Bluesound Node 2

[ecmfidelity]

I owned the Bluesound Vault 2 (the same as Node 2 + 2TB disc) for a few weeks now and I am very impressed. I am not a audiophile pattern recogition genious, but owned a fair share of equipment during the last four decades. I am very impressed with the sound of the Vault 2 - and I don't even feel the need to add "for that price"  

 

The 2 TB disc makes the value even greater. For daily use I just use the Vault 2 with my Library of non-Tidal-avalible albums, prefering Tidal if the album is to be found there. The Label ECM is not on Tidal, so the disc i a blessning. I am using analogue out, even if I have a more expensive dac - perhaps not for long.

 

Sometime I fire up my headless Roon server which is pulling the music from the Vault, sending it through ethernet back to the Vault Player. It works great! I don't think Roon is nessecary for sound quality, just the stunning organization features. Not even sure I will need Roon in the future, but I really like the tagging feature of version 1.3, and the Focus feature, and the....  

[ecmfidelity]

Agree, I have a Vault 2. Researching before buying, I came to the conclusion that Valut 2 had exactly the same dac as in Node 2. But I guess that was some kind of assumption  It's the logical answer. But who knows. It wolud be nice know it for a fact.

[ecmfidelity]

1 minute ago, mansr said:

According to sources on the internet, it's a TI/BB PCM5122. If you have the device, you could of course open it up and check.

A "dac" is hardly the same as the dac chip

[ecmfidelity]

13 minutes ago, mansr said:

What's the question then? The Node 2 is a Node 2. It doesn't have a separate little DAC box inside it.

The question, I think: Is the DAC design exaclty the same in the Node 2, Powernode 2 and Vault 2, ie is the Powernode a Node 2 with amplification and Vault 2 a Node 2 with storing?

[ecmfidelity]

22 minutes ago, mansr said:

I'd expect pre-amp outputs on all models to have the same circuit behind them. For feeding the built-in amplifier, a different driver could conceivably be used since the load is known and the wires are short. Looking inside one is probably the only way to find out for sure.

I guess you're right