Bluesound NODE

The Bluesound NODE is the streamer most often recommended to somebody who wants to add network audio to an existing hi-fi, and it has held that position for years.

The reason is BluOS. Bluesound is part of the same group as NAD and Cyrus, and BluOS is the streaming platform they share: a mature multi-room system with genuinely good handling of large local libraries, which is where most streaming apps fall down.

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.

Note that you now have two multi-room systems available: BluOS across Bluesound and NAD equipment, and AirPlay 2 across HomePods. Both work, and mixing them means two apps.

Before you buy

The NODE has a DAC and a volume control, so it can feed a power amplifier directly as well as a normal amplifier’s line input.

The NODE NANO is the smaller and cheaper version, and the NODE ICON the more serious one.

Specifications