The Bluesound Node 2i is a nice piece and good value for the money.
Like most of its competitors, more often than not, it will behave and perform better using a wired connection. There are few streamers that actually are designed to perform better using a wireless connection, with some of the Auralic offerings (with much higer price point than the Node 2i) among the notable exceptions. You will tend to have less dropouts and better resolution going the wired route, especially with hi res material streamed over the internet. |
I use my Node wirelessly (on the 5 ghz band).
I have never had any problem with dropouts, -which would be the main issue of using wireless. If you have a good signal, you should be fine.
Is there a difference between ethernet and wireless?
Maybe, but I haven't noticed it, but, then again, I am not anally retentive about such things. If it sounds good, it is good.
The only other streamer I would consider is the Aurender N100.
A bit more than the Node, but very, very good.
The main drawback is that it only works with Qobuz and Tidal, whereas the Node has a greater number of applications to choose from.
Bob |
I think it depends on how clean your wireless is. If you are in an apartment building or condo and have lots of neighbors that are clogging up the wireless channels, you're like to have more dropped packets which can cause issues. Generally, the 5Ghz band is less crowded and is more likely to give you better performance.
I live in a city, but in a neighborhood where the houses are a fair distance apart. I have four Node 2is as part of my network (along with a higher quality Bryston streamer on my main 2-channel system) and have used them both wired and wireless with good results. |
Thanks for the replies. We live in what I think is called the x-urbs. It's not the deep country, but I have 3 neighbors within a 200 yard or so radius, so I really don't think contention is going to be an issue. I could always run a wire, but it would be a pain... |
@howardlander
It seems like you won't have any trouble using wifi in your neighborhood. I live in a city rowhome and had issues with neighbors (5gHz router).
Regarding an ethernet connection, I changed to wired when I was tweaking my Node2i for better performance. My findings were CAT6 was an upgrade over wireless, then changing to CAT8 provided noticeably better sonics possibly due to shielding on individual conductors. Music sounded fuller with more weight vs. Wifi.
I highly recommend that you use a quality aftermarket cable for the Node, it's a noticeable improvement. A C7 cable is required (also called a figure 8 cable). With this upgrade, Wifi vs. ethernet sound quality will be negligible.
|
I started out WiFI to the Node.
Cat 8 is much better for me |
I have a Vault 2 which by necessity is wired. Sounds great. In another system I have a Node 2i run wireless on the 5ghz band. Sounds great.
|
The only problem with wifi would be dropouts as some have already mentioned. You can go into your routers settings and see which channels you're using as well as the channels any neighbors are using. If you happen to be sharing one just change yours. I never noticed any difference in sound between wired or wifi but I had to many drops in my situation so I had to run a wire. |
no drop outs given the buffering, shouldn't matter
have drop outs, get wired |
@lowrider57 Any cable suggestions? BTW, the node will be on a dedicated 20 amp circuit. Does that make the need for an aftermarket cable any less? |
@howardlander
Wireworld and Cullen C7 cables provided an upgrade in sound; deeper bass extension, wider and deeper soundstage, and increased detail. The Wireworld is more detailed than the Cullen, both gave the Node more weight to the music.
It’s great you have a dedicated line, but this mainly removes noise from the appliances and devices in your home, providing a lower noise floor to your audio.
The power supply in the Node is very small and comes with a cheap PC. A cable with pure copper and high quality terminations will make a noticeable improvement. It will feed the Node a cleaner signal vs. stock.
Try a cable from a dealer with a return policy.
|
I’ll second cullen cables. I’ll be getting another one soon so I’ll have all power cords from Patrick. They are great cables at a great price and you’re supporting one of the small guys.
Nothing but good things to say about him. I really love his crossover series power cords! |
+1 for Wireworld Mini Electra
|
I have one issue with Bluesound stuff.
You will see this in all of their promotional product descriptions:
"...the NODE 2i connects your gear to all the music ever recorded."
Why would they make such an obviously false claim? I don't get it.
I own at least 100 records that are not available from Tidal or Qobuz.
Not saying it's a bad product; I know that lots of people like them.
Does this bother anyone else, if even a tiny bit? |
The Node2i connects to more than Tidal or Qobuz. Have you checked Spotify or Amazon? Or the other stream sites you can access with the Node2i? |
@howardlander I purchased a Node 2i about 2 months ago and have really been enjoying it along with a Qobuz subscription. I have Cat5e cable run throughout my home by me when our home was being built a few years ago going to my network closet, so I had a wall outlet where my system is located. We live in a rural area, homes are spread out in farm country so wifi is pretty sparse, but I feel it sounds better, more open with the ethernet. I tried both the 5ghz wifi and ethernet, and I have a brand new ASUS hi-end router. I have a AQ Cinnamon ethernet cable going from the wall to the Node, probably overkill but it sounds great. I also picked up a Nordost Purple Flare power cord for the Node. Now tonight, I added a Chord Qutest DAC and Oh my, a whole new exciting world. |
Making the switch from wifi to ethernet made mega-differences in my Node2i. Do it now. Even a cr-ppy ethernet cable will make a big difference. |
Wireless connections or Ethernet cables won’t have a “sound”. It’s all digital data being transferred via tcp packets on the wire, then reassembled and passed on to the next layer in the OS. Send, receive ack. Either the data gets there or it’s resent. You may have excessive resend packets on a bad network port or NIC, but the sound will remain the same. If the node2i firmware drops music quality if the bandwidth is limited, there’s a problem that will impact sound. The node2i isn’t going to fill gaps in the missing packet data with best guess. This is all handled on a lower layer. (Been reading packet data professionally since ARCNET).
High end cables are suspicious. Think the copper cables used in your electronics are special? Or even inside your loudspeakers? Nope. Funny seeing someone hook up $2k speaker wire to a speaker that just uses a simple 16 gauge copper wire internally for the drivers/crossovers. Or the $1k power cable that’s plugged into a $3 wall socket that’s wired with the cheapest copper that home builder could buy. Buy a quality shielded interconnects with sufficient gauge for the distance between components. The same with speaker wire.
|
Weird flex on an old post.......
Might as well throw in some cable nonsense at the same time! |
My Vault2, which I use like a Node in a secondary system, is audibly “hiccuping “ about every 30 seconds, on all source inputs. Other streamers in the house by other manufacturers do not do this. Rebooting the Vault2 and modem did not help. The dealer is out of business, and no reply from Bluesound after a week. Has anyone else had this issue? |
