And that is why I went with the grace digital link....$159 on sale... to spend more on a streamer is foolish, especially if you are going to use an external dac. It can stream up to cd quality, which is really all you need...and it has a nice lcd screen so I can observe what is playing and enjoy the album art. Why the node chose to delete an lcd screen is beyond me. The grace digital link is connected to a musical fidelity v90 dac. Streaming is a convenience feature at least to me. Any serious listening is done firstly via lp’s, secondly cd’s, lastly cassette tapes. You would be surprised how nice a cassette tape can sound on a solid 3 head cassette deck (Aiwa AD f770). I still find FM radio to be very satisfying, in particular 89.7 wgbh, and 99.5 wcrb, Boston. I still own 4 tuners...one of which is a creek t43. Large winegard antenna in attic pulls in stations crystal clear.
New Bluesound Node – First Impressions
I'm new to streaming. To get started, I ordered the new Bluesound Node, the just-released successor to the Node2i. It arrived Friday. System: Sonus faber Olympica III speakers, McIntosh MC402 power amp, Magnum Dynalab MD208 used as a preamp, Denon DCD-1600NE SACD/CD player, and various cables, mostly Audioquest. I offer my first impressions, FWIW. I don't claim any particular expertise.
I connected the Node to the pre via Audioquest interconnects. It doesn't accept my aftermarket power cords. Used wireless, not ethernet. I have free trial subscriptions to Amazon Music and Qobuz.
First, Amazon Music. Tried some Beethoven, and some Rameau, with poor results. Compressed, tinny, and unlistenable. 10 minutes of Amazon HD was more than enough.
Next, Qobuz. Brahms, Schumann, Led Zep, Bowie. A very substantial improvement on Amazon HD. Notably, on the same tracks, the Qobuz high-rez sounded significantly better than the Qobuz CD-quality. Differences were immediately apparent on Led Zep's Dazed and Confused, available in both formats.
But the Qobuz high-rez can't compare with CD quality sound on my system as currently configured. On the same recordings, CD quality is clearly superior to Qobuz high-rez played through the Node. Detail, presence, dimensionality – there's no contest.
As a means to explore music to purchase on CD, the Node, playing Qobuz, may or may not suffice. As a substitute for CDs, I very much doubt it will do.
Let me re-emphasize that these are only my first impressions. I don't know how the Node will sound after further break-in, or with an ethernet connection, or with an external DAC, or with different interconnects/preamps/amps/speakers, or with other streaming services. I hope this post is helpful to other forum members considering this or similar equipment.