Up to 84% in savings when you subscribe to The Absolute Sound
Logo Close Icon

Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Bluesound Node 2i Wireless Multi-Room High-Res Music Streamer

Bluesound Node 2i Wireless Multi-Room High-Res Music Streamer

For the last year and a half I’ve been exploring the world of streaming music, experiences I wrote up in the course of a review of NAD’s M50.2 music streamer/ripper and Aurender’s Model 10 streamer/DAC (Issue 305). While neither of those products is outlandishly expensive by the norms of high-end audio, both are still expensive enough and of very high-tech manufacturing and sonic excellence. Not long ago I decided to treat myself to an audio system for my office. A quite small room, it has no space for a turntable (nor did I want the fuss and bother of vinyl there). CDs I can play if necessary through my iMac, but the main source was to be streaming, mostly from Qobuz and Tidal, to which end I began casting about for a compact high-quality music server with a built-in DAC (all the other electronics had likewise to have small footprints and be stackable). Have I mentioned it also had to be value driven, i.e., inexpensive?

Enter the Node from Bluesound, launched in 2013 under Canada’s Lenbrook Group as a spinoff from NAD (see sidebar). The following year the new company introduced a suite of products for streaming, including the Node 2, of which the 2i under review is the third iteration—a music server, streamer, and DAC that via the proprietary NAD/Bluesound BluOS app accesses most of the popular music-streaming services (Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify, etc.) and Internet radio, as well as music files off hard drives, including your downloads, your iTunes library, and other musical content from a NAS drive, all without a computer. (It’s sophisticated and versatile enough to control systems in several rooms. Though I did not use it that way.) The “i” suffix indicates AirPlay2 capability plus 5GHz Wi-Fi, two-way aptX Bluetooth, and a substantial sonic improvement over the two previous versions (again, see sidebar). Additional connectivity includes Ethernet, USB-A, RCA stereo outputs (plus a subwoofer out), RCA coaxial USB, TosLink, and headphones. The Node 2i will support 16–24-bit depths, sampling rates of 32–192kHz, the high-res formats of FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and the full unfolding and rendering of MQA. Like its parent company’s M50.2 server/streamer, it’s PCM only, no DSD. The DAC section can be used independently of the music server, while the music server can feed an outboard DAC (if the outboard unit doesn’t handle MQA, then you lose the final rendering but still benefit from the first unfolding, just as you do with NAD’s 50.2). 

All this functionality, connectivity, and versatility fits into a nifty, stylish box (available in black or white) smaller than a trade paperback and retailing for the princely sum of $549. One of the things I’ve always liked about NAD, in contradistinction to so many other high-end manufacturers, is the company’s refreshing lack of snobbery, i.e., its components come with pretty much everything you need to get started, including requisite cabling. This Bluesound is no different, supplying Ethernet cable, a pair of RCA interconnects, and power cords (two, one for the U.S., the other for Europe)—all generic, to be sure, but so what? They’re of good quality and they do the job. (For what it’s worth, I conducted substantial portions of the review period with the supplied cabling.) 

Bluesound Node 2i Wireless Multi-Room High-Res Music Streamer

Once you download the BluOS app to your smartphone or tablet, setup is easy and virtually foolproof. I used it both wired and wirelessly and it performed for the most part flawlessly in either mode. I say “for the most” part for two reasons. First, although I have strong and reliable Internet, there are always glitches that occasionally confound the most scrupulously designed streamers, including every one I’ve ever used, and this happened with the 2i, but only infrequently and was always quickly resolved (typically by the Internet service righting itself). Two, if any external drives (G-Drive, Samsung, Western Digital, Seagate) I used contained files in addition to PCM music files the 2i is incapable of reading, none of them, including the PCM files, showed up in the BluOS app, even though the drive itself was visible. According to Bluesound’s (excellent) technical support, the presence of DSD files or even non-musical files (like photographs or documents) on a hard drive can cause the app not to recognize any files, even those it can read. The solution? Make sure the drive contains only PCM music files. (I should add that this is not the first time I’ve encountered this issue with music streamers and DACs.)

The Sound
Although, as noted, I purchased the Node 2i for my office, you can bet I wasted no time trying it out in my reference system: Harbeth Monitor 40.2 loudspeakers (supplemented with a REL Serie 528SE subwoofer); digital components by Marantz, Benchmark, McIntosh, and Aurender; amplification and preamplification by McIntosh and Benchmark; and analog courtesy of Basis, SME, Shure, Ortofon, Helius, Parasound, and Musical Surroundings. Given its NAD parentage, I expected the Node 2i to sound good, and it did. And not just good, but really really good, as in so far above what its size and price might lead you to expect that it almost makes you feel as if you’ve stolen something. Never once was it caught out or embarrassed by any of the other components, including the record-playing ones; and on many digital sources it often took the most concentrated and critical listening to distinguish it from the higher-priced components, even in direct A/B comparisons. 

This being the year of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, one of the first things I listened to in earnest was the new recording of the Fifth Symphony conducted by the rising young maestro Teodor Currentzis and his MusicaAeterna, a period-instrument orchestra of players hand-picked by the conductor himself (Sony/Qobuz high-res, 24/96). This is a powerfully riveting performance that gave the Node 2i opportunities to test its mettle in practically every major area of audio concern. To begin with, the recording itself is superb, ideally resolving presence and atmosphere as it situates the orchestra within a space that reproduces plausibly what Peter Walker liked to call “a window onto the concert hall” (in this case Vienna’s Konzerhaus). There is not a great deal of depth to the soundstage, but this owes to no limitation of the Node 2i, rather because the group itself is scaled to the proportions of the classical period, larger than a chamber orchestra but nowhere near the typical late nineteenth/early twentieth century full orchestra. Currentzis takes Beethoven’s controversial metronome markings at their word, which results in a breathlessly fleet opening movement, yet the effect, while propulsive, even supercharged, never feels merely hard-driven owing to the conductor’s scrupulous attention to articulation and dynamic gradations, not to mention a rather liberal deployment of expressive swells and diminuendos. How well these are tolerated on repeated listening remains to be seen (try 3:15 into the movement), but their initial effect both startles and scintillates such that you do listen with fresh ears. All this the Node 2i reveals with outstanding timing and flow. 

While Currentzis doesn’t slight the lyricism of the second movement andante, listen to how he articulates the tympani to keep things moving along or how forcibly he has the strings dig into their accompaniment when the trumpets carry the theme (around 3:00). I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the famous crescendo between the third and fourth movements begun more quietly, with the tympani stealing in as if from inaudibility, as they usher in the great fanfare that launches the last movement. Currentzis’ ear for balance is masterly here (and throughout), while the Node 2i is fully up to the sensationally wide dynamic range of both the interpretation and the recording. This is one of the rare Beethoven recordings with a reduced orchestra and period instruments that doesn’t sound underpowered when the music is meant to be very loud. Any worries about the 2i’s ability to resolve low-level detail are effectively banished by how well you can follow the tympani during this passage, especially at the start. (E. M. Forster’s famous “goblins” have a distinctly impish character here.) The period instruments are revealed in all their color and individuality, like the way the characteristic buzz of the double basses cuts through during the tutti passages in the last movement, while textures throughout are at once beautifully blended yet absolutely clear, the various lines and instruments cleanly differentiated. Currentzis has already established a reputation for galvanizing orchestras into playing as if possessed, and never was I in doubt that I was hearing all the fire and passion in the playing.

Once I gave myself time to recover from this extraordinary performance, I turned to what is almost universally regarded as the best Fifth ever recorded: Carlos Kleiber’s with the Vienna Philharmonic (DG/Tidal MQA). Kleiber’s tempi are not all that much slower than Currentzis’ (while he certainly pulls them about less and is much less overtly “expressive”). Otherwise, however, you could scarcely find two more contrasting aural renderings of this symphony, either as performance or recording, that are nevertheless equally valid.

Kleiber’s is big-band Beethoven all the way, with ravishing strings, powerful brass, elegant winds, and those Vienna horns with a golden tone that is theirs and theirs alone. The strings in particular stand in contrast to those of the MusicaAeterna. Without being in any way indulgent or self-consciously “romantic”—Kleiber keeps vibrato on a tight leash—there is nevertheless a richness and warmth built into the Vienna Philharmonic that is very different from the more sec sound Currentzis is after. Kleiber’s soundstage is appropriately wider and of course deeper, such that, despite more multi-miking than with Currentzis, you still have tympani and brass farther to the rear. Vienna, the city but also the legendary Musikvereinssaal, is the venue, a considerably larger space. Dynamic range is also quite wide. Perhaps owing to more prevalent, albeit judicious spot-miking, there is a slightly greater impression of transparency. The Viennese players are no less passionate and committed than their MusicaAeterna counterparts, which the Node 2i renders with truthfulness.

I’ve written at length about the music and performances in these two recordings because I wanted to convey how really well the Node 2i not only checks all the requisite boxes of sonic excellence but, even more important, how much from the outset it involved me in the music. Regardless of what I played, in very short order I found my attention commanded by the music such that I had forcibly to remind myself that I was reviewing a piece of equipment. Of course, there is more to music than symphonic music, and the next session I turned to popular vocal music, beginning with Alison Kraus’s exquisite performance and recording of “Down to the River and Pray” (A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection [Rounder/Qobuz, 16/24]). This is one of the most hauntingly beautiful vocal recordings I’ve ever heard, with a transparency that nearly rivals the very finest direct-to-disc vinyl, DSD, and higher resolutions of PCM. She sings this hymn a cappella with chorus and unnamed background soloists. The vocal reproduction is rounded and dimensional, she is perfectly centered, with chorus slightly behind her arrayed across the soundstage in a very pleasing acoustic. The Node 2i reproduced all this, as it did everything, with no hint of digitalis, at least none that I could attribute to the component itself, rather organic, fluid, and natural. 

Bluesound Node 2i Wireless Multi-Room High-Res Music StreamerPerhaps in reaction against all this new-fangled technology I spent many hours over many days listening to favorite vintage recordings from the fifties and sixties: the usual popular singers (Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Day, Clooney, London), lots of jazz (again the usual suspects, Davis, Brubeck, Getz, Webster), folk and rock (Peter, Paul, and Mary, Buddy Holiday, Simon and Garfunkle), and soundtracks and Broadway shows (Taras Bulba, West Side Story). I was particularly interested in the original-cast West Side Story since it figured so large in the component I was reviewing immediately before this one, SME’s new Model 12A turntable (Issue 306). I was bowled over by the Analog Spark remastering for vinyl, especially by the thrilling vitality of the performance and the sensational use of the soundscape to recreate the drama in aural terms. Insofar as I can tell, there is no streaming equivalent to this particular remastering, and neither Tidal nor Qobuz seems to offer the original cast in a resolution higher than Red Book CD. So how did they compare? Well, the digital reproduction in this case did not equal the Analog Spark for vitality, color, or that lifelike sense of presence. But on its own terms, it was perfectly fine, and within a number or two I was so involved in the performance and music that I didn’t give the reproduction as such a second thought. 

Does this mean that analog is better than digital, that vinyl is better than CD? Of course not, because the only really valid comparison would be a digitized version of the analog remastering. What I can say, however, is that most of the vintage albums I referred to in the previous paragraphs I originally purchased and have long owned on vinyl, which is how I’ve been listening to them—decades. Yet in no way did I find the streaming versions through the Node 2i consistently less good. Sometimes they were; sometimes they weren’t. Mostly, however, it was a matter of alternative paths to the mountain top. Take, for example, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s great 1972 Will the Circle Be Unbroken? This album, originally released in 1972 as a 3-LP set, was recorded over a week directly onto two-track masters, with only one or two takes of each of the 38 selections; another recorder that was left running uninterrupted captured the musicians talking about how they’re going to perform the selections, and several of these were edited in to delightful, and insightful, effect. One of the things I really love about Will the Circle as a recording is that there is virtually no processing or other sort of electronic manipulation, which thus gives the sonics a rare integrity that sounds totally unscrewed around with while capturing to a fare-thee-well the incredible spirt, verve, vitality, dynamism, and sheer élan all these musicians bring to the performances. It also sounds startingly natural. It’s fabulous on vinyl, but Tidal’s MQA stream is its match, and I listened with complete toe-tapping involvement.

What about Tidal’s MQA and Qobuz’s High-Res compared to each other or to Red Book? Well, as I’ve had occasion to observe elsewhere, it’s very much a case by case matter. The searingly raw Solti/Price Aida (Decca)—I seem to recall a Gramophone critic calling it “Aida red in tooth and claw”—is dynamically wider and more spectacular in MQA, while it’s surely a gift to have Igor Levit’s caution-to-the-winds Beethoven piano sonatas (Sony) in High-Res on Qobuz. But consider the Kleiber Beethoven Fifth, which is all too typical an example of what you can expect to run into. Qobuz offers two versions: High-Res sourced from DG’s 12/2011 reissue and Red Book sourced from DG’s 12/1994 reissue. Tidal offers three versions: MQA in DG’s complete set of its Kleiber catalogue, the Fifth sourced from 12/2004; MQA of the symphony alone sourced from 4/1995; and Red Book also sourced from 4/1995 but identified as part of DG’s “The Originals” series. How is anyone to make any sort of reliable evaluations faced with a situation like this? My impressions? None of them sounded what I would judge consistently and deal-breakingly better than any of the others and often not even that much different. Was the MQA a little airier than the High-Res? Yeah, maybe. The High-Res a little purer, perhaps a bit more transparent? If you say so. Were both a little better than the Red Books? Sure, why not? Hold a gun to my head and for this recording I’d probably choose Qobuz’s High-Res over Tidal’s MQA in a head-to-head A/B. But the next day—hell, the next hour—I could not tell you which was which without doing another comparison. 

If on the basis of what you’ve just read, you’re tempted to jump to the conclusion that the Node 2i is so inexpensive its resolving capability must be compromised, think again. I got the same results using far more expensive servers and DACs. As for resolving capability, i.e., detail, know that every one of the extremely low-level piano chords that bleed through the singer’s headphones on “Moon River” from Jacintha’s Autumn Leaves was recovered with nothing fancier than a 16/24 (Red Book) file streamed through Qobuz. 

Conclusion
As I was nearing the end of the review period, a TAS colleague asked me if I could recommend a music server for a friend of his who wanted to dip his toes into the waters of streaming. The friend didn’t want anything fancy or complicated, nor did he want to spend a lot of money, but he did want something good and representative of both the quality and quantity of music available through streaming sources. Without hesitation I recommended the Node 2i. Truth in reporting requires me to point out that I’ve by no means even begun to audition everything that’s out there in sub-grand streamer/DACs. However, I have used the Node 2i daily for nearly half a year in superior sound systems where I was able to compare it directly to similar components costing over ten times its $549 asking price. So I am pretty confident saying you would be hard-pressed to find a package that dovetails convenience, selection of music, trouble-free streaming, build-quality, flexibility, and true high-end performance as impressively as the Node 2i. Add to this the fact that its provenance is NAD, a manufacturer with over four decades of making value-driven components that are synonymous with reliability and longevity. If all that isn’t persuasive enough, it costs less than most high-end cable manufacturers’ so-called “affordable” interconnects, and if you purchase it through the Bluesound website, you get thirty days to return it if you don’t like it. Meanwhile, if the streaming bug really bites you, the music server part of the 2i can be used in the clear with a more upscale DAC should you desire to go that route. (I used it into a Benchmark DAC3 and the DACs built into a McIntosh C52 preamplifier and a Marantz SA-KI Ruby SA-CD player, all with great results.)

As for me, well, I bought the Node 2i, and am now in my office wrapping up this review listening to a fantastic recital of music by Debussy and Rameau performed by the gifted young Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (DG/Tidal MQA), as it streams in beautiful high-resolution sound through my desktop system, built around Quad’s 99 and 909 electronics driving Harbeth P3SR mini-monitors. Talk about being in the pink! 

Specs & Pricing

Supported file formats: MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, ALAC, OPUS
Hi-res formats: FLAC, MQA, WAV, AIFF
Native sampling rates: 32–192kHz
Bit depths: 16–24
DAC: 32-bit, 192kHz
Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet RJ45; Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac, dual-band); USB 1 x Type-A port for connection to USB memory sticks (Fat32 or NTFS formatted) and supported peripherals; Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD wireless built-in Two-Way (transmit & receive)
Audio input: TosLink Combo/ 3.5mm audio output: analog RCA stereo with fixed-level option; Coaxial RCA; TosLink optical; headphone 3.5mm stereo; subwoofer RCA;12 Volt trigger out
Dimensions: 8.7″ x 1.8″ x 5.7″ 
Weight: 2.45 lbs.
Price: $549

Bluesound 
Pickering, Ontario, Canada
(905) 831-6555
bluesound.com

Tags: WIRELESS AUDIO

Read Next From Review

See all

Adblocker Detected

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..."

"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."