Bluesound Node Icon

Thanks dhite71.  That is great information.

I have a second system in my lake house where I am using a Node N130 into a Border Patrol DAC into a Mcintosh MA6500.  I think I am going to sell the N130 and BP DAC and get an Icon for that setup.  

I won't need the Icon there until spring so I will be able to test it in my main setup and see if I can notice any difference.  I will report back with my findings.

efo. You may find that an Icon without an external DAC will be enough. 

rwmiller. I'll have to get back with you on that. I haven't done enough listening with both DACs yet. First impression is the Icon DAC is great. The Pontus 2 12th has a nice upper bass that gives a fullness to things like horns. It's close in that both are more than adequate. 

I don’t have the Icon but have the standard N130 Node. Idk what happened to the BluOS software in recent months but some functions, like pulling up my Favorites through Qobuz, have become incredibly slow. I now favor the WiiM Ultra in almost every regard. It’s funny, the WiiM was originally the slower of the two, but following more recent firmware updates on both devices, the Node is the slower one by far. 
 

I would be surprised if the processing speed of the Icon is any different from the N130. 
 

I found this in an article on Hifi pig.com. if I understand it right bringing in an INNUOS can work with your other stuff  

In Standalone mode it also allows the Pulse to be a UPNP/DNLA controller so, for example, I can assign my Hegel 190 or even my dining room Sonos speakers or LG TV as streaming endpoints and run it all from the Innuos Sense app. Various UPNP profiles are offered in the app as needed and it worked for me without any problems.

I have no experience with the new Bluesound product and therefore cannot directly answer the OP.

  Doesn’t NAD make more expensive streamers than the Node, and still use the Bluesound OS?  If so I would perhaps investigate that if I were the OP