Just got a new Bluesound Node. Very disappointed!

May be defective. A digital transport shouldn’t sound like anything. It’s a computer passing digital. 

I have three Bluesound nodes (exercise room, guest cottage, kitchen).  Two are the older version of the Node 2 and one is the latest.  I run Tidal, Spotify, and IDagio through them, and have never had the issue you describe.  Either you got a lemon or their's some setting that got switched, or just some loose connection.  In any case their service Dept will help you track down the problem or replace.

I just bought one a few months ago and it sounds great! I’ve tried Optical, coax and usb. Usb sounds the best in my system. 
As far as set up, the only thing I changed was the volume is set so the node doesn’t control it, my amp does. And that’s it.

Jetter,

I extensively played with the tone controls but felt “off” sounded best

You may have either a defective unit or the settings are wrong and it’s something for the Bluesound support folks.  There are other streamers that sound better that are more expensive, but the difference should be that the others have better SQ not that the NODE sounds bad in an obvious way such as you describe.

BTW, to NODE detractors, as a DAC/streamer it’s SQ can be much improved by changing out the PSU module and using an L PSU (such as the Fidelity Audio PSU module & LPSU). That worked really well for me.

And now that I’m using an external DAC (Gustard X26 Pro) via usb, it is working great as a streamer in my system.