don't need to have any third party file management system involved? Like roon, jriver, plex, etc? I want to get away from using my laptop. I like the jriver media server, but I feel like the laptop is the weak link in the chain. I would like to have only the Node and my external drive with my music.

Shakey

Yes the Node 2, for me, was the solution to my computer problem. I did not want to use my computer (Itunes and a library of music on a HDD) with my stereo. I wanted to play all my music, Spotify streaming, my digital music files (most of which came from Itunes or ripping my CDs) with my stereo by using my Iphone as the control device. Bluesound offered me this.

According to the owner's manual, you can, but it doesn't specify how "large" of an external drive you can use.

I thought I read somewhere that the manufacturer didn't recommend plugging a large storage device into the USB input. I know that Logitech said the same thing about the SB Touch.

When using the Node 2, does one eliminate the need for a PC or library software?

Yes.  You can plug an external hard drive right into the back of the Node 2.  It will also find a NAS on your home LAN system.