Bluesound - NODE NANO Wireless Streaming Media Player - Black

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• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  BlueSound Node Nano Updates Your Stereo to 2025!

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser
  • My Best Buy® Member
  • Owned for 3 weeks

  BlueSound is a Canadian manufacturer of ultra high end audio gear. famous for their award winning streamers, BlueSound continues to innovate and release cutting edge audio products. I started with BlueSound Node Nano & was hooked with 24 bit, 192 K pure audio. I connected it to a premium quality amplifier & speaker system, and the results are amazing!! This brought my stereo system to 2025 standards; I can stream all of my favorite audio! I recommend the RC1 IR Remote, allowing 10 of your favorite streaming sources with the press of a button, as well as volume control. You can see this remote in the photos attached with this review. The sound of BlueSound 24Bit 192K must be heard to be believed!! It earns my highest recommendation!

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  gadgetguy11 Posted 1 year ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  An absolutely fantastic network streamer

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor

  I’ve had the Nano for several days and can say that it is an extremely capable streamer. The Nano is AirPlay 2 compatible, has Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and can serve as an endpoint for Roon (although I could only get it to work via AirPlay). In addition, the Nano can unfold MQA and has Bluetooth input and output. It is controlled via iOS or Android apps and the BluOS app. On the backside of the unit, you have RCA outputs (which can be set at variable or fixed), coax and optical outs for an external DAC, an Ethernet and a USB connection. The USB-A connection can be used two different ways: Either to pull data from an external drive OR to send data to an external DAC with a USB input. The Nano resides in a small but nice stereo system that sits in my family room. I have the Nano plugged into a small integrated amp that drives a pair of ML floor speakers. The Nano has been set at fixed output, pushing sound through its internal DAC and out through the RCA outputs. The result? Amazing sound. I had planned on using an external DAC and the digital out of the Nano to drive it, but after comparing the two through my humble system, I see no need to utilize an external DAC. Set up was easy. Download the BluOS app, install it on my smartphone, log in (I had owned a Bluesound device prior), and it found the Nano immediately. After a 15-minute update, I was ready to go. Air Play streaming worked great, Spotify Connect worked well (had some issues with it not always connecting, sometimes it took several tries, and issue I didn’t have with other components at the time), and I was able to connect a Bluetooth turntable to the Nano (I thought that was pretty awesome!) and could stream records to the family room, something I had not been able to do before. The Nano sounded excellent. A sparkly, non-fatiguing treble matched up with firm, defined bass is the character I would describe the Nano as bringing to the table through its internal DAC. Very pleasant to listen to. I moved over to Roon. This is where I met my first and only challenge: The Nano was showing up as Roon Tested only, not Roon Ready in my Roon desktop. The Nano was only accepting AirPlay streams, which was annoying me a little (limited to 16/44.1). Fortunately, that little problem was easily resolved by rebooting the Nano. As soon as I did that, it showed up as Roon Ready, and I was streaming a 24/96 file of Pink Floyd’s ‘One of These Days’ in glorious high resolution. I moved through an assortment of music, streaming everything from standard 16/44.1 streams to 24/192 hi-res streams via the wireless connection. Everything sounded great, and I didn’t encounter any glitches or issues. I wanted to stream DSD files, and the Nano does support DSD, but apparently that is only via an attached USB drive. Regardless, Roon is more than capable of converting DSD to PCM that can be played by the Nano. I am very impressed by the Node Nano. It comes in a sleek, attractive package, has tons of streaming capability, a solid two-way AptX connection, and excellent internal DAC. I highly recommend this unit. If you are a Roon owner, this is the way to go. Super high cost to value ratio and highly recommended.

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  Derek Posted 1 year ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Well Worth the Price of Admission

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 100 Contributor

  TLDR Audio products are always subjective. What appeals to one person, may or may not appeal to another. In my opinion, the BlueSound Node Nano is one of the best sounding streaming devices on the market. Superior in nearly every way to my current system. CONNECTIVITY RCA Analog Out RCA Coaxial Digital Out Optical Digital Out RJ-45 Ethernet / Wi-Fi USB-A Input IR Input 12V Trigger Out INTRODUCTION I was extremely interested in trying the BlueSound offering. My current home streaming system is composed of devices from the most popular household name in wireless streaming devices. These devices have served me well for many years. They have been easy to use and most importantly, the spousal acceptance factor has been high. Unfortunately, my love for the above devices has waned in the past couple of years. A recent home addition, equipped with these devices, left me wanting. Teaming their famous amp with a pair of 8” Sonance in-ceiling speakers sounded substandard. Worst yet, the speakers being installed in a 12ft ceiling left them next to impossible to change out. Add to that a recent app re-write made the app buggy and extremely difficult to use. The app has been much maligned on the interwebs and for good reason. Having no experience with a BlueSound product, I wasn’t sure what to expect. They are a smaller player in the overall market but have offerings that compete with the name brand in nearly every category. My experience with another major player in the market, who makes a full range of devices, including home theater receivers, also left me unimpressed. I felt their contributions were half-hearted and were not fully baked into their infrastructure. They were no competition to the major player and have never gained much of a foothold. Was the BlueSound Node Nano going to following in the runner-ups footsteps? SET-UP Having come from the newly redesigned app from the competition, I thought the BlueOS app couldn’t be any worse, and it isn’t. There is a learning curve to figure out the adjustments and settings of the Node Nano, but it isn’t extremely difficult. I would say that the BlueOS app isn’t as easy and intuitive as the Blue’s primary competitor’s app in the good ol’ days but is better than the current offering after the app redesign. Using my Android phone for set-up, device discovery and set-up went issue-free. One thing that was annoying / concerning is that, as expected, there was a firmware update pending after device set-up. The firmware update took an incredibly long time to complete. Upwards of 10 minutes or more. However, the update went without issue and once restarted, the Node Nano has functioned flawlessly. But anytime an update takes that long to complete, it always makes me a bit antsy. USE So, how does the Node Nano stack up against my current system? Does it have anything to offer that my extensive, current set-up does not? YES! The Node Nano has the goods. Like I said earlier, my home addition left me feeling lackluster about my current line of streaming devices. The audio is just not natural. It sounds overly compressed with awkward bass response and a lack of mid-range openness. This is something I haven’t been able to tune out of the system. I’ve tried. The mid-range frequencies just aren’t airy and open enough for my tastes. Regardless of my choice of streaming services, the audio quality wasn’t and isn’t there. The bass is uneven and artificial sounding. The low and mid-range audio just sounds muddied, even with lossless audio tracks. Hooking the Node Nano via a set of shielded RCA cables to the inputs of my current streaming app changed the game. An immediate and noticeable difference. The DAC in the Node Nano is far superior to the DACs in my current system. My annoyances with the mids and highs are gone. There is a sense of openness and spaciousness to the mid-range that has never been present in my existing system. The unnatural bass response now sounds cohesive and perfectly tuned to the mids. This is before doing any tweaking or optimizations. It may sound hard to believe, but the differences in the audio quality are strikingly better. Better than they have ever been. Once thinking there was an issue with the speakers, installation, or the wiring, those concerns are gone. I can’t give enough praise for the improvements in the audio quality. NEGATIVES First. The BlueOS app isn’t without issue. While it works mostly well, it isn’t flawless. For instance, the Amazon Alexa integration does not work. This is something that works correctly in my current app. Alexa integration shows it goes through, but it does not complete, and you cannot queue songs via voice. Second. Along with the Alexa issue is that the app doesn’t properly index and present your audio track options. Whether it be using Amazon Music or a local NAS for streaming, the tracks aren’t accessible via the All-Tracks option under the artist. While I can access a track via an album under the artist tab, you cannot just select all tracks and view multiple tracks via multiple albums from the same artist. This is something BlueSound’s competition does much better. Or at least they did much better. Third. There isn’t a great deal of audio customization available via the BlueOS app. Just basic Bass and Treble controls. There is no parametric equalizer or sound settings built in. Maybe this is by design, and to be fair, and I’m not sure it is needed, and in reality, may just add unnecessary processing artifacts to the digital signal. FINAL THOUGHTS Anyone shopping for a whole-home streaming infrastructure should give the BlueSound products a serious look. I find the audio quality and processing superior to the current big-name in the industry. BlueSound has a very robust product catalog with many offerings to outfit your home with nearly every streaming scenario available. If you are looking for a stereo streamer, soundbar, or a whole home theater solution, BlueSound has an offering. Whether it be in the form of their speakers or adding a streamer / amp to your existing speakers, the options are there and worth exploring. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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  NAMO Posted 1 year ago