Bluesound Node Icon Review

Price

The Node Icon is available in the UK for £899. As the Icon is made in China, the dollar pricing is going to be slightly lively affair for a while but the price at the time of writing is $1,399 USD. The price in Australia is $1,999 AUD.

There is a small footnote to the pricing of the Node that is worth adding. I’m going to talk about the presence of Dirac Live on the unit (spoiler alert; it’s good) but this is not included at the list prices given above.

The Dirac License is a cost option and there is a reasonable chance you will need to budget for a microphone too. It doesn’t change the reality that the Node Icon is strong value for money but all the bells and whistles aren’t active as standard.

Design

• Metal rather than plastic
• Colour display and sensor panel
• Learning IR
• No volume knob

Up until now, all Nodes have used plastic as a casework material. This means the Icon is a significant departure to what has gone before.

This is the first Bluesound product be built in a metal chassis and it looks and feels like an altogether more serious piece of hardware than the smaller Nodes.

I’m not sure I’d describe it as a beautiful object; few streamers are in fairness, but it exudes a sense of purpose lacking in the lesser models. It certainly feels more substantial than any Bluesound device I’ve tested up to this point.

This perception of heft is helped by the inclusion of a full colour display for the first time. The display is not a touchscreen though. Instead Bluesound fits a second illuminated touch panel above it that functions as a control point.

This has decent responsiveness and quick access to important functionality but it’s arguably not quite as intuitive as the combination of display and jog dial which sister company NAD uses to good effect on some BluOS devices but it more than holds its own against most rivals.

Some of you might be surprised to find that that the Icon comes with no IR remote handset as standard. This might seem unforgivably tight on a near £1,000 product but there is a method at work here.

Bluesound has equipped the Icon with an IR learning feature that means it will allocate commands to codes it receives from other remote handsets. As many remotes in general circulation have hordes of unused buttons, it means you can stick day to day commands for the Icon on those and keep your remote count down.

There is one operational quirk of the Icon but how much it matters will depend on how you use it and (I suspect) how old you are.

As a device to be used as a preamp, I find that the Icon isn’t as satisfying as the Cambridge Audio CXN and EXN100 and the Eversolo DMP-A6 simply because they have a physical volume control while the Icon makes do with the touch panel but I am very aware this isn’t a universal feeling and I’ve warmed to the touch panel in the time I have been using it.

Features

• Twin DAC design with DSD support
• Digital and analogue inputs
• Preamp functionality and THX headphone amp.
• Room Correction as a cost option
• Still a great operating system

The decoding hardware that Bluesound has employed in the Icon is a step up from simpler Nodes. It uses a pair of ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M DACs; a first for Bluesound and these allow the Icon to play DSD content in a local library up to DSD256 can be handled, closing the gap to rivals (although some of those can handle.

As best as I can ascertain, this playback isn’t native (Roon shows conversion to PCM and while BluOS doesn’t give much away, I can’t see it being any different) but it’s handy to have nonetheless.

Thanks to the twin DACs, the Icon is a true balanced device and features both RCA and XLR outputs. These DACs decode streaming content but can also receive material via optical, coax, HDMI eARC and a USB audio input on a USB-C connection. This allows the Icon to work as the hub of a system in a way that some rivals are very good at.

Also present is a single RCA analogue input which makes it possible to add a turntable too. It’s important to stress that this analogue signal will be digitised but Bluesound’s parent company Lenbrook Group has a good track record in this area.

As well as being able to work as a well specified piece of source equipment at line level, the Icon features a 100 step volume control and can be used as a preamp directly into a power amp or active speakers.

This isn’t new; all Nodes are all capable of being used in this manner but the Icon is the first time this is accompanied by the sort of connectivity that would allow it to function as the front end of system.

As well as RCA and XLR outs, the Icon also features a THX AAA based headphone amplifier with a 6.35mm headphone socket on either side of the casework to make use of it. Don’t use wired headphones anymore? Don’t worry, there is a two-way Bluetooth fitment to enable the use of wireless ‘phones as well.

Where the Icon also benefits considerably as a preamp is the inclusion of DIRAC support which was activated not long after the Bluesound went on sale. This allows for either adjustment of the lower frequencies only or a full 20Hz-20kHz adjustment for $249.

I’ve already noted that this will need a microphone as well although these need not be expensive. If your equipment is in a room with challenging behaviour, the Icon is likely to have a better stab at working in this environment that almost anything else on the market. It’s also worth adding that the EQ’d signal can be sent over the optical and coaxial outputs (but not USB) as well.

Bluesound hasn’t really changed the operating system but this is a reflection that BluOS really isn’t broken. It combines effortless access of a local library with peerless streaming service support and effortless scalability to the sort of multiroom system that can handle the sort of house that needs a map of the floorplan in the stairwell. It will also work perfectly happily as a Roon Endpoint too.

Performance

• Great as a line level source…
• …but even better as a preamp
• Superb performance across the various inputs
• Great headphone amp to boot

A little while back, to celebrate ten years of trading, Bluesound released a limited edition product called the Node X to celebrate. This was a beefed up version of the normal Node but it sounded very good indeed.

Listen to the Icon for any length of time and it becomes clear that the Node X was also acting as a bit of a rolling prototype for the Icon. Running the Icon as a line level device, you can experience some of the same qualities.

This is a device able to deliver the goods with a wide selection of content over and above making perfectly mastered high res sound exquisite. Spotify, internet radio and indifferent recordings all sound as good as they can.

Be under no illusions that with a good recording, the Icon can enthral. The opening Sunset on Nitin Sawhney’s Prophecy is delivered with the contrast of the delicate vocals and thudding low end beautifully realised.

It’s got bags of energy when you need it and sufficient grace and refinement to ensure that slower and gentler material isn’t left sounding forced or strained. No less importantly, you can’t hear any of the technical sophistication at work. Instead, when Beth Hirsch delivers her stunning vocal turn in Air’s All I Need, she’s as organic and natural as you could hope for.

Good though the Icon is as a line level source, it’s better still as a preamp. The test period overlapped with a pair of PMC twenty5 23i Actives being here and, connected up via XLR, the Bluesound was absolutely in its element.

It covers all the basics extremely well; the volume ramp is beautifully linear and allows for good fine adjustment and is every bit as convincing at low levels as it is once you are wound up and listening loud (and, as the Icon has truly biblical gain, you will be able to listen very loud indeed).

The scope that Dirac has for improving this performance further is not to be underestimated too. Running Dirac via a Macbook Pro, delivered results via the PMCs that weren’t night and day different but did tighten things up further.

The ‘worth’ of the license will come down your room and how much it affects the performance. In my case I’m not completely sure I’d spend out for the needs of my house but it’s a huge potential benefit in less forgiving spaces.

Testing the digital inputs reveals no serious weaknesses either. The HDMI eARC has behaved perfectly on test and the Icon makes for a superb partner for film and TV work. That well worked balance between being exciting and forgiving is still present here and it means that everything you route through the Icon will be handled in the same wholly compelling way.

I don’t feel that the analogue input is quite as effective but running a Rega Planar 10 and Cyrus Classic Phono into it was still a decent listen. If using a turntable is going to be important, I’d say I fractionally prefer Eversolo’s DMP-A8 which keeps its analogue inputs in the analogue domain but it costs more than the Icon and isn’t as nice to use.

There is one last party piece too. I have experienced Bluesound’s AAA headphone amp when I tested a Node X so I knew what to expect but the result is still truly brilliant. It isn’t ‘good for a streamer’, it genuinely competes with any headphone source I have tested under a grand.

If you are doing a lot of headphone listening, this needs to be on the shortlist; even if you didn’t see the solution being a streamer.

Should you buy it?