Just got a new Bluesound Node. Very disappointed!

So time for an update. 

in short I’ve gotten the sound right  

First off my settings have always been set correctly from the beginning, so let’s take off the table. 
 

Secondly, the brightness calmed down about 30% +/-  with leaving the unit on form a few day, noticeably so.  

Thirdly, I did the whole cable dance thing and that went a good way to helping get the right timber and tone, and I was able to eliminate the metallic sheen from songs I know to not have it. 

Fourthly, this system has Thiel CS2.4 for speakers, which if you know are VERY reveling to upstream equipment. Rewarding if done right, brutal if not. The speakers were set up, when I put the BSN, for my analog system which had toe in about 10 degrees which provided great sound - for the TT set up. My system is in a relatively small room, with room treatment, but small nonetheless, thus I had settled for some toe in. However, it dawned on me that Thiel’s advise is actually little to no toe in, so I rearranged the speaker toe to zero and bam, sound came together - on certain songs. 

What I’ve noticed is that with certain music the sound is great, but like any other media the recording dictates the quality the most and some 80’s and 90’s digital music is just VERY bad, and this system just reveals it bare. 
 

FWIW, I had the last iteration of the Node before this one. I would describe the sound exactly as you did, a slight metallic sheen over the music. I replaced a raspberry pi player with the node and although the user interface was much improved, the SQ took a half step backwards. The Lumin U1 mini I eventually bought was a pretty big improvement over the Node IMHO.

@ozzy62 

Funny how SQ improved with Lumin U1 over Node ….after all it’s a computer passing digital 1’s and 0’s 🤣

I also ran a Bluesound N130 with upgraded power supply via coax into originally a Denafrips Venus 2 then into a Terminator plus. I never had issues with the sound. Both DACs are obviously a big improvement over the internal one. I also very much liked BlueOS and the upgraded power supply improved performance slightly but not night and day.

I did upgrade to the full Lumin U1 and the improvement in sound was not subtle. But for what the Bluesound is, it’s a great device as a first streamer. Ears don’t lie, and in my system, streamers make a difference. But of course it comes at a much higher cost which comes down to what it's worth to each person.

I had tone control off, subwoofer off, fixed output, MQA external on.

Good to hear you sorted it out.  Bluesound is good for the money,  you need to spend a good amount more to better it in my opinion.   My next move will be something like a Lumin or Aurender , but that will have to wait until next year as I went a little overboard with upgrades this year.