Anecdotal reports are well, anecdotal. We have no way of knowing how many units BS has sold nor how many actual problems that are real problems (not resolved by resetting the device and/or the modem router). We are just guessing.
If BS is experiencing a 0.25% failure rate, that would mean that yes, some people out there are unlucky. But not many. But they may be vocal on forums and such (like this one).
There’s always the issue of companies, even with a good design, having bad production runs. Things happen. Components might sometimes not be within specifications from a vendor. Training of new assembly personnel might instill issues.
Just many, many variables out there for any product at any price point. You can buy a computer and swear it is the best thing since sliced bread, but your friend can buy the same model a few weeks later and ends up cussing at it and cursing the day you told him about it.
We all takes our chances on anything made by humans for humans.
I will say that better companies have better customer service. At the end of the day, that sets them apart.
I mean for instance, many would think it wrong for iFi to keep selling the Zen Stream as a "Wi-Fi capable" streamer when obviously it isn't very reliable in that set up and running it WIRED is almost a requirement. So should possible customers be warned about that as much as the OP is "warning" about Nodes being balky and breaking?
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