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Bluesound Node 2

I'm a complete newbie in the digital space, not counting CD players of course. I'm also on a path to upgrade my system from other various angles, mostly preamp and speakers. All that said, I'm currently using a Bluesound Node 2 with a hifi Tidal subscription. No computer files or hardwired USB connections. My first question is where does Bluesound fit in the digital wireless streaming quality hierarchy. And a related question is what would be a good upgrade path, again assuming only wireless streaming as the source. I see a lot of high end DACs out there, some several thousand dollars and wonder if those are only used for connection to a laptop and running computer hirez files, etc. Not a whole lot about wireless streaming. All in all, some guidance in the digital wireless streaming space would be appreciated. Thanks.
128x128kalali
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kalali OP
1,977 posts
 

Thank you guys again for your great input. I feel I'm really spoiled by the ease of using the Bluesound/Tidal combo to play any music I like, or don't like, from my mobile device. It has allowed me to explore the music genres that I never knew I liked this much. I have also used this opportunity to educate myself about various audio coding formats out there just to keep up with what some of you guys talk about. We have a brick and mortar hifi store nearby and I might stop by and see if they'd let me borrow one of their high quality DACs for a few days. This would at least help me decide where to focus for the best bang for the bucks upgrade path in my audio chain. Maybe after all, this piece is not the weakest link in the chain. My current set up is:

Bluesound Node 2 -> NAD C165BEE (MP input) -> McIntosh MC2200 -> ML Aerius I.

I also have a Vincent SP-331 amp being fed from the second preamp out port driving a pair of Definitive Technology BP20s in an adjacent room.

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evank
290 posts
 
@ mofi

My Tidal artists list is in order on my Bluesound Node
mahler123
3,093 posts
 
@mofimadness 
Looking back I see that your question was about Tidal on Blusound. My answer pertained more to Blusound itself.
  I did try the free trial of Tidal and for me, it was simply awful, but I listen to Classical, and Tidal doesn't seem to care about Classical
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kalali OP
1,977 posts
 
mahler123 - Out of curiosity, when you say awful do you mean sound quality of the user interface? I do occasionally listen to western classical selections in Tidal and in most cases I find the SQ worse than a standard CD. The jazz selections, especially the newer recordings sound much much better. That is also true for other genres and I attributed the disparity to original recordings quality. I'm now wondering if they stream certain selections or even genres at lower resolution rates than others. I wish there was a way to know at what rate the content is being streamed. Maybe there is...
mahler123
3,093 posts
 
Yes, I meant the interface .  Another poster here described the Classical Interface on Tidal as appearing to have been designed by a Chimpanzee ; that is probably an insult to chimpanzees. Fwiw I didn't think the sonics on Tidal were anything special.  A great streaming site for Classical is ClassicsOnline.
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