BlueSound Stinks(!), anyone?

I found the node 2i worked great.  I did use the ethernet connection and if you want the best sound that should be standard. 

An external DAC does help with sound quality as well. 

Overall very satisfied with bluesound. 

Fully empathise with the OP. I have owned and used Bluesound speakers and streamers over a 5 year period. Initially had Sonos (connect / play 1,5 etc) then replaced with Flex 2 / Node 2 before selling it all to move back to Sonos and then back to the later gen of Bluesound: Node 2i and Flex 2i. Overall I prefer the sound of Bluesound but recognise that the Sonos sound flavour feels to me a bit more dynamic. Bluesound has been very buggy when I owned the non 'I' versions, especially when I used it with Roon. They suffered a very well documented 'out of sync' bug that took about 18 months to resolve. The customer service experience was borderline traumatic with endless requests for the same logs, responses that had nothing to do with what was asked and 3-6 days wait time between each response. At the time Bluesound was denying the existence of the problem and was blaming Roon for everything. Roon customer support was more open in recognising there was a bug that was being worked on in collaboration with Bluesound. Bluesound denied this consistently. 
3 months of back and forth and I can safely say I felt like a Ping Pong ball... and not in a good way.

Fast forward to today, the 2i versions work a lot better but I agree with comments above regarding the flakiness with WiFi. What is more, I find that problems increase when using multiple blue sound units. Many users I see commenting in forums have only one Bluesound unit, usually the Node 2i or the Powernode 2i. My problems with WiFi increased significantly as moved from using a Node 2i alone to then adding 2 x Flex 2i speakers. Drop outs, speakers disappearing from the app and then coming back, volume slider freezing etc. Contacting customer support brought back the terrible experience: 5-7 days wait for each response to email, repeated requests of the same thing (despite providing the info asked), responses to questions I never asked (almost like mixing support tickets) and a by default denial of any recognition that there might be a bug. It almost felt like gaslighting and I just stopped engaging. I think that is what they hoped anyway.

While I love the sound of the Node 2i and Flex 2i with Roon especially, I would like to scale up to multiple speakers in the house. Having experienced the above over the years, no way I can take the risk. I may have to compromise and go back to Sonos for a more reliable experience (with necessary sound quality compromise).

I recognise this is just one person's experience but still... 

I realize this is an old thread but....I own three Nodes, have used them for about 5 years, in two different locations. Controlled mainly via IOS app and Windows app. All three get extensive use (pretty much constantly during the work day for my wife.) Have absolutely never had any issues at all with the app not connecting; I fully believe the OP of course but there’s gotta be something going on with his network or setup. I am not a fanboy of Bluesound and would make three criticisms: 1. No DSD. 2. it is needlessly picky about cover art and even when the cover art meets its requirements, sometimes it will not show, and 3. They use cheap caps in the power supply and 4 years service life is IME about all you’re gonna get, at least for versions pre-Node 2i. The latter of course being the most serious issue. but we have had zero problems getting them to work reliably.

I have 9 Bluesound products in my home, including a soundbar, 2 Pulse Mini’s, 2 Pulse Flexes, 2 Pulse 2’s, a Power Node and a BlueOS module for an NAD receiver. Have had continuous issues with wifi, none with wired.

Wireless requires a robust router to include multicasting support. If you’re not an expert on wireless routing you are out of luck - Bluesound support is among the most dreadful I’ve experienced anywhere. It’s exceptionally poor in my experiences, of which I’ve had multiple now.

Beyond that, though, my conclusion is they have used poor wifi antennas, and the hardware itself is not quite up to the task in this area. Case in point: I have a Flex sitting right in front of my mesh router and it STILL gets dropped from the home theater group nearly daily. It gets dropped no matter where I place the router. So does the other satellite that’s just 12 feet from the same router. After a few emails back and forth with someone who barely read the messages, and FINALLY getting a rep on the phone on Day 5, their solution was to remote in, and simply reconnect the group, which promptly disconnected about 5 minutes after the call ended. Trying to get them back on the phone again was another three day process of back and forth emails that got answered about every 30 hours or so. And to this day I still get regular drop outs. Despite selling their hardware as wireless, it’s so buggy as to be worthless in my opinion. Wired is the ONLY way to go in my opinion, unless you’re a networking pro, have a robust router and an inclination to play with such things.

I’m not a pro and don’t want to be. I just want to enjoy streaming music. My sense that they allocate as few resources as possible for support and have no intention of admitting/rectifying flaws. I’ve read reviews here where some feel like sending an email, waiting a few days to get a response, and avoiding all human contact is a good thing. That’s exceptionally poor to me. I want to spend as little time as I can get away with interfacing with the hardware and their minimum effort/your maximum effort seems backwards to what it’s supposed to be. It’s quite the juxtaposition to say, SVS, who shows everyone how support should be done - they are the finest anywhere, bar none.

Once working, sound quality is excellent, amplification is excellent, and streaming is fine too with an excellent DAC, provided it’s wired. But don’t purchase Bluesound’s products expecting wireless to be flawless, or to get anything resembling customer-focused support. That’s all a bill of goods and I’m left feeling like I’m in some kind of ‘fight’ with them to get support after the sale for clearly unreliable products. You’ll be essentially on your own to troubleshoot what are nearly certain ongoing wifi and hardware bugs. I’m obviously in for the duration but if I could do it over I would have not spent the money.

I only have one Bluesound product, Node 2i. I was having problems with audio drop outs even with an extender wired to the Node. Now I have a Google Nest with one of the points across the room from the Node. That seems to have solved the problem for now. I may later get an extender and direct wire that to the Node. I have DSL, not very fast.