I would suggest buying a Belcanto. I can point you towards a dealer who could sell it to you for about $1,300 and save you $300. He told me sound quality is much better than the Blue Sound. I purchased the Blue Sound Node 2i to save money and added a Project DAC, but preferred the sound of the Blue Sound played by itself. I liked the sound of MQA despite what others in this group think. The Belcanto cannot play completely unfolded MQA. However, the dealer I talked to told me the Belcanto sounds considerably better.
Dead Bluesound Node 2
I have a Bluesound Node 2 that died recently and I'm wondering what I should do next.
First off, it was only 3 years old. I got conflicting reports from customer service as to what went wrong, but either way, it was working fine one day and the next day it would not respond and it would not re-set. I have been round and round with customer service and as far as they are concerned, it is out of warranty, so tough toenails; they will not take it back for a repair. They offered to sell me a new unit at a reduced price or a refurbished unit at an even lower price but somehow that doesn't sit right with me.
My habit has always been to buy reasonably good gear and keep it for a long time. It's also my habit not to reward a manufacturer with additional purchases once they have done me wrong. I have never had a piece of gear fail so quickly. I have never had a manufacturer tell me they would not repair or service a component. This little guy was not abused, and barely moved from the time I plugged it in, so I don't think I did anything wrong.
Now I know a lot of you folks love your Nodes. Admittedly, I did too. I used it almost every day, created dozens of playlists (which are presumably gone forever) and I even added a Qobuz subscription about 6 months ago. I can't tell you how many friends I demonstrated this set-up for. I was actually considering adding a 2nd unit for my primary system. Basically, I was all in. Now I'm just stuck.
That's my tale of woe, so here's what I'd like to know:
Were my expectations for this component too high? I understand that computer products have can have a short lifespan, but this seems a bit extreme. So should I pony up for another unit? Or do I try to save up for something more upscale and presumably better built (or better supported)? Cambridge Audio has a streamer I think might work, but I heard not all streamers can handle 30k+ files. I have actually heard several really nice units like the Aurender (at AXPONA) but that's probably out of my league. So what affordable alternatives are there, that also sound decent?
This is my first post/discussion thread here on A-gon, so go easy on me : )
Thanks for listening.
WoofMan74
First off, it was only 3 years old. I got conflicting reports from customer service as to what went wrong, but either way, it was working fine one day and the next day it would not respond and it would not re-set. I have been round and round with customer service and as far as they are concerned, it is out of warranty, so tough toenails; they will not take it back for a repair. They offered to sell me a new unit at a reduced price or a refurbished unit at an even lower price but somehow that doesn't sit right with me.
My habit has always been to buy reasonably good gear and keep it for a long time. It's also my habit not to reward a manufacturer with additional purchases once they have done me wrong. I have never had a piece of gear fail so quickly. I have never had a manufacturer tell me they would not repair or service a component. This little guy was not abused, and barely moved from the time I plugged it in, so I don't think I did anything wrong.
Now I know a lot of you folks love your Nodes. Admittedly, I did too. I used it almost every day, created dozens of playlists (which are presumably gone forever) and I even added a Qobuz subscription about 6 months ago. I can't tell you how many friends I demonstrated this set-up for. I was actually considering adding a 2nd unit for my primary system. Basically, I was all in. Now I'm just stuck.
That's my tale of woe, so here's what I'd like to know:
Were my expectations for this component too high? I understand that computer products have can have a short lifespan, but this seems a bit extreme. So should I pony up for another unit? Or do I try to save up for something more upscale and presumably better built (or better supported)? Cambridge Audio has a streamer I think might work, but I heard not all streamers can handle 30k+ files. I have actually heard several really nice units like the Aurender (at AXPONA) but that's probably out of my league. So what affordable alternatives are there, that also sound decent?
This is my first post/discussion thread here on A-gon, so go easy on me : )
Thanks for listening.
WoofMan74