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BluSound Node and Node 2

The purpose of this post is to make everyone aware and think twice before buying BluSound Node / Node 2.

Blusound's customer service is the worst I have ever experienced. As far as sound goes it's decent for the price. Are there better-sounding streaming dacs? Absolutely. I'd spend extra 300 / 400 dollars and get something more reliable vs wasting $549. 

Issue::

Six months after buying my 1st node it failed. It would play songs from the middle and only for 30 seconds and then skip to a random song regardless of what service I used. There are numerous blogs that talk about this same exact problem. It happens if you are streaming locally from your NAS or directly from quboz or deezer. You guys can google this issue. 

 

After several failed attempts with customer service, I sold the device for $75 and bought node 2. I was told by blusound that they have fixed the bugs in node 2 and it sounds way better.

Well there is no difference in sound between node 1 and node 2 and my node 2 failed within 3 months of purchase. After 2 weeks worth of back and forth with blusound tech support and 20 emails from them telling me to reboot / reindex / factory reset my device I was told today that they will take a look at the logs and get back to me. 

Its possible that blusound node owners have owned their devices for years without any problems but it looks like songs skipping and starting from the middle and stopping randomly is a well know issue with the device. 

My suggestion is to look at other brands, spend a little more in order to avoid wasting your $549. 

Im thinking of either getting a used Lumin d2 or the simaudio 280d. 

 

my system:

Simaudio 340i with builtin dac [2019]

Dynaudio C20

2x REL T9is

 

danimaz

Showing 1 response by 8th-note

8th-note
367 posts
 

Thanks to the OP for the post. I had been considering a Node but based on the information in this thread I'll probably go another direction.

Regarding the high rating on Amazon, I take that with a grain of salt because most people leave their rating fairly soon after receiving and installing their product. It it tends to work OK for the first few months and then breaks down very few people go back and leave another rating.

I don't know what percentage of Nodes are failing but apparently it's enough so that there are known issues. It doesn't appear that Bluesound is taking it seriously as far as I can tell.

The biggest issue to me is the poor customer service. If the unit is not functioning properly it should be replaced with a new unit. It's probably unusual that the OP got two defective units in a row but odds are it's going to happen once in a while.

I always take complaints about a particular product with a healthy dose of skepticism but this one seems to have good credibility.

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