Bluesound NODE ICON

The Bluesound NODE ICON is the flagship of the NODE range, and it moves the family from convenient to serious. The digital-to-analogue conversion and the analogue output stage are substantially better specified than the standard NODE, and the case is a different order of build.

It runs the same BluOS platform as every other Bluesound, NAD and Cyrus streamer, so it slots into an existing multi-room system without changing anything.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 device rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It shows up in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can assign it to a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

It is not an accessory you switch on or set the volume of from the Home app. Power, input selection and volume stay with the unit, its remote and its own app.

Before you buy

The ICON is aimed at a system where the streamer is genuinely the limiting factor. If the amplifier or the speakers are the weak point, the money does more there.

It includes a headphone stage of a standard that makes it usable as a desktop or bedside system in its own right, which the cheaper models do not.

For a second room, the NODE NANO is the sensible choice.

Specifications