About the Bluesound Node
A streaming music system for the audio enthusiast
A streaming music system for the audio enthusiast
Enjoy high-end audio in more rooms of your home. While there are many streaming speakers in today's audio landscape, Bluesound's multi-room music system focuses on helping you enjoy the most from high-resolution audio files. The makers of NAD electronics and PSB speakers relied on their decades of audio experience to create this new line of multi-room audio gear for the discerning listener. And you can control the Bluesound system using a free app for smartphone or tablet.
Play more music from your high-performance audio system
The Node turns your audiophile-grade audio system into a network-capable Bluesound player. Connect the Node's analog or digital outputs to your existing system and you'll be able to play all the music stored on your home network, as well as Internet radio stations and more.
A wide variety of music options
Bluesound was designed to play just about any digital music you might have in your collection, including high-resolution files up to 24-bit/192kHz. Access the music stored on your computer or a networked hard drive, or tap into Internet radio stations and online streaming services like Rdio™, Spotify®, TIDAL, and Rhapsody (subscription required for some services). You can also enjoy downloads from high-res music sites such as HDtracks. Each Bluesound player also features a USB input for playing files "locally" from a thumb drive or hard drive, so if a friend brings over a favorite album or playlist, you can listen to it through your system.
Create a high-resolution multi-room music system
Combine multiple Bluesound players to enjoy high-end sound throughout your home.
Control the system with a free app for your smartphone or tablet.
- Powernode: This amplified player connects to a pair of speakers. It may be small, but it's powerful enough to drive a pair of floor-standing speakers.
- Pulse: This all-in-one player is perfect for almost any room. It has built-in PSB speakers for great sound in a compact package.
- Vault: If you've amassed a large collection of CDs, then the Vault was designed for you. It's a storage drive designed with the audio enthusiast in mind. This drive defaults to bit-perfect recording of your CDs, letting you experience every detail without switching discs every time you want to hear a new track or album.
Place a Pulse in your kitchen, attach a Node to your home audio system, and use the PowerNode to drive your high-end speakers.
Control in the palm of your hand
In addition to creating high-end music players, Bluesound also developed free apps for Apple® and Android™ so you can control the system easily with your portable device. Pull up the app on your smartphone or tablet and you can select songs and adjust volume. Play music in one room, all rooms, or different tracks in different spaces around your home.
The Absolute Sound's 2014 Product of the Year Awards: All-In-One System of the Year
The designers at NAD and PSB have come up with a brilliant solution to the problem of high-res, whole-house audio that combines superb sound reproduction with twenty-first-century connectivity.
— From The Absolute Sound January, 2015
Product highlights:
- communicates with other Bluesound players via your home network (wired or wireless)
- control the system with a free app for your smartphone, tablet, or computer (Android™, iOS®, Kindle Fire, Windows®, and Mac®)
- plays MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, and AIFF files
- supported sample rates: 32kHz to 192kHz
- plays Internet radio stations from TuneIn Radio
- Spotify Connect lets you play Spotify's streaming music library through your Bluesound system via your smartphone or tablet (requires Spotify app and a premium subscription; firmware and app version 1.10.0 or higher)
- includes support for Spotify, Deezer, TIDAL, Qobuz, Amazon Music, Napster and Calm Radio
- play music in multiple rooms when you add other Bluesound players
- top-mounted controls for volume and muting
- USB port for connecting a thumb drive with music files
- RCA stereo audio output
- optical digital audio output
- Ethernet port for a wired connection to a home network
- compatible with Windows® (XP or higher operating system)
- compatible with Mac®
- operates on AC power (detachable cord included)
- 8-1/16"W x 5-3/4"H x 7-1/16"D
- weight: 2.2 lbs.
- warranty: 1 year
- requires smartphone or tablet with free Bluesound app for control of system playback
- requires high-speed Internet connection
- MFR # Node N100 Black
- Item # 813NODEB
What's in the box:
- Network music player
- 6' AC power cord (120V)
- 6" AC power cord (240V)
- 6.5' Stereo RCA cable
- 6' Stereo minijack-to-RCA cable
- 6.5' Ethernet cable
- 4 Self-adhesive rubber feet
- Quick Setup Guide
- Safety Manual
Featured video:
More details on the Bluesound Node
Features & specs
Connections | ||
---|---|---|
Ethernet Port | Yes | |
USB-A Port | No | |
USB-B Port | No | |
3.5mm Input | No | |
RCA Input | ||
XLR Input | No | |
Phono Input | No | |
Optical Digital Input | No | |
Coaxial Digital Input | No | |
HDMI Input | No | |
Headphone Jack | No | |
Subwoofer Output | No | |
Wireless Features | ||
Bluetooth | No | |
Wi-Fi | 802.11 n | |
Wi-Fi Bands | 2.4 GHZ | |
Audio Specs | ||
Max. Digital Audio Bit Depth | up to 24-bit | |
Max. Digital Audio Sample Rate | up to 192 kHz | |
High-res Audio Playback | ||
From Network | Yes | |
From USB Thumb Drive (USB-A) | No | |
From Computer (USB-B) | No | |
Ecosystems | ||
Apple AirPlay | No | |
Apple AirPlay 2 | No | |
DTS Play-Fi | No | |
Google Cast | No | |
Roon | No | |
Sonos | No | |
HEOS | No | |
MusicCast | No | |
SoundTouch | No | |
Bose Home Speaker | No | |
WiSA | No | |
BluOS | No | |
Klipsch Stream | No | |
KEF Stream | No | |
Music Services | ||
Amazon Music | No | |
Apple Music | No | |
iHeart Radio | No | |
Pandora | No | |
Qobuz | No | |
SiriusXM | No | |
Spotify | No | |
Tidal | No | |
TuneIn | TuneIn | |
YouTube Music | No | |
Control | ||
Handheld Remote | No | |
Control by app | iOS,Android,Windows,Mac | |
Amazon Alexa | No | |
Google Assistant | No | |
Other Specs | ||
Width (Inches) | 8.0625 | |
Height (Inches) | 5.75 | |
Depth (Inches) | 7.0625 | |
Parts Warranty | 1 Year | |
Labor Warranty | 1 Year |
Product Research
Features
Bluesound Wireless High-Resolution Audio Eco-System: The Node 2 zone player is part of Bluesound's wireless high-resolution audio eco-system. The Bluesound wireless high-resolution audio eco-system consists of music players, amplifiers, hard-drives, and wireless speakers to playback your high-res and low-res music files, along with your favorite online music services throughout your home using your home's WiFi network. With an advanced WiFi antenna design and blazing ARM Cortex9 Processors, Bluesound ensures a solid connection in every corner of your home. Play your music in perfect sync or play different music simultaneously to any Bluesound device in any room.
Note: Up to 12 Bluesound devices can be connected in a strictly wireless environment. If you want to connect more than 12 Bluesound devices, you will need to connect the Bluesound devices to your network using a wired connection. Bluesound can then control up to 34 devices in a strictly wired environment.
Network Music Player: The Bluesound Node 2 network music player lets you stream digital music files on your network connected Windows or Mac computer, plus stream select online music services and internet radio to your existing home audio system. The Bluesound Node offers a wired or wireless network connection, plus a USB (type-A) input. The Node connects to your home stereo system via analog RCA or digital optical/coax. A free remote app for your Apple iOS or Android device lets you control the Node 2 and your streamed digital music from your mobile device.
32-Bit/192kHz DAC: The Bluesound Node 2 zone player employs a 32-bit/192kHz DAC (digital-to-analog converter) to ensure that your lossless high-res music playback is flawless, with precision and clarity - at any volume.
Wired or Wireless Network Connection: The Bluesound Node 2 can be connected to your home network and Internet provider via a hardwired Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) jack connector or wireless WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) connection. Either network/internet connection allows you to stream music from your Windows or Mac computer and NAS drive (such as the Bluesound Vault, sold separately); as well as stream select online music services.
Bluesound Controller App: The free Bluesound Controller App turns your Apple iOS (5.1.1+) iPod/iPhone/iPad, Android (OS 2.1+) smartphone/tablet, Windows (XP/2000/Vista/7) PC or Mac (OSX) computer into a full-featured remote control for the Bluesound wireless music system. The Bluesound Controller App on your compatible device uses your home's WiFi network to connect with Bluesound devices, so you can play all the music you love anywhere in your home for a wireless multiroom music experience. Get on-demand access to your music libraries on your home network, stream live Internet radio from almost any place in the world, or listen to one of the many music services available on Bluesound, all from the palm of your hand with the easy-to-use Bluesound Controller App.
Supported Music Formats: The Bluesound wireless audio system supports both low-res and high-res audio files; including MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC, ALAC, WMA Lossless, WAV, and AIFF. Bluesound has been designed to work with today's larger music collections, and has indexed libraries up to 100,000 songs in demonstrated practice (this will depend on the music's metadata & artwork). Bluesound also offers gapless playback by default for all supported file music types.
Compression | File Type | Sampling Frequency | Bit Rate or Bit Depth | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Compressed | Lossy | MP3 | 16-48kHz | 192-320 kbps |
WMA | ||||
AAC | ||||
OGG | ||||
Lossless | WMA-Lossless | up to 96 kHz | up to 24-bit | |
FLAC | 192 kHz | up to 24-bit | ||
ALAC | ||||
Uncompressed | AIFF | up 192 kHz | up to 24-bit | |
WAV |
Online Music Services: With a network and internet connection, the Node 2 lets you access select online music services & internet radio. The Bluesound Controller app on your Apple iOS or Android device will serve as the controller for these apps and provide song/artist information with Album Art.
- TuneIn: The Bluesound system includes access to more than 70,000 free internet radio streams from all corners of the globe via the TuneIn radio service. Just select the TuneIn logo from the main Music menu and browse among the 70,000 stations neatly organized into popular categories and select a station that appeals to your mood.
- iHeart Radio: iHeartRadio is a free, all-in-one digital radio and music streaming service that lets you listen to thousands of live stations from across the country and allows you to create personalized custom stations featuring songs from the artist you select and similar music.
- Rdio: Rdio is an online digital music with a catalog of 20 million songs and interruptions or advertisements. Rdio makes it easy to find what you're looking for, whether it's an artist, album, song, or a custom playlist. A $10.00 per-month Rdio subscription is required.
- Spotify Connect: If you subscribe to Spotify Premium and have the Spotify App on your Apple iOS or Android smartphone, you can stream Spotify to the Bluesound system. Spotify is a digital music service that gives you on-demand access to one of the largest music libraries in the world (over 15 million tracks and counting). Spotify makes it easier than ever to discover, manage, and share music with your friends. You can browse music by artist, album, track, or most popular; and create your own music library with customized playlists.
- TIDAL: TIDAL is a global streaming service that offers over 30 million songs in high-fidelity CD sound quality. TIDAL has two pricing tiers; either $9.99 or $19.99 a month. Both pricing levels allow you to access TIDAL's entire music library. The $19.99 tier has the added benefit of high-fidelity sound at CD-level quality
- HDTracks: HDtracks offers music lovers the highest-quality downloads available anywhere on the web. Many digital music stores only offer heavily compressed MP3 files. When you purchase an HDtracks file, it is the same quality as a store-purchased CD. HDtracks downloads will play with no DRM on any device. In addition, HDtracks is the only site to offer full cover art and liner notes in pdf format.
- Rhapsody: Rhapsody is a streaming music subscription service (starting a $10 per month) that allows you to play the full-length songs you choose on demand from a collection of over 10 million songs, without ads and without having to purchase or download the music.
- Slacker: Get the sound quality that you deserve with the new Slacker Radio® music library available in high-quality AAC audio on Bluesound. Listen to music streams at a bitrate of 320kbps and enjoy all your favorite Slacker stations in pristine MP3-quality.
Music Library From Your Mobile Device: From the Bluesound Controller App, you can stream music directly over WiFi from your Apple iOS or Android device to the Bluesound Node 2 and the rest of your Bluesound components around your home. The app gives you complete control of your compatible mobile device's music library with song/artist information and album art.
Computer Audio: The Bluesound wireless music system will pull music from an existing digital music library across the network on your Windows PC or Mac computer using Windows or SMB File Sharing (SAMBA) and the Bluesound Controller App for Windows & Mac.
- Windows: Music files stored on a Windows desktop or laptop can be accessed by Bluesound using Windows File Sharing. You will need to download the Bluesound Share Utility for Windows - Bluesound Share Utility Windows v1.6.zip. This utility will work on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10.
- Mac: Music files stored on an Apple iMac or MacBook can be accessed by Bluesound using SMB File Sharing. You will need to download the Bluesound Share Utility for OS X - Bluesound Share Utility OSX v1.2.zip.This utility will work on any version of Apple OS X 10.8.x and higher.
Bluetooth w/ aptX: The Bluesound Node 2 features built-in Bluetooth 4.0 with support for wireless music streaming from your Bluetooth-enabled Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad, Android smartphone/tablet, Windows PC/Phone, Mac computer/laptop, and more. You'll be able to stream stored music and music apps on your Bluetooth-enabled device to the Node 2. In addition, the Node 2 offers aptX for CD-quality sound from Android (OS 4.0+) devices. You can even distribute Bluetooth audio to the rest of your Bluesound wireless audio system throughout your home or office over WiFi.
Inputs: The Bluesound Node 2 is fitted with a USB (type-A) port for playback of music files stored on a mass storage class (MSC) device, as well as a 3.5mm Aux input that serves as an analog or digital input.
- USB Port: The Bluesound Node 2 features a USB (type-A) port to directly connect your USB mass storage class (MSC) device; such as a thumbdrive or external hard-drive. The unit's USB port supports music playback from these compatible USB devices formatted in FAT 32. The USB port is not compatible with the direct connection of an Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad or Android devices. Not only can USB audio be played back on the Node 2, but can also be wirelessly distributed to the rest of your Bluesound components throughout your home for multiroom playback.
- Optical/Analog Input: The Node 2 is fitted with a 3.5mm Aux input which can be used as an analog or digital connection. As an analog input, simply connect a stereo minijack audio cable from your analog source to the Node 2's Aux input. As a digital input, use the included 3.5mm-to-Optical adapter along with an optical digital cable (sold separately) to connect your digital source to the Node 2's Aux input. As an analog or digital input, the unit's Aux input supports 2ch PCM audio (not Dolby Digital or DTS). Audio from the Optical/Analog Aux input can be played back at the Node 2 and wirelessly distributed to other Bluesound components in your home for multiroom playback.
Outputs: The Bluesound Node 2 provides analog & digital outputs to connect to your existing home entertainment system, plus a sub out for adding a powered sub, a headphone jack for private listening, and a trigger output for remote activation of another component.
- Analog & Digital Outputs: The Node 2 contains both analog and digital outputs. There is an analog RCA stereo output, plus one optical (toslink) digital output and one coax (RCA) digital output to connect the player to your home's existing audio system.
- Sub Output: The Node 2 also features a mono-RCA subwoofer output for adding a powered sub. The sub output is full-range; you will need to use the low-pass crossover in your powered sub.
- Headphone Output: A 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the front of the Node 2 for private listening with a set of headphones. The Node 2's output will be muted when headphones are connected.
- 12V Trigger Output: The 12V trigger output (3.5mm) can be used to control or activate other external device equipped with a corresponding 12V trigger input.
Soft-Touch Controls: The Bluesound Node 2 offers soft-touch, top-panel controls to operate basic playback functions like Volume Up/Down, Play/Pause, and Previous/Next Track.
AC Power: The Bluesound Node 2 operates off of standard household current using its internal power supply and the included 6' detachable AC power cord.
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Customer Q&A
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Super easy to set up. I'm using the digital output through an up sampling DAC and it sounds great. I had a Sonos before this Bluesound and I think the Bluesound sounds better and is more stable and intuitive.
Bob Z from Washington