BluesoundNode ICON Reference Multi-Room High Resolution Wireless Music Streamer

Fantastic music streamer. Love the look and functionality of the new device (I own a Node 2i which has been great). The 1/4inch jacks on each side of the device is great. The sound generated is blissful. Setup was easy - plugin, configure and it connected to my existing NAS for playback. I even added a few of the new services I hadn’t used in the past. The unit is solidly built and the number of inputs/outputs are sufficient - the inclusion of XLR out is a bonus. Satisfied with my purchase.

I've been using an OPPO BDP-93 to play audio files since 2011 and finally decided it was time for an upgrade. It's possible to spend THOUSANDS of dollars on digital players, and while I'm OK with getting spendy with my amps/speakers, I'm not convinced those high end players are really that much better - YMMV. Bluesound has a good rep for making quality digital players at a somewhat reasonable price range so when they launched the ICON I decided it was time to pull the trigger.Starting with the bad...There was A LOT of swearing during the setup process. Good times. The bluOS app was glitchy and I was ready to start the return process - but shutting down my iPhone and restarting fixed some of the issues. Getting the unit to read my WAV files off a thumbdrive took way to much "fiddling" but finally it recognized the drive. One fun feature - every time someone sent me a text the unit would stop playing. This is a deal breaker, but the next day it stopped doing this and has worked fine since. Go figure... The owners manual is a freaking joke. Come on - for this price range you should do better. I'm still struggling with the interface for Amazon music, hard to tell who is at fault here. Could be me!What do I love?I wanted a device that I could plug into my preamp, that would play WAV (CD) and other audio files, handle sound from the TV, and access my Pandora stations - all via a phone or tablet app. The ICON does all of these well. And it sounds really good. Seriously good. Better than my old Oppo which was no slouch in it's day. I have never been a huge fan of digital sound - the first time I heard a CD player I was not impressed. Digital has come a long way since, and while I still prefer a good clean LP, the ICON darn close and is so much easier to utilize.Couple points. I initially connected my LG TV using the HDMI eARC but the problem with this is I was unable to use ONLY the TV speakers and there are times I don't want to fire up multiple components to get sound from the TV. Connecting the TV using the optical out fixed this issue.I listened running the ICON into my VTL tube preamp, and then tried running it directly to my VTL power amp using the ICON as a preamp. Yah, it sounds better going into the tube preamp first. Connecting it directly into the power amp resulted in a much "brittle" sound - almost unenjoyable to my ears. YMMV.I have not yet listened to DSD files which should in theory sound better than WAV. I'm not sure why Bluesound opted to limit DSD to 256 instead of 512. At this price point that's a swing and a miss Bluesound. The HD files I have played from Amazon sound very nice however.I'm connecting the ICON to the preamp using the cheap RCA cables that came with the unit. I plan on trying some higher quality interconnects in the future. I did not test the balanced out connections as my preamp does not have that as an option.All in all I'm very satisfied.System specs: VTL 2.5 preamp. VTL ST-150 power amp. Joseph Audio Pulsar speakers.

My review is for the Bluesound Node ICON Reference Multi-Room High Resolution Wireless Music Streamer. I say that because I sometimes see reviews on product pages that aren't the product I'm looking at. Now that that's out of the way, this thing is pretty amazing. The two things that sold me on it were, first and most important, it has balanced XLR output. Any serious audio system uses balanced connections instead of unbalanced RCA cables. That's what got my attention when looking for a network player. The large screen is great and makes the thing look pretty cool sitting on the shelf. I haven't had this unit very long so I'm still learning the companion app, but it's not hard. The sound quality is absolutely amazing. I ripped 20 CD's to FLAC format using my PC to test the sound with using Exact Audio Copy (if you know you know). It's got a good selection of streaming services too, including one of my favorite free ones, Radio Paradise. It even supports an HDMI ARC connection from a TV. Because Blusound built this thing with two mono, high-quality DACs instead of a single, cheaper stereo one, the output is uncompromised. It's the reference unit that all network players could only hope to match for the price. Two thumbs way up.

This thing is awesome!!! I have McIntosh components and Sonus Faber speakers. I love my setup, but I have always been a disappointed in the sound quality of streaming from my I-Phone. The quality form my computer was slightly better. The Bluesound Node Icon is a game changer. I have fallen in love with my setup all over again. I love to listen to vinyl, but I love the convenience of streaming and now I have sound quality while streaming worthy of my audio set up. Bluesound, you have a winner!