Anybody tried the Bluesound music server ?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Tim 2, Jun 25, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Shiver

    Shiver Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Has anyone been able to compare the Vault 2 to a decent transport? ie same CD ripped/played going to the same DAC?
     
    MaxxMaxx4 and Tim 2 like this.
  2. talkingh

    talkingh Vibes Controller

    Location:
    London
    i have the node 2 going out to my dac via a chord company rca to bnc shawline cable...sounds fantastic
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  3. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE Thread Starter

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    You'd lose the noise cancelling of the BNC but whether you'd hear it in a given system is something your ears would have to tell you.
     
    MaxxMaxx4 likes this.
  4. sotosound

    sotosound Forum Resident

    No, but I will eventually be doing that when I audition some DACs to be fed by my Rega Saturn and Vault 2.

    In my head right now I'm imagining Rega DAC R versus Audio Note DAC 0.1x.

    Just need to find the time.......
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  5. Shiver

    Shiver Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Ooh interesting.

    Do find the time... and report back!
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  6. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE Thread Starter

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    I have two DAC's I'm going to try as opposed to the Vault 2's DAC once the unit has settled in.
     
    MaxxMaxx4 and sotosound like this.
  7. sotosound

    sotosound Forum Resident

    Will do.
     
    Shiver likes this.
  8. MaxxMaxx4

    MaxxMaxx4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winnipeg Canada
    Have you had a chance to try other DAC's,if so what were the results?
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  9. drumnman2

    drumnman2 Active Member

    Location:
    toledo,oh.
    I was ready to get a BS Node 2 for streaming Tidal to my dac since my OPPO 105d app has it's share on glitches. I went to Google Play to see the app for Android and there was a lot of current reviews that said the app was very unreliable. Anyone finding this to be true ?
     
  10. Melvin

    Melvin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    The latest update fixed my only issue with their Android app (on Pixel 2, 8.1). They update regularly and actually listen to their customers.
     
    rodentdog and Tim 2 like this.
  11. PanaPlasma

    PanaPlasma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium, Europe
    Node 2 is excellent. Most of the previous issues have been solved. Excellent customer service + they have a dedicated forum.

    Works excellent with Qobuz Sublime+, Tidal and Spotify.

    No Deezer Hifi (lossless) or Apple Music at the moment. Apple and Sonos are in some kind of partnership I suppose?

    Also owned the Vault 2 with internal Harddisk but found it quite noisy. And would suggest cd ripping from computer and not from one of those streaming devices with internal ripper (found rips not to be accurate ... some discs in bad state I could rip accurately on pc, while vault rip was bad). Automatic ID-tagging was also quite bad, although hifi-magazines are never honest about these issues in reviews.

    I would suggest the node 2 and use nas or external hd/ssd. Streaming services work excellent.
     
    Tim 2 and Shiver like this.
  12. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    When (if?) Bluesound adopts AirPlay 2, it will be compatible with Apple Music. As of today, AM works directly with Sonos, except it doesn’t pick up the three customized playlists they change weekly in the native app.
     
  13. Andy Pandy

    Andy Pandy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    Good idea buying an inexpensive tablet to use as a dedicated controller. Which one did you buy?
     
    rodentdog and Tim 2 like this.
  14. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE Thread Starter

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    Yes, tried a few DAC's, a few I own and two I borrowed from friends. To it's credit the Node 2 DAC was very good compared to other out-board DAC's. The Vault 2 was even better, thought they'd have the same DAC, but the Vault was clearly better. Also, had no problem hand loading 800 disc's, very quiet transport. Compared to the sound of out-board DAC's, only my Audio Research DAC8 ( $5500. CDN ) was better, smoother more analog like then the built in DAC.
    Tital's Hi-Res content was really amazing, better than any CD player I've owned. Having access to this much music and played back with better quality than I'm used to meant playing and listening to a lot more music.
    Very easy system to operate through my I-pad in the garage system, and even easier through my I-mac in the house system.
    With zero operational quirks and great sound I'd have to give the Blue Sound set-up a 10+.
     
  15. MaxxMaxx4

    MaxxMaxx4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winnipeg Canada
    If it was anyone but you I would disregard the above,but you've got me convinced old friend,i'm ordering up the same but for four rooms.
    Thanks for the info. :tiphat::cheers:
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  16. Shiver

    Shiver Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Someone upthread mentioned finding the Vault being noisy - anyone else find the same?
     
  17. RiCat

    RiCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Node2 and love it. Love it even more after getting a different DAC to use with it. The BS DAC is very good but I had a chance to upgrade so I did. I would not recommend a Vault since from my point of view a NAS to hold the files gives some additional options and it could be seen by any number of Node2 devices. I like the Vault however if anything goes wrong with it then all your music goes down until it is fixed. The NAS also serves and a backup for all things not just music files. BS support is outstanding and the company is always at work improving the service.
     
    rodentdog and Shiver like this.
  18. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE Thread Starter

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    To answer the last question first, the transport is not noisy. It will have a sound, but only when burning new music, zero noise during play back.

    Hold on Tommy, don't purchase any Blue Sound equipment yet. I said in my last post there were no quirks, but last night it shut down completely and no one can figure out why. Can't even play my recorded music.
     
    Shiver and MaxxMaxx4 like this.
  19. MaxxMaxx4

    MaxxMaxx4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winnipeg Canada
    Let me/us know what happens.
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  20. Apesbrain

    Apesbrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
    Have you power-cycled it? Unplug wall power, wait 20 secs, plug back in, and wait for it to restart. The Vault is a computer after all.
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  21. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    Has anyone tested whether their latest update became Airplay 2 compatible? Due to real life time constraints I haven’t installed the update yet.
     
  22. rodentdog

    rodentdog Senior Member

    I have a Vault and two Node 2. Work great. Their customer service is good also. I'd get one.
     
    Shiver likes this.
  23. sheffandy

    sheffandy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sheffield, UK
    Apologies if this has been discussed previously but does anyone know how to generate play stats from the BS software? (I have a node 2).
     
  24. sotosound

    sotosound Forum Resident

    I’ve ripped all of my CDs using my Vault 2 and backed them up onto a portable hard drive via the network. (Took a few hours and I therefore had to change my Windows PC sleep time to allow the copy to complete.)

    Because I didn’t know that I could rip to FLAC and MP3 simultaneously I then created MP3s of everything using Flacsquisher, which used a variable bit rate algorithm to create superb sounding copies. I’m now half way through the process of copying those MP3s onto memory sticks and will end up with my whole CD collection in my car on six memory sticks. Sheesh! Star Trek tech in 2018!

    And I haven’t fully explored what I can do with Bluetooth yet!

    The quality of playback on the Vault itself is such that I just listen to it and don’t worry about DACs, although I will audition some soon-ish.

    I use an iPad as a controller and occasionally the app hangs on searches and I have to restart the iPad. Also, if I’ve done some ripping the Vault disappears from the network for a while as it focuses its resources on re-indexing. (Took a while to work this issue out. Perhaps the Vault 3 will have more processing power?)

    Issues with the Vault include failed rips, possibly mainly where two albums appear the same although one is a remaster, plus other metadata issues. The metadata services that Bluesound use aren’t the best and some albums have ended up listed as something else entirely. For me that is a notable weakness in an otherwise excellent product. It’s not bad enough for me to return the product but it does mean that I’ll need to check my whole collection for incorrect and failed rips and also use a metadata editor to fix stuff up.

    Also, the Vault and/or iPad app has difficulty with listing and playing back multiple recordings or masterings of the same song. Sometimes it just plays the same version whichever one is selected from the list and sometimes it loses track and plays the one above the one selected from the list. In IT terms that means that the coding for handling arrays is a bit squiffy.

    Having said all of that my Vault 2 is a keeper. Having my CD collection available at my fingertips plus being able to use features such as playlists and random play are wonderful, especially when there’s no sacrifice in sound quality.

    It isn’t perfect but it’s a great idea for the CD generation.

    Near-perfection would be a proper getting started manual plus more reliable ripping and metadata plus more robust search and array handling logic. In the meantime I’ll just have to put up with enjoying the Vault 2.
     
    Shiver likes this.
  25. Apesbrain

    Apesbrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
    I imagine this is a problem for any unattended ripper, though some are said to handle it better than others. (The dBPowerAmp ripper gets good grades.) I'd make it a policy to manually check new Vault rips immediately after any ripping session. Mp3tag is a great program for this and it's available free for both Windows and Mac. Just point it to the storage drive on your Vault.

    There is no "standard" for handling different versions/editions of the same album. I've found that using Mp3tag to insert identification information in the album title works well for keeping the tracks organized and allowing me to select the one I want:

    [​IMG]
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine