The Bluesound Node 2i gets compared to an Auralic Aries G1, Innuos Zenith and other streamers I have tried in this creative film review….
These type of products don’t come along very often and when they perform so well for the money, they challenge the notion that Audiophile spending is best and that consumer grade audio products cannot and don’t suit Audiophiles.
There are an awful lot of snobs about in audio who equate price to performance, which is perpetuated by the industry.
I failed to mention that you can actually use the Node 2i as a pre amp too from its RCA analogue outputs, which adds to flexibility on top of being a UPnP streamer (streaming off your network computers and NAS drives) and having a 32bit 192kHz DAC (unspecified in the specification).
Please let me know what you think. Have you made comparisons and found it better to more expensive streamers or the opposite?
read the review here
Specifications
- Hi Res Formats : FLAC, MQA, WAV, AIFF
- Sampling Rated : 32 – 192 kHz
- Bit Depths : 16-24 bits
- DAC : 32-Bit, 192kHz
- Compatible with UPnP NAS drives, Windows PC’s and MAC’s
- Internet Radio
- Connectivity : WiFi and Fixed Ethernet
- USB Input for music drives (FAT32 or NTFS formatted)
- Audio Inputs – 3.5mm analogue / Toslink Digital combo
- Audio Outputs : headphone 3.5mm, 12V trigger, Coaxial RCA digital, Toslink / Optical digital, Analogue RCA (to HiFi)
- Bluetooth : 5.0 aptX HD
- Processor : ARM® CORTEX™ A9, 1 GHz
- Weight : 1.12 kg / 2.45 lbs
- Dimensions : 220 x 46 x 146 mm
Price
£500 / $549