Bluesound Node2 - Finally solved the audio drop out

I have had a Node 2 since February, and primarily use it for Tidal. I love the device, despite some wonky interface items, but was becoming frustrated with songs cutting out, loading, and starting to play again...

My wifi is strong, and I have an extender too, but I assumed because it can't do the 5G band that it was causing limited bandwidth, and thus the 2G it does support was to blame for the frequent pauses in my playback.

I bought a second extender, plugged it in in the room where the Node2 sits, and thought that would solve it. Nope. Still, no matter what I did, it would not recognize my extender, only the router which sat in the basement, and thus pauses in playback.

Finally, tonight, I got a new wall plug in extender with an Ethernet port, set it up on the network, plugged an Ethernet cable in, connected the Node, and voila!

Seamless playback for hours!

So excited to have found a fix, as I love the device and was reaching my wits end.

It seems that despite it being a wifi friendly device, like most things, wired is the way to go if you can.

I'm no network expert, and maybe there was another workaround that wouldn't have cost me $50, but either way I am happy and wanted to share.

If anyone is experiencing the same challenges, give this a try

A Netgear 3700 for $40 and an Ethernet cable seems to have resolved all of my issues

Hope this helps someone else, and of course, if someone who is far more versed in this type of thing wants to suggest other "fixes", please do! I'm sure others would appreciate it!

 

That's good advice. Glad it all worked out for you. I've had my Node 2 streaming from a Netgear Nighthawk extender for about 4 months now and have yet to experience a dropout or problem with wireless streaming. I just looked at the setting in BluOS and can see that the Node 2 is 'seeing' the extender so it is possible to use an extender without an ethernet cable.

I too love this device. It has changed how I listen to music. Ripped CDs, Hi Def downloads, Tidal HiFi are all sounding great.

 

Yes, it is a great device! I will say this, too... While listening to Tidal MQA, now that have an ethernet cable coming out of the extender to the Bluesound, the songs load INSTANTLY. If I jump from song to song (even after seconds of it playing) the songs play almost instantly. REALLY glad I "wired" it. Honestly, my house (like many others) is full of networked devices, and ALL of them are hard lined to ethernet jacks I have in the wall. This room, sadly, did not have one I was very happy to find a solution!

I guess the take away is... If you CAN use a cable, do so. That has always been the advice when using internet enabled devices. Wifi is awesome, but will always be slower...

 

Love mine. and yes wired is still the way to go.

 

Looks like I'll have to give the wired approach a try. I would need about 50 feet of ethernet cable to get from my extender to my Node2. Any issues with the length?

@Wired4Fun: If the connection from you router to your extender is wireless, why do you suppose there is an improvement when you add an ethernet cable from the Node2 to the extender when there is still a wireless link in the chain?

 

@wgallupe I am NO tech expert, however, there are ton of articles that explain why the ethernet cable from the bridge, is faster... one reason being:

• Take advantage of gigabit WiFi speeds on devices that don’t natively support gigabit WiFi.

With the NODE2 being a 2.4ghz only device, maybe that is part of the reason. My BASIC understanding is that the speed is in fact WAY faster via the cable from the bridge, than on the wifi network said bridge broadcasts. If this is incorrect, someone in the know please correct me. Also, I have now had ZERO dropouts and EXTREMELY fast loading of songs on TIDAL with this wired connection. Using the wifi only from the bridge, I suffered dropout and horribly LONG load times or worse, nothing at all.

I wish I could explain it better/more, but that is the extent of my knowledge/research/experience. In my instance, the "wired" approach from my bridge is EXTRAORDINARILY faster, and has proven to be a game changer in my rig

 

@Wired4Fun: Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping someone technical can help me understand. I'm just not sure that I would gain much with ethernet as I get zero dropouts. The only thing that makes me wonder is album art load time can hesitate for a split second as I scroll down on my iPad. However, as soon as I select an album or song, it plays instantly. On the other hand a 50 foot run of cable and a few hours of my time drilling holes and feeding the cable through walls/floors is not too difficult. Then I would know for sure.

So, for any expert out there, can you shed some light on my original question: If the connection from a router to a wireless extender is wireless, why do you suppose there is an improvement when you add an ethernet cable from the Node2 to the extender when there is still a wireless link in the chain?

Thanks in advance.

 

Actually... I'm understanding your question a little better, and the wired connection would do nothing for the album art loading, as that happens on your mobile device or tablet, via wifi... the Ethernet would only impact how quickly the songs play, and any dropout (if you had any) as that would be connected to the Node itself... make sense?

My guess is, the app is slow (why album art loads slowly) and once you press a song, it relays that to the Node, which pulls the song info and plays it.

Again, a guess, but a fair one, I think.

This would explain why the app on my phone still runs a bit slow just like yours, but my hardlined Node device is running like grease lightning

 

Ethernet cables can be up to 100 meters in length, so 50 ft is no issue at all.

 

I asked our IT director. Despite me not being able to explain WHY, the answer is YES, the hardline connection from a wifi extender or router will always be faster.

If you crave the "technical answer", I'm worthless LOL.

But there you go.

 

I just picked up a bluesound and have it setup with a wired connection, but it still cuts in and out. Sometimes it will just stop and when I hit play again it will play an alum that I was streaming 2 days before. Totally random. I like that it can play MQA, but I might switch to to sonos or something else.

 

The 2.4GHz band has been used forever with tons of devices using it. As a result, interference is more common than on the higher more deserted bands. I've had customers whose neighbors' cordless phone would cause network dropouts. Same thing with all types of similar devices such as baby monitors working on the same frequency.

There are various channels available in case interference rears its ugly head but most people don't know how to use them and most of the issues people encounter are sporadic in nature making troubleshooting a very time-consuming and frustrating affair.

Using a wired connection, all these interference or distance-related issues are moot which enables the user to have access to the entire speed and responsiveness their network connection can actually dish out.

 

I tried a direct ethernet connection but still continued to experience this issue when playing MQA files from Tidal through the Node 2i. My Node is less than 10 feet from my wireless router and I had maximum signal strength showing in the BluOS diagnostics. I recently spotted a solution (albeit not a great one) that also solved my problem: if you have an optical input from another source running through the Node optical input, disconnect it. This solved my issue immediately. No more dropouts. I know this isn't an optimal solution--particularly if you are using the Node's DAC for your CD player or another source. As I am either playing Vinyl or Tidal 95% of the time it's not a big deal for me. Bluesound is aware of this and their techs are reportedly checking it out. I wonder if turning off autosense in the settings would also cure it. Maybe a constant alert status in the Node has an impact. That will be the next thing I try.

 

Call Bluesound support before you switch streamers. They are quite helpful. I have 3 Bluesound units and use Extollo 1500 powerline adapters. Work great.

 

Quite helpful? If you call opening a service call and then closing it without speaking to you helpful. If you call insulting you helpful. NAD (which is Bluesound) has had a terrible reputation for customer support for twenty five years. After my recent experiences with Bluesound I see they deserve it. I will never buy another Bluesound product.

 

I was thinking of buying the Node 2.i and the problem is I would have to use WIFI.
I have one D-Link AV2 Powerline hooked into a PS4 in the basement with the Router on the second floor.
It works fine. Can you add a second powerline in the basement to feed the Node 2.i do you think or would that not work?
THanks

 

Just a followup: turning off the autosense feature on the Bluesound Player did cure my dropout issues. This just means if/when you play a CD, you have to select optical output in the player settings. Small price to pay IMO.