It’s popular because it’s excellent in its price point. I can’t imagine anyone calling it crap. There is better.. that costs a lot more. Bluesound has a great feature set, plays well with systems, easy to navigate and has excellent support. I’mma huge Marantz fan. They make wonderful products.. but it’s just Heos. Heos is good.. but not better than Bluesound from a navigation, gui standpoint.
I run Amazon Music through an Audiolab 6000N Play. I think it sounds pretty good for the money although the UI is a little quirky, but have not compared it to anything else. It is in the Node price range.
I own both Bluesound and the Marantz 6007 streaming receiver in various systems, and they’re both high quality products. In terms of user friendliness, the difference between BluOS and HEOS is night and day. Three issues with HEOS: —No Qobuz —No MQA, thus limiting Tidal to CD quality, irrespective of the controversy, some people like it —Inability to access your own Amazon library or playlists
DAC implementation on the Marantz is gold at this price. Guy who bought it may not need a separate DAC or will have to spend 3 times that price on a DAC to beat it. DAC implementation on the bluesound is shiiite! Bluos has its fair share of glitchy pestilences. All you need is a 5 dollar app on your phone called bubbleupnp if you are deadset on using qobuz with the Marantz streamer/dac. As far as MQA goes...screw MQA. I want the conjob called MQA to end.
I’ll also insert that the DAC soundprint can also be subjective. The Bluesound does a nice job. It sounds good. Does it sound “better” than the $3800 DAC? Probably not. Does it sound better than many $1500 DAC’s… depends on who you ask.
The Bluesound is at least closer to the minimal streamer device, that marantz is oversized for only having one lone optical digital out. I ignored Bluesound until I saw a deal on a used one mainly because it had a dac at all, and in that respect the Marantz and the Bluesound are the same. I already own a decent dac with many inputs and just need a streamer to output a digital signal to it. It boggles my mind that Bluesound and Marantz type big players don't get the demographic of the DAC owners looking for just a streamer sans DAC. I got an older Node so I have a coax and optical digital out (I think the newer version has USB out?) so at least I can go coaxial to the DAC. I would have liked to have gone the RaszberryPI route but I fall into the camp of not being so enthused about software options (or setting them up) and I don't want to use Roon. I plugged a HD and ethernet into the Node and I'm good.
One thing I've considered is how quiet and resolving my system is to begin with. I tried a Lumin U1 Mini ($2,000) in one of my systems, and I could not perceive a single difference between it and the Node ($600). That one uses tube amplification with high sensitivity speakers. My office system uses super clean, crazy low noise components all the way throughout the chain. I didn't test the two streamers in that system, but I wonder if I could hear a difference there.
[QUOTE="ubiknik, post: 29044788, member: 48140"It boggles my mind that Bluesound and Marantz type big players don't get the demographic of the DAC owners looking for just a streamer sans DAC. [/QUOTE] I think the Bluesound Node is designed well for the person just getting into digital. The built in DAC allows the player to work out of the box, while the upgrade path is to add an external DAC. I think the Marantz is intended for the majority of buyers seeking a simpler one-box solution. One issue that I had when I decided to get the Pro-ject streamer is what to use as an interim DAC before going to the next step of spending more substantial money on an external DAC. My solution was to use a AQ Dragonfly Red that I had on hand. Also, I was lucky enough to have a friend loan me a series of DACs to listen to and consider. I would guess that many people don't have access to either of this stopgap solutions for using a streamer right away. I notice in the market that there are few streamer-only products at the low end. Most are aimed at the hobbyist user (RPi products, UltraRendu/MicroRendu/Optical Rendu) I see more dedicated streamers at higher price points. Perhaps the path of many buyers is to start with all-in-one streamer/DAC products before going to dedicated streamers and DACs as they get more discerning in their listening preferences.
Yes sir. Upgrading the streamer first presents a challenge, as you described. I started with a Bluesound as a streamer/dac, and progressively upgraded my dacs first. Now that I'm turning my attention to a dedicated streamer, I'm realizing that the node is fine for that part of the chain. Yet I still look.
I’ll throw this out there… the money we spend on digital two channel is almost enough to go a different direction.. hear me out. What if I told you a very high end DAC.. actually 3 hi-Rez and two low Rez DAC’s come in a processor that streams simultaneously 5 streams at once. Here’s the cool part. Doing it this way gives you a processor that lets you do an entire smart home. Lighting, shades, WHA, Climate, Universal Remotes, Audio Video control. Yes it’s more expensive all in. But a good chunk of what you pay fora streamer and good DAC is the same as the main brain or processor that does all that… but can be so much more. I only care about vinyl.. I use whole house Audio while working, hanging out outside or cleaning.. parties, but two channel is all vinyl. I got my hands on a used super high end DAC. I still think Vinyl sounds better for most of the masters I listen to. But gotta say, my Control4 EA5 DAC sounds every bit as good as the high end DAC. (Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC) The cost of the EA5 is around $1500. It streams 5 streams at once for different listeners spread throughout multiple zones. But 3 of those streams can be 192/24 bit. Signal to noise is -118 dbfs and totals -110 db or .00023. It also has a 10 band graphic equalizer. It’s pretty darn awesome as a streaming music all in one.
Add the PD Creative PSU upgrade and an external linear power supply for $225 and the node sound goes up a notch or 2 for sure, at least I think it does.
I read on another thread that the Node can stream DSD files via DOP to an external DAC, but the stream results in a level drop of a few decibels when compared to PCM files. I wonder if this is due to the nature of DOP, or something that Node does? It sounded like an important factor for those who care about DSD. I know that the Node can also "play" DSD files through its own DAC, but only after converting to PCM.
Yes, it will DLNA stream off your NAS, accept a USB drive, let you use all streaming services, etc, a.k.a it is a full featured streamer. HEOS is their ecosystem and the app you get to use on your phone/tablet. The app itself is quite polished and only loses to Yamaha's Musiccast platform in that regard. To be honest, I am not even a fan of the Marantz brand. My profile will indicate that I don't own anything Marantz. But, I bought it as a present for a family member and got to audit it. Like I said earlier, it has no competition at its price. You may have to spend way more to beat it barely wr.t sound quality (gotta give credit when it's due).
yes, it can. i use the spotify connect feature. when my son visits he uses his iphone. with minitoslink to toslink optical, the sound is great using my pre's dac.
The Node does not do DSD. I had the Node briefly and had to convert my DSD files (SACD rips) to FLAC using a program provided by Bluesound. When all the DSD files were converted to FLAC the volume was about 6db lower. I was advised to use certain software to correct the volume difference. But I'm not that well versed with the programs suggested. So I returned the Node as I really want a streamer that will play my DSD files as is. The iFi Stream is on my short list in the future.
With a Pi and Volumio DSD64, DSD128 AND DSD256 are now natively supported in direct DSD mode on Volumio! Yes, finally DSD Direct is available on Volumio, your favourite audiophile music Player. The formats supported in the new Direct DSD mode are: DSD64 (Single-rate DSD) DSD128 (Double-rate DSD) DSD256 (Quad-rate DSD) DSD512 (Octuple-rate DSD)
I'm an analog guy, not into streamers, but I know the owners the local audio shop here and based on demand and their experience with the support they are getting from the brands they selected Cocktail Audio from SKorea, Volumio from Italy, Advance Paris from France and they are trying to get Melco from Japan.
I found the implementation of shuffle to be odd with BlueOS. I could not simply go to a playlist/album and press a "shuffle" button. Seems like I could only shuffle after starting to play the first song. Is that still the case? Not picking on it as many things are done well. Just found this very odd. Once audio arrived on computers/software, things got exponentially more complex. It's kinda like the Wild West with no streamer being perfect for everyone.
Thanks for the clarification. I thought that process was carried out on-the-fly by the Node. I am even less interested now.
I don't believe the output of this Marantz device would be audibly distinguishable from my NODE in a level-equal blind test.
I’m a Roon guy and stream from a Intel Nuc to a Raspberry Pi and am quite content, though I do sometimes wonder if something simpler would be just as satisfying. I have no experience with this device but I saw this on Darko, and I feel like it does just about everything the BlueSound would. Having owned neither maybe I’m missing something. The Wiim Mini is the streamer you’ve been waiting for | Darko.Audio
I like this, at $99 it is a great deal. It feels like a modernized version of the old Apple Airport Express. It seems there's an app with multi-zone support but not much description, at least on Amazon. They mention support for third party streaming services but don't have much to say about playing local files, but it seems possible?
