Just got a new Bluesound Node. Very disappointed!

I have the N130 and it sounds great. Although the first thing I had to do was turn off the volume control in the app. It made a huge difference in the sound quality.

All the best.

I bought a NODE 2021 a few weeks ago and ran it in for about 100 hours, connected to a Jolida Glass FX tube DAC via either a coaxial or toslink cable. SQ was disappointing at best. I experimented with the settings, until I ultimately arrived at what @christianb5s4 found to work best in his system:

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

After over 100 hours I gave up and put the NODE away, thinking I’d return it to the dealer and trade up.

Today, about a week later, on a whim, I put the NODE back into my system and was very pleasantly surprised at how much better the unit sounded. I have no idea why because I made no other changes in my kit.

So the takeaway for me is that "for the money" the BS NODE is an excellent investment. The app works great on my MacBook Air, and the NODE is clearly (no pun) better than using the Mac into the DAC.

Plus a big fringe benefit is that I got rid of a long USB cable which was awkward and unsightly. I may upgrade eventually- Lumin, Aurender, Gold Note, Naim, etc, but for now I’m quite pleased.

Hope this helps.

@lalitk I have no doubt the sound quality improved from the Node to the Lumin, put down your oscilloscope and actually listen for a change.  I experimented with a Node 2i, iFi Zen Stream and Innuos Zenith MkIII all into two different DACS and each combo sounded really obviously different.  

I will never understand attempting to describe, rate, or rank the sound of a streamer without any listing of the type, brand, and model of cable and listing the DAC. They are interdependent with the lowest common denominator being controlling. This all becomes pronounced when talking about intro-level streamers because the user will likely have a low-end cable and DAC too. So it is anyone's guess as to which component is most to blame if not two or all three. 

I would wager that with a top end DAC and cable the differences among streamers  becomes compressed.