Bluesound Node Icon

If you’re going to upgrade I’d suggest going to an Innuos Pulse mini with an external LPS.  Their Sense app is outstanding as is their customer support, and with Innuos your benefitting from trickle-down tech from their much pricier models whereas Bluesound is working from the bottom up.  It’s just a higher-level company IMHO.  Best of luck. 

Hi Thanks for the feedback.  I need to stay in the bluesound family because I have 3 zones in my home and need multiroom.  

Soix,  Any suggestions on which LPS?  I started a thread asking that question awhile ago, but the response was limited.  Your recommendation for the Pulse Mini convinced me to go with It.  Hope to further enhance in the future.  I've looked at the LHY and the Dan Pardo.  Not sure which is the better option.

@davegolf2424  Unfortunately I don’t have direct experience with them as I use an IFi iPowerX (not optimal but better than wall wart), but going by what others have said and in order I’d look at Teddy Pardo, SBooster, and LHY but I have no info on which may be any better than the other.  Congrats on the new streamer, and I’m sure you’ll be happy with any of these power supplies as they all get strong feedback from users.  

@davegolf2424 I don't have an Innuos but I used an Sbooster BOTW with my Auralic Aries Mini it's really well built and gave a nice bump in SQ.

Does anyone know if there is any difference between the Node ICON and the Node  N130 besides the dual dacs in the Node Icon? 

For what it’s worth I upgraded from a Node N130 to an Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer with a Holo Audio Cyan 2 DAC.  I like the Sense app Innuos uses best.  it works better with Qobuz than BluOs in my experience.  I just use the equipment in one setup so I don’t use for multi room connections.  I have multiple Sonos systems in the house for multi room connections. 

I don’t have personal experience with the icon. I have the node and node 2i. 
I didn’t do a direct comparison. The node is used as a streamer only and the 2i is used with the internal dac on the patio. 
I hear a lot of talk about upgrading the streamer. One video from moon audio suggests the streamer is about 30% and the dac is 70% of the sound. I’d think if you’re looking for sound improvement you would have to go up to a much more expensive streamer and probably the upstream internet line. 
I myself am looking at other areas to improve. 
That’s not to say the streamer doesn’t matter. 

The British Audiophile does YouTube reviews.  He did a recap of his favorite products of 2024 and ranked the Bluesound Node Nano very highly for sound quality. It's only $299.

https://youtu.be/5z1jZ9I6tNM?si=ehh8jXOH5iWXNxac

I am a 3-system Bluesound user as well.  It would be nice if Bluesound stepped-up their game and offered a product just under the the Innuos Zen Mk3/ Aurender N200 level.  Featuring i2s connectivity would make it very attractive.

What is I2S ?

I too am hoping Bluesound will come out with a Higher end streamer only product.

I2S is a serial bus interface specially designed for communicating digital audio data between integrated circuits (ICs). The I2S protocol sends pulse-code modulation (PCM) audio data from a controller to a target.

That's a Google result.  It's a digital connection much like USB.  If your dac doesn't have an I2S input, it wouldn't be much of a benefit for you. 

I too am hoping Bluesound will come out with a Higher end streamer only product.
 

I doubt they ever will as they are part of NAD. Being a budget conscious company I’m guessing the icon is going to be their flagship when it comes to the streaming end. 

In general, one of the major benefits of i2S is that the data and clock signals are carried separately so the DAC doesn’t need to go through the extra process of having to separate them when the signal comes in as it does with all other inputs.  The downside is that It was originally designed to transmit signals within a component, not externally between components, so it does not do well with distance and the signal degrades rapidly with distance.  The implication is the cable (usually HDMI) that you use to transmit i2S should be as short as possible.  The experts I’ve read say the cable should optimally be 1 foot or even less — mine is 6”.  The good news is many have reported that significantly upgrading the cable only produces marginal improvements so you likely don’t need to spend big $$$ to still get great sound with i2S (my cable cost $6 from Monoprice and I’m getting great sound).  I got a large improvement implementing a DDC to take advantage of i2S with my DAC compared to just going USB straight from my streamer.  However, I don’t know how much of the benefit was due to i2S or how much was due to the clock and galvanic isolation the DDC also provides.  All I know is adding the DDC and using i2S made improvements on the level of making a significant DAC upgrade — it was really that significant.  Hope that helps. 

I too am wondering if the streaming section of the new Bluesound Icon is significantly improved from the Bluesound Node 2i that I am presently using. I'm using the Bluesound for the OS; it's the only OS that supports both of the streaming services that I use, Amazon HD and Idagio.

My Node2i has been moded with a Teddy Pardo LPS which made a significant SQ improvement. I'm using the SPDIF Coax out into a PS Audio Directstream DAC Mk1 moded by APS transformers. My guess is that most of the improvement in the Icon is in the DAC section, and would not see much SQ improvement over what I now have, but I would like to have that comfirmed if possible. For now, I will spend the  money instead on a Denafrips Hermes or Gaia DDC, which from what I've read from multiple sources WILL significantly improve SQ.

I too wish Bluesound would produce a audiophile quality streamer only. I know there will be a lot of disagreement on this next statement, but I think that their OS is the best of any of the streamers; it supports the largest number of services, and it's intuitive to use and very stable.

I agree with your thoughts I don't think the Icon streamer will be much better than the Node.  

I also love the bluesound OS and the multiroom is excellent.

On the streaming side, Node Icon has no improvement over the 3-year-old model, Node 130.
They use the same processor - ARM® Cortex™ -A53, Quad-Core, 1.8GHz per core -, the wireless transmission is the same -Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), dual-band -,
On the Bluetooth side, it seems to be a real regression, Icon using Bluetooth 5.2 aptX Adaptive, and Node 130 Bluetooth with support for aptX™ HD, which codec is better...
Unfortunately, the power supply on Icon is the same as on Node 130...that is, a poor power supply...
And what is very important for digital outputs, the internal clock - this is the same, in both streamers
The USB output was not improved either in Icon
So, from a streaming point of view, things are exactly the same as 4 years ago...unfortunately...

@efoo the new Node 132 and Node Icon are said to have much better built-in power supplies than the older outgoing Node 130. So much so, that many say there is no reason to go out and buy a LPS for them. 

Take it with a grain of salt but some reviewers now say the $299 Node Nano sounds better than the old N130 and Node X did. 

After about 20 hours of run time in a an A/B comparison the new Icon DAC section is much improved over last gneration NODE, However little SQ improvement if using an external DAC (Marantz Ruby SACD with matching Ruby integrated amp, T+A 300 speakers, and Rel S510). The display and build quality for the Icon are nice. The Teddy Pardo power supply I installed on the NODE is a better buy for quality IMO.   

That's good to hear about the Icon being so good.   I had a feeling it would  be a decent package

I'm in a similar boat, N130, external DAC, easy decision to stay with N130.

I added the LHY LPS and DH Labs USB and ethernet cables, as well as SmoothLan from Stack Audio. Sounds great, no intention of upgrading anytime soon.

Reference is an analogue source at more than 10X the cost. 

Moonwatcher - How did you determine there is a better power supply in the icon?

To my ears it is obvious that the Node Icon is a better streamer than the Node 2i. This is using a Denafrips Pontus 12th as a DAC. It was obvious immediately for me. The DAC in the Icon is pretty good too. It is close to being the overall quality level as the Pontus. So far it's more of a flavor thing with the two DACs. I just did hook the Pontus up to the Icon. It's different but does not blow away the Icon using it's own DAC. I've only used a Node 2i as a streamer so I can't compare the Icon to other brands of streamers.

Ancient tones

How would you describe the difference between the Pontus dac and the Icon?

@efoo 

Bluesound has great support and will answer your questions.  I had the same as I recently moved back to separates and had used a Node 2i a few years ago with success.  My questions to them were since I am only using their product as a streamer, was there any differences between the new models and also were their new products improved in their streaming capabilities over the 2i and other older models.  They said the streaming would be the same across the current lineup and that the new generation is improved over 2i/older models.  I went with the Node Nano and it works well.

Thanks dhite71.  That is great information.

I have a second system in my lake house where I am using a Node N130 into a Border Patrol DAC into a Mcintosh MA6500.  I think I am going to sell the N130 and BP DAC and get an Icon for that setup.  

I won't need the Icon there until spring so I will be able to test it in my main setup and see if I can notice any difference.  I will report back with my findings.

efo. You may find that an Icon without an external DAC will be enough. 

rwmiller. I'll have to get back with you on that. I haven't done enough listening with both DACs yet. First impression is the Icon DAC is great. The Pontus 2 12th has a nice upper bass that gives a fullness to things like horns. It's close in that both are more than adequate. 

I don’t have the Icon but have the standard N130 Node. Idk what happened to the BluOS software in recent months but some functions, like pulling up my Favorites through Qobuz, have become incredibly slow. I now favor the WiiM Ultra in almost every regard. It’s funny, the WiiM was originally the slower of the two, but following more recent firmware updates on both devices, the Node is the slower one by far. 
 

I would be surprised if the processing speed of the Icon is any different from the N130. 
 

I found this in an article on Hifi pig.com. if I understand it right bringing in an INNUOS can work with your other stuff  

In Standalone mode it also allows the Pulse to be a UPNP/DNLA controller so, for example, I can assign my Hegel 190 or even my dining room Sonos speakers or LG TV as streaming endpoints and run it all from the Innuos Sense app. Various UPNP profiles are offered in the app as needed and it worked for me without any problems.

I have no experience with the new Bluesound product and therefore cannot directly answer the OP.

  Doesn’t NAD make more expensive streamers than the Node, and still use the Bluesound OS?  If so I would perhaps investigate that if I were the OP

NAD makes one stand alone streamer and it is not high end.

They do have a dac pre streamer - the M66 - that has the same streamer as the Node.