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    The Computer Audiophile

    Bluesound Pulse & Vault Review

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    Those of us who care about music and sound quality, and wish to stream music around our houses, finally have a product that fits the bill. We are no longer stuck with Sonos. The Bluesound ecosystem, consisting of storage, streamers, and speakers is a much needed upgrade over the whole house systems that became so popular over the last several years. Bluesound is a well designed system with components that work together or independently. The Bluesound Pulse is a loudspeaker with built-in streaming capability. The Bluesound Vault is a NAS with built-in CD ripping and streaming capabilities as well as outputs for both analog and digital audio. Control of the Bluesound components is accomplished from a number of devices including a very nice iOS app for iPad and iPhone. Over the course of my review I was very impressed by the entire ecosystem of components and applications. I pushed the wireless capability to its limits and found a couple fairly small quirks / bugs in the apps, but certainly no showstoppers. I highly recommend the Bluesound ecosystem for people looking to sack Sonos and move into something with superior sound quality and for those who are finally ready to jump into the streaming audio water for the first time.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

     

     

     

     

     

    Bluesound Pulse

     

    The Pulse is Bluesound's all-in-one loudspeaker. It features NAD's DirectDigital amplification designed to pair perfectly with the compliment of drivers. The Pulse supports both wired Ethernet and 802.11n (2.4 GHz only) wireless network connections. There are two USB ports on the back of the unit. The Mini B port is for service only and the standard type A port is for USB drives and devices such as an optional Bluetooth dongle. Geeks will be interested to learn the Pulse runs on the Linux operating system. Ultra geeks will be interested to learn there is an advanced diagnostic web page that displays information from several commands such as df, free, if, dmesg, mounts, top, and even displays a syslog (PDF). I checked this advanced diagnostic page countless times during the review period. Not because I needed to, but because I was interested to read what was going behind the scenes as I put the Pulse through its paces. 99% of users will be completely uninterested in this advanced page, and Bluesound did an excellent job of designing the product so users don't need to care that this page even exists. The real function of the page is for the built-in "Send Support Request" feature in which the complete advanced page details are sent to Bluesound so it can better assist users with problems that arise. The Pulse supports PCM sample rates up through 192 kHz at 24 bits and the most common file types such as FLAC, AIFF, ALAC, MP3, and AAC.

     

    The Bluesound Pulse contains no built-in storage space for music. However, it accepts audio from a long list of online streaming services as well as from Network Attached Storage devices (NAS) including the Vault. The online services currently supported include Deezer (not Elite), JUKE, Murfie, Qobuz, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify, TIDAL HiFi, TuneIn, and WiMP. I tested Qobuz, TuneIn, and TIDAL HiFi during the review period with very good success. I also sent content from my NAS drive to the Pulse and from the Vault to the Pulse during the review.

     

    The Bluesound ecosystem uses an undisclosed communication method for streaming music from a local NAS based library. If I had to guess, based on looking at the log file, I'd say Bluesound simply maps a drive to the NAS and uses the SMB / CIFS protocol to move music around. Bluesound doesn't support the very common UPnP protocol. Given that one of Bluesound's taglines is "HiFi for a wireless generation" I tested the Pulse's WiFi capabilities thoroughly. At first I had the Pulse connected to my network through a older Apple Airport Express. Before streaming audio I verified the wireless signal was good via the Pulse's web interface. However, I had nothing but problems with this configuration. Not even 16/44.1 CD quality music streamed flawlessly. I switched to an Airport Extreme AC wireless access point and connected to Pulse to its 802.11n network not he 2.4 GHz band. Again, I verified the WiFi signal strength was good. The difference was dramatic. Streaming 16 bit / 44.1 kHz content from a NAS and from online services TIDAL HiFi and Qobuz was as smooth as silk. Not a single dropout. Playback of 24 bit / 96 kHz content was pretty good via wireless. I was able to stream an entire Pearl Jam concert gapless with only very small dropouts once every four tracks. Switching to 24 bit / 192 kHz content was a different story. There were way too many long dropouts to even listen to a couple tracks. Wireless streaming at 24/192 was simply unacceptable. On the other hand, streaming all resolutions including 24/192 via wired Ethernet connection was flawless. I listened to complete gapless 24/192 albums without a single gap or glitch. One additional note regarding wireless and wired connections. If adding a library stored on a NAS drive to the Pulse, it's highly recommended to connect the Pulse via wired Ethernet during this process. Indexing a library is twice as fast, about 1000 tracks per minute, when connected with Ethernet as opposed to WiFi.

     

    Sound quality of the Pulse is great. In fact it's much better than all Sonos products I've used over the years. I don't believe the Pulse's ability to play high resolution audio is the reason why it sounds so much better, because I listened to standard CD quality music much of the time. The Pulse must be looked at as a whole product without singling out the DAC, the DirectDigital bi-amping, proprietary EQ, or the drivers as a reason for its better sound quality. The sound is very even over the entire frequency range. The Pulse isn't a bass monster like the Peachtree Deepblue, but it has plenty of very tight bass. Listening to Shelby Lynne's Just A Little Lovin' via TIDAL HiFi was great. The bass line in the opening track can make less-than-stellar systems rattle and distort terribly. Through the Pulse the bass line was clear and tight. At the same time Shelby's vocals were appropriately present, not drowned out by the bass. Clicking around through the Computer Audiophile 100 playlist on TIDAL HiFi, I stopped at Goodbye Yellow Brick Road covered by Sara Bareilles live at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. This track can sound a bit "tipped-up" in the upper frequencies on very neutral systems. Through the Pulse this track sounded very smooth without a hint of hot highs. I double checked this sonic signature by playing Red or Dead from Randi Tytingvag. This is another track that can pierce ears with the high notes. The result was the same, very smooth. Perhaps the Pulse is a bit too smooth for some listeners, but I found the sound pleasing without a hint of harshness. Moving on to Jay Z's Holy Grail track from the Magna Carta album, I wanted to hear how the Pulse responded to hip hop music with very serious bass / beats. The sound was awesome. Not awesome in the same way that it would be played through my $100,000 main audio system, rather awesome in the way that I want my music to sound in other rooms of my house when I have friends over or awesome in the way I want to feel the bass without firing up my Pass Labs amps and TAD loudspeakers. The bass on Holy Grail went from great when standing in the center of my room to killer when moving toward to the Pulse placed near the corner of the room. The Pulse is capable of producing pure fun. One additional listening test I do once in a while is playing the Red Hot Chili Pepper's Californication album through HiFi components. This album is famous for the incredible amount of dynamic range compression that's really deleterious to the sound quality. When played through the Bluesound Pulse this album sounds decent. The Pulse's ability to smooth out imperfections can only go so far. A completely neutral, note: expensive, HiFi system will produce this album in all its terrible glory making it nearly unlistenable. The credit the Bluesound team for voicing the Pulse with great balance that lets good recordings shine and the not-so-good recordings enjoyable.

     

     

     

     

    Bluesound Vault

     

    As its name implies, the Vault is a storage device for one's music collection. It's also an almost-all-in-one device in that it supports nearly everything the Pulse supports but doesn't contain speakers. In addition the Vault has built-in CD ripping capability that is absent on the Pulse. The Vault supports all the streaming from online services and other NAS drives just like the Pulse, but it's outputs are either analog via RCA jacks or digital via a TosLink optical connection. The Vault is really a NAS drive without the configuration hassle of a traditional NAS drive, but also without redundant hard drives. It connects to the network via wired Ethernet only. CD ripping is done using CD Paranoia mode and can encode music into FLAC, MP3, WAV, MP3+FLAC, or MP3+WAV. Each disc takes around 13 minutes to rip, followed by a few minutes to finish encoding. CD ripping is automatic when a disc is inserted into the Vault and there are no additional configuration options. There is also no native method to edit metadata before or after the CD is ripped. Fortunately the Vault's 2 TB hard drive appears as a shared drive on the local network when browsing from any computer that supports SMB (think Windows, OS X, Linux, etc…). This network availability comes in handy for editing metadata using an application such as JRiver Media Center or iTunes for the non-FLAC files. The fact that encoding the files can take longer than ripping the CD can lead to an unkempt library when ripping several CDs in a row. That is until the Vault has had an opportunity to catch up. For example, ripping Lady Gaga's album Born this Way produced two separate albums, one with a single track and the other with all remaining tracks. After waiting for a period of time all tracks from this album migrated into a single visible album and all way good. Speaking of Lady gaga, the Vault an issue with case sensitivity. I ripped three Lady gaga albums to the Vault and only a single album was visible for editing metadata from a Windows or Mac computer. This is because operating systems handle case sensitivity differently. The Vault ripped the albums into two different artist folders, A. Lady Gaga and B. Lady GaGa. One album was in the "Gaga" folder while two albums were in the "GaGa" folder. Only the single album in the "Gaga" folder was visible from other computers, even though al albums were visible and playable via the Bluesound interfaces. I'll spare readers the intricacies of the complete story, but will say the fix for this issue is to rename the visible folder from a Mac or Windows or Linux computer to something like Lady Gaga1. This makes the Lady GaGa folder visible on all computers and enables the user to move all albums into a single folder and remove the other now unused folder. Again, this is only a problem is one needs to edit metadata for an artist with case sensitive naming issues in the online metadata database used by Bluesound. (I'm told Ray LaMontagne is also a problematic name). One additional issue I found with the Vault was with several tracks that couldn't be indexed and made available / playable via any interface (iOS, desktop, Android). When looking through the advanced diagnostic logs I noticed the re-indexing of the library failed to add 21 tracks with at least one apostrophe in the track's filename name. After further investigation I found many more tracks that contained an apostrophe weren't added to the library. Tracks like Shelby Lynne's Just A Little Lovin' wasn't added to the library but was also absent from the log file. However, tracks like Breakin' Me from Jonny Lang were indexed just fine and listed in the library. Both tracks have an apostrophe in the file name and the track title embedded into the metadata but only one of them was excluded from the library. I'm not sure what the final outcome of this finding is, but it's something to be aware of for Bluesound Vault owners.

     

    For the most part I was very happy with he Bluesound Vault. Its ease of use when ripping CDs was really nice. I just sat at my desk with a stack of CDs and slid them into the unit one at a time while working at my computer. The built-in 2 TB hard drive is nearly silent. It can only be heard when spins up and if one's ear is right next to the unit. Thus, for all intents and purposes the Vault is completely silent. When used in combination with the Pulse, the Vault's library is seamlessly available to the Pulse as if it was stored locally on both devices. The Bluesound ecosystem works incredibly well when multiple units are used together.

     

     

     

     

    Applications

     

    The Bluesound ecosystem is controlled with the Bluesound application. This app runs on iOS, Android, OS X, Windows, and Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets. During the review I used the iOS app on my iPad and iPhone as well as the desktop app for OS X. All versions are pretty intuitive. I didn't pull out the user manual once and was still able to figure things out without much trouble. Initial setup of the Pulse and Vault was dead simple through these applications. I even factory reset the Pulse unit to run through everything a second time just to make sure the first simple setup wasn't a fluke. it wasn't, getting the Bluesound ecosystem up and running is incredibly easy. The Bluesound app enables the user to easily access online services such as TIDAL HiFi, Qobuz, and TuneIn as well as local network attached storage based collections. Searching any of these sources of music is also easy, but searching with the desktop app, users may need a little hint at how to switch sources. In my notes I had written down that it wasn't possible to search online services using the desktop application. Fortunately I talked to Bluesound support who guided me through the simple yet somewhat hidden process of selecting the different source to be searched. On the left side of the search box is a little folder icon with a music note. Simply clicking this icon reveals a drop-down menu of the configured online services and local library. Selecting one of these options focusses the search on that option only. Now that I've been told how to do it, I can't believe I couldn't figure it out on my own.

     

    Navigating online services such as TIDAL HiFi is pretty smooth, but not without some minor issues. Through the Bluesound iOS app it's possible to access one's TIDAL HiFi favorites, including playlists, but it's not possible to edit or add TIDAL playlists. This is similar to Sonos and somewhat of a pain. Ideally it would be possible to edit or create TIDAL playlists on any platform and have these edits appear on all the other platforms. For example, when I'm in the car I may create a quick TIDAL playlist. This playlist does appear in the Bluesound application. However, I would also like to create a playlist from the Bluesound app and have it appear in the TIDAL app on my iPhone. One example of this type of two-way "communication" is already possible when it comes to favorites. it's possible to add albums or artists to one's TIDAL favorites from both the Bluesound platform and the TIDAL platform and have them appear everywhere. Maybe this can be extended to playlists in the future. One bug I found while testing TIDAL HiFi through the Bluesound ecosystem is related to search results. When searching for artist Natalie merchant within the Bluesound apps TIDAL returned four albums. However, when searching TIDAL from the TIDAL application and the Aurender music server, seven Natalie Merchant albums are available. I couldn't reproduce this bug with any other artist. It's likely a very minor issue to be resolved in the near future. Again, navigation of TIDAL and the other online services through the Bluesound applications is pretty smooth without any showstoppers. In fact, based on my experience, I believe the Bluesound ecosystem is made for services like TODAL HiFi and Qobuz. Streaming lossless quality music around the house without worrying about a local music collection is very nice and works great.

     

    Navigating a local library is an even better experience than the online services, but of course it's still limited to the music one owns and all the responsibility that comes with keeping a local music collection. Through the Bluesound apps it's possible to mix both local NAS based music and music from an online service in the same playlist and the same playback queue. The Bluesound devices simply roll right through the playlist without skipping a beat no matter where the music is stored. This is a really nice feature that some of the much more expensive solutions don't feature. One of the best features I found during this review is what I call the information button. I found no reference to this button in the user manual, which leads me to believe it's a fairly new feature. The information button, be selected from the Now Playing screen, reveals not only information but also provides links / shortcuts. For example, while listening to Frank Sinatra i selected the information button. In the popup window appeared a link to the specific album I was listening to, a link to all Frank's albums stored locally on my NAS / Vault, a Last.fm link, a technical info link that displayed the file format, sample rate, bit depth, and additional links to all of Frank's albums on TIDAL and Qobuz (the two services I configured). I absolutely love this feature! A couple minor issues I have with the Bluesound apps are 1. The fact that album artwork is limited to 600 KB or it's not displayed, and 2. There is no capability to add tracks to play next in the queue, it's only y possible to add new music to the end of the queue. Ideally Bluesound would enable a press and hold feature for albums, tracks, and even artists that would enable users to add this music to the queue as the next to play, first to play, last to play, etc… Most other apps include such a feature. Despite these relatively minor issues, it's my view the Bluesound applications are very polished.

     

     

     

     

    Conclusion

     

    The Bluesound ecosystem as a whole is very nice. Specifically both the Pulse and Vault fill the void that Sonos and many others wouldn't fill. Combining both a great user experience and great sound quality is what Bluesound is all about. Designed by audiophiles at prices the masses can afford is also what makes Bluesound so appealing. Users don't have to break the bank for great quality. Whether streaming from TIDAL HiFI, Qobuz, TuneIn, Spotify (connect), or one's local music collection the Bluesound ecosystem is seamless. The Vault is so simple a monkey could use it while the Pulse, even easier to use, can really kick out the jams. Listening to all music through the Pulse was not only enjoyable but it was a fun experience that I look forward to sharing with friends in the near future. I highly recommend the Bluesound ecosystem, the Pulse, and the Vault as a way to bring great music and great sound to every area of one's house.

     

     

     

     

     

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    Product Information:

    • Product - Bluesound Pulse and Bluesound Vault
    • Price - $699 - Pulse, $999 - Vault
    • Pulse Product Page - Link
    • Vault Product Page - Link
    • Pulse User Manual - Link (PDF)
    • Vault User Manual - Link (PDF)

     

     

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    Associated Music:

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Where To Buy (CA Supporter):

     

     

     

     

     

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    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    Thanks for the review Chris! I am looking to move on from my Squeezeboxes that are spread around the house and this looks like the ticket to me.

     

    One thing your review didn't mention is that the NAD M50 streamer and M12 dac (with add-in card) run the same software and can integrate into the bluesound system. So if you want something a bit better than the bluesound label has to offer, you can keep the user interface but go to the NAD. I would be very curious what you thought of the NAD M50 running AES into your BerkeleyRS...

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    Having previously owned the Node, I can vouch for the unit in terms of ease of use and sound quality. For those people with very large libraries will need to know that the system caps out at 100,000 tracks.

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    FYI- I believe that you can add tracks to play next in the queue. Go to Settings in the Navigation Drawer. From here you can select Last, Next, or Now. I much prefer this to the press and hold technique. I keep deleting my playlists while streaming from my SBT.

     

    Thanks for the review Chris- now I know why some of my album art doesn't show up while streaming from the Node. I stream from the Node thru wired Ethernet. Like you, I have not had any dropouts even while streaming 24/192. The Node is a great replacement for the SBT.

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    my primary problem with the Vault is it's limited to ethernet- there's no wifi, which limits where i can place it.

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    my primary problem with the Vault is it's limited to ethernet- there's no wifi, which limits where i can place it.
    Buy a Node instead its both. Then you can get a hard drive for your router for storage

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    Thanks for the review, these do sound like a solid choice if you've got the cash.

     

    I'd be curious to see you review the new Harman Kardon Omni system. The Omnis are undoubtedly a step down from Bluesound, and the App and ecosystem are still very much a work in progress.

     

    But the Omnis cost a lot less than than Bluesound, and can also be had for less than Sonos if you keep your eyes open. The Omnis supports 24-96, have Bluetooth built in, Qobuz and Tidal streaming, small footprint and good wife approval factor, and some other cool features.

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    Having previously owned the Node, I can vouch for the unit in terms of ease of use and sound quality. For those people with very large libraries will need to know that the system caps out at 100,000 tracks.

     

    What's with that track limit? I suspect many have already surpassed this number. Is that some kind of memory limitation to how they manage the database???

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    I bought a Bluesound Node based at least in part on this review. I’ve had NAD equipment since the eighties. Quality is a given, and the hardware is great here as well. Apparently, they can’t afford a software engineer though because unlike you, I found the app to be utter garbage. I tried the iOS iPad, iOS iPhone, and Mac OSX desktop versions. Since there’s no other way to control the hardware, I’ve had to return that too. High definition may sound better than what an Apple TV can do, but not at this price. Nothing is worth this. Do yourself a favor and stick to iTunes and Apple TV if you want wireless until someone comes up with an alternative with a credible user interface. Maybe the Auralic Aries? I'd like to try that next. If you use Bluesound, be prepared to: loose all your metadata and start from scratch for each and every track; loose all your playlists, and start from scratch reorganizing your entire library; not listen to classical music as it doesn’t sort sorting by composer; have the player play when you don’t want, not play when you do, and otherwise behave erratically; throw your laptop and Bluesound through the window after hours of frustration simply trying to get a playlist to behave like it does on every desktop music management software that’s been around for literally a decade (iTunes, J River, Audirvana+, Plex, etc…). Garbage, I think. Look at the reviews for the iOS app on the app store. Those (only 2) are my experience as well.

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    I bought a Bluesound Node based at least in part on this review. I’ve had NAD equipment since the eighties. Quality is a given, and the hardware is great here as well. Apparently, they can’t afford a software engineer though because unlike you, I found the app to be utter garbage. I tried the iOS iPad, iOS iPhone, and Mac OSX desktop versions. Since there’s no other way to control the hardware, I’ve had to return that too. High definition may sound better than what an Apple TV can do, but not at this price. Nothing is worth this. Do yourself a favor and stick to iTunes and Apple TV if you want wireless until someone comes up with an alternative with a credible user interface. Maybe the Auralic Aries? I'd like to try that next. If you use Bluesound, be prepared to: loose all your metadata and start from scratch for each and every track; loose all your playlists, and start from scratch reorganizing your entire library; not listen to classical music as it doesn’t sort sorting by composer; have the player play when you don’t want, not play when you do, and otherwise behave erratically; throw your laptop and Bluesound through the window after hours of frustration simply trying to get a playlist to behave like it does on every desktop music management software that’s been around for literally a decade (iTunes, J River, Audirvana+, Plex, etc…). Garbage, I think. Look at the reviews for the iOS app on the app store. Those (only 2) are my experience as well.

    Hi perizoqui - What iOS apps for music control do you like better than the Bluesound app?

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    Hi Chris,

    Well now that's a great question. The Apple Remote app has similar intended functionality (piping music from mac to dac) using the Apple TV instead of the Bluesound Node as the bridge. I think it's much much better. Wonderful actually. Recognizes all my metadata, playlists, etc... Supports listing and searching by composers for us classical music lovers, and much else besides. Then again, Apple is a user interface company so I'm not surprised they do this wonderfully. Their audio hardware on the other hand... Other (i.e. non-Apple) apps for music control? I haven't found any yet, but I just started looking. The Lightning DS seems to support composers, but I won't know more until if and when I get an Aries... Recommendations would be very welcome from the expert (i.e. you).

    ---Pedro

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    Hi Chris,

    Actually, I'm putting the Aries on hold while I build your BeagleBone solution. Thank you so much for setting this up! Can't wait to try it. While I wait for parts to arrive, two questions:

    1) Given that you've tested the BBB to be bit perfect, how does the audio compare to the Auralic Aries and the SOtM? I don't want to get you in trouble with your sponsors, but I'm curious as to how close you get.

    2) Using your BBB setup with MinimServer on my Synology NAS, what control point would you recommend on the iOS and on the Mac? I know you use JRiver, but if I don't, what would your second favorite be?

    Thank you again for what you do here. You should set up a link to your favorite charity so those of us who want to thank you for what you've done can do so in that way.

    Best,

    ---Pedro

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    I bought a Bluesound Node based at least in part on this review. I’ve had NAD equipment since the eighties. Quality is a given, and the hardware is great here as well. Apparently, they can’t afford a software engineer though because unlike you, I found the app to be utter garbage. I tried the iOS iPad, iOS iPhone, and Mac OSX desktop versions. Since there’s no other way to control the hardware, I’ve had to return that too. High definition may sound better than what an Apple TV can do, but not at this price. Nothing is worth this. Do yourself a favor and stick to iTunes and Apple TV if you want wireless until someone comes up with an alternative with a credible user interface. Maybe the Auralic Aries? I'd like to try that next. If you use Bluesound, be prepared to: loose all your metadata and start from scratch for each and every track; loose all your playlists, and start from scratch reorganizing your entire library; not listen to classical music as it doesn’t sort sorting by composer; have the player play when you don’t want, not play when you do, and otherwise behave erratically; throw your laptop and Bluesound through the window after hours of frustration simply trying to get a playlist to behave like it does on every desktop music management software that’s been around for literally a decade (iTunes, J River, Audirvana+, Plex, etc…). Garbage, I think. Look at the reviews for the iOS app on the app store. Those (only 2) are my experience as well.

     

    Dude, my experience was nothing like yours. I helped setup an NAD M12 with the BluOS card (identical software) and had only minor problems in setup. The library is stored on a Vortexbox and the majority of tracks were ripped by that particular votexbox but there is plenty of purchased hi-res stuff on there too. I had a few hickups with indexing the library because a few playlists had characters that were either Cyrillic or Asian (perhaps beyond normal ASCII range?) Once I got those figured out with the assistance of the online support guys it built the index and worked flawlessly. The other comment I would make is that the bluOS support guys were very responsive even around the holidays. Emails were replied to usually within 2 hours, or by the next morning at the longest. But your complaints of losing playlists and metadata weren't an issue at all. If this is your experience then something went very wrong. Technical problems only frustrated me for a few hours in total. I am coming from a Squeezebox so I was expecting some frustration but was actually pleasantly surprised by how slick the thing worked.

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    Like a few others on here I'm looking to replace my squeezeboxes and this looks a very good candidate. I have a Sqzbx Classic, Boom and Touch and they all seem to be a good health - I'm more interested in the Vault at this stage in the hope that it will get rid of the glitches that my computer seems to occaisionally deliver when playing through my SQZBXs and my question is will they all play nicely together? Apprecaite any comments help anyone can give.

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    Hi perizoqui - What iOS apps for music control do you like better than the Bluesound app?

     

    I've tried a bunch in the last week. I found the Linn apps disappointing in the end as well. Lightning DS is okay, but not great. I'm using PlugPlayer now and I think it's far and away the best of the bunch. Better than iTunes user interface in everything except I haven't yet figured out how (if it's possible) to pull up information on a track with it (resolution, metadata, etc...), and I wish it had write privileges to the NAS so I can edit metadata and create playlists with them.

     

    Having played more I think I understand the Bluesound app better. If you're already using UPnP and it's variants then it's not very different from the Linn, Lightning and other apps. My disappointment came from its promise to read your iTunes library and work well from there. I think it's a case of overpromising and underdelivering. Also, I couldn't get 24/96 streaming on my wireless network reliably and it had excellent signal strength. More overpromising and underdelivering. Even so I feel bad about how harsh I was initially. I've just always felt NAD/PSB overdeliver, and here I don't think they do.

     

    Now I'm using your BeagleBoard setup (thank you), PlugPlayer, and happily running my library of 24/192 files with zero issues. And all for $82 all in. Amazing stuff and I owe this website for the education. Thanks. Next week it's Axpona and I'm looking forward to swinging by the Auralic room and comparing.

    Best,

    ---Pedro

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    I have always considered that the Golden Rule for quality reviewing is NOT to trash other products, no matter how subtly, to promote your own argument.

    How disappointing then to find that the reviewer has chosen to casually traduce the excellent Sonos system not once but twice in his opening paragraph.

    The niggly disparagement then continues throughout the article.

    Sonos is deservedly the market leader in multi-room wireless hi-fi. When fed quality files, the SQ is excellent. The set-up and app are without peer. The experience is marvellous.

    I have no doubt this Bluesound system is also very good; Sonos has created such a good product that the bar has been set very, very high.

    Further, the debate about so-called high-resolution files will rage a lot longer. However, if recording and mastering are of an equal quality, then 16/44.1 is going to be good enough for almost everyone bar ten year olds and dogs.

    I have had the good fortune to experience my youngest brother's in-built digital Linn system in his substantial London town house. The system consists of speakers built into the ceilings and stand-mounters throughout. My brother is a classical pianist and frequently cranks up the Chopin and Ravel; it sounds much like the Fazioli in his drawing-room.

    When I play the same music in my home, it also sounds fantastic. On a Sonos system.

    Okay, I am in my late 50's and life has no doubt taken a toll on my hearing and I am more susceptible to fatigue from poor music files than younger people but I do not accept your opinion on Bluesound on the grounds that your overt antipathy to Sonos has muddied and prejudiced your judgement.

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    Chris - Thanks for the review. I was considering getting a Sonos Play5 to provide a wireless method for accessing my music outdoors. When you commended the superior sound of the BlueSound, I naturally had to rethink my plan. But its gaps in wirelessly streaming large audio files makes me wonder if this is the right choice for me.

     

    My library includes a number of 192/24 FLAC albums and I'm starting to acquire DSD as well. But you discovered the Bluesound can't stream these files wirelesly without substantial dropouts. I was wondering if you know how well the Sonos handles these files. Even if the Sonos is not as good sonically, if it doesn't create dropouts, it may be the way for me to go. But if the Sonos won't handle those files either, I guess I need to wait a while till a better solution comes along.

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    Chris - Thanks for the review. I was considering getting a Sonos Play5 to provide a wireless method for accessing my music outdoors. When you commended the superior sound of the BlueSound, I naturally had to rethink my plan. But its gaps in wirelessly streaming large audio files makes me wonder if this is the right choice for me.

     

    My library includes a number of 192/24 FLAC albums and I'm starting to acquire DSD as well. But you discovered the Bluesound can't stream these files wirelesly without substantial dropouts. I was wondering if you know how well the Sonos handles these files. Even if the Sonos is not as good sonically, if it doesn't create dropouts, it may be the way for me to go. But if the Sonos won't handle those files either, I guess I need to wait a while till a better solution comes along.

    Sonos is limited to 16/44.1 only.

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    Sonos is limited to 16/44.1 only.

     

    Sonos' website says: "Support for compressed MP3, iTunes Plus, WMA (including purchased Windows Media downloads), AAC (MPEG4), AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, Audible (format 4), Apple Lossless, Flac (lossless) music files, as well as uncompressed WAV and AIFF files. Native support for 44.1kHz sample rates. Additional support for 48kHz, 32kHz, 24kHz, 22kHz, 16kHz, 11kHz, and 8kHz sample rates."

     

    I understood this to mean that there must be some firmware upgrades or other tweaks that allow the Play5 to run sample rates above 44.1. I just don't know if it fares an better at streaming wireless than the Bluesound.

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    Sonos' website says: "Support for compressed MP3, iTunes Plus, WMA (including purchased Windows Media downloads), AAC (MPEG4), AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, Audible (format 4), Apple Lossless, Flac (lossless) music files, as well as uncompressed WAV and AIFF files. Native support for 44.1kHz sample rates. Additional support for 48kHz, 32kHz, 24kHz, 22kHz, 16kHz, 11kHz, and 8kHz sample rates."

     

    I understood this to mean that there must be some firmware upgrades or other tweaks that allow the Play5 to run sample rates above 44.1. I just don't know if it fares an better at streaming wireless than the Bluesound.

    Nope. No tweaks etc... For all intents and purposes Sonos is limited to 44.1. Listing all the other sample rates is for marketing because nobody has content below 44.1 that they want to stream through Sonos.

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    Nope. No tweaks etc... For all intents and purposes Sonos is limited to 44.1. Listing all the other sample rates is for marketing because nobody has content below 44.1 that they want to stream through Sonos.

     

    FYI Sonos can also play 16/48 KHz files. (I know, I know who cares, just pointing out for accuracy)

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    FYI Sonos can also play 16/48 KHz files. (I know, I know who cares, just pointing out for accuracy)

    Kind of why I said "for all intents and purposes..." :~) As you say, who cares about 16/48 :~)

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    Guys, I'm extremely interested in this topic because I do indeed want good sound in my bedroom without a lot of fuss, space, or cost. I've actually been thinking a lot about this for the last two months.

     

    The first thing I had come up with after comparing 'one box' speaker systems at several stores - the only one worth giving 10 seconds of thought was the Bowers and Wilkins A7, but I still wanted more. The A7 was obviously better than the Martin Logan similar, which was a bit disappointing as the ML looks great from ML I would expect something quite serious. But, like everything, it is built to a price point.

     

    Bowers & Wilkins A7 AirPlay Speaker

     

    Which uses air play and has a control app. Download Bowers & Wilkins Setup Apps including AirPlay wireless iTunes Setup App

     

    The other one I found, but couldn't listen to, is the Polk Woodbourne.

     

    Woodbourne - Polk Audio

     

    I'd be very interested to see how these compare to the Bluesound.

     

    Note as a principle it is possible that 16/44.1 streamed ota will sound better with a better amp and speakers than 24/96 on a bad amp and speakers, so while I certainly want the highest quality streaming to take place I think the whole system will matter a lot and we can't just look at what rate is being sent over.

     

     

     

    Okay, but then something crazy came to me. If we don't expect other people to put two devices together for us, perhaps we can do it ourselves, and better. So it isn't one box, but it can be minimal.

     

    Where I ended up with that style of thinking is the NuForce DDA-120 and either Gallo A'Diva Speakers or my favourite company for small-space speakers, Mark and Daniel. The NuForce DDA-120 is sooooo small it is ridiculous. I recently put a DDA-100 (previous model) into someone's system which was over 15k and attached it to his 6k speakers, and at moderate volumes was not embarrased by the 15k system at all! His wife said 'Oh, that looks great, if that sounds so good why do we need those racks of other stuff.' My friend decided on the spot never to let me in his house again. In fact, it may have equaled or bettered his system in detail - one of the effects of pwm. In the end the DDA-100 has little oomph and can't drive low impedance low sensitivity speakers to high levels and lacks ultimate dynamics, but on many musical passages is *shockingly* good. I am saying it actually is on par with 10 - 15k systems given the limited dynamics. And it is around 5 inches by 5 inches!!!

     

    NuForce DDA 120:

     

    DDA120 :: Optoma NuForce

     

    Now pair that with your favourite tiny speaker. For me that is A'Diva Ti (Oh, I guess now called A'Diva SE):

     

    Anthony Gallo Acoustics | A'Diva SE Loudspeakers - Satellite Speakers

     

    for 329 each, or if you want to go a little crazy the Mark and Daniel mini, which is well, I guess blowing the budget part of this out of the water.

     

    Mark And Daniel Of America - Maximus Mini

     

     

    So that gives a few options:

     

    DDA-120 + ADiva SE = 700 + 330*2 = 1360

     

    Note Gallo has less expensive speakers but the Adiva SE really does do a great job - sounds like a real hi-fi speaker in the right settings. I think of the small round speakers you need the highest end tweeter they offer to get rid of high-end harshness that may exist in the ones that are half the price.

     

    Next option, and I know I'm getting too expensive here, but this is sooo tempting as you are now getting a system that given gentle music with little bass, i.e., female vocals, quite a bit of Jazz, non-romantic-era classical, a run for the money against 10k systems from 5 years ago:

     

    DDA-120 + M&D Mini = 700 + 1260 = 1960

     

    Now, at 2k you are also getting into other dangerous territory like the Devialet Phantom. The decision point there is likely the possible benefit of stereo separation and I would assume better highs with a true ribbon tweeter vs infinite bass on the side of the phantom and ease of install/placement/no wires and the fact that very few things look cooler.

     

     

    So I'm sort of heading in those directions for the bedroom/2nd room. Some people here have amazingly expensive systems, so for a second system like the DDA-120+M&D Mini it isn't too expensive for what you get. Some people's main systems may even get jealous. :)

     

    Both of those speakers can come in 100% white and are small enough to be mounted in a 2nd room on the walls or corners or whatever so except for speaker cable can disappear and should have really good WAF factor.

     

     

    I always like it when a line of thought starts at 400 and ends up at 2k.

     

     

    Oh - to be clear here are the DDA-120 connection options, since we are talking about wireless phone/device driven sound:

     

    "For the very highest wireless Bluetooth sound quality the DDA120 supports aptX and AAC.

    AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) was designed to achieve better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates. Unlike aptX, it is supported by iOS devices. Apple implements AAC over Bluetooth at about 250 kbps - near CD quality."

     

    For a control app, you would just send direct from Tidal or wherever the music is as far as I can understand.

     

    And of course, if you are willing to use a cable you can easily get the digital out at many rates from the iPhone using a digital-out dock (benefit of charging) or there is a trick using a couple of adapters on top of eachother ending in USB (How to Connect Android, iPad, or iPhone to a DAC | JDS Labs Blog).

     

     

     

    Later, if that wasn't enough spend for a clock-radio speaker system :), while I don't think you want to mess with the speaker outputs on a class D pwm dac-amp going direct to a woofer, but who knows, maybe it is fine, the DDA-120 does have an optical digital out, which could be connected to any sub that takes a digital in, or you put inline there a really really cheap DAC, something at the $70 or $100 level and that allows any sub to be added later which is the one thing all of the options here lack - really good bass. Oh, and I should say, that is something you may be shocked at by the M&D speaker, how much bass they can get from such a small enclosure. In fact it claims to go down to 50 Hz. I'm more familiar with their slightly larger brethren and I can definitely say most will be quite shocked by what the high excursion woofer can do inside the marble (read: doesn't change shape/move under high pressure) cabinet.

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    Kind of why I said "for all intents and purposes..." :~) As you say, who cares about 16/48 :~)

     

    What does that mean; 'who cares about 16/48'?

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    Chris,

     

    Any thoughts on the sound quality of the Vault. In particular, having only an optical digital output seems to be a limiting factor.

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