Article: A 2020 Review of the BluOS Platform

[The Computer Audiophile]

7 minutes ago, rherron said:

I can't seem to find that option, on the android app or the desktop app. All I can find is the 'Bluetooth Headphones' option under Home / My Players ...

Check page 18 here - https://nadelectronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/C658_eng_OM_v05.pdf

[rherron]

Thank you, I've tried that ,... but no luck. It seems to me that since both devices, the C658 and the Sony XM3 are connecting over bluetooth to the android BluOS app then they can't both connect and control audio - does this make sense? Or perhaps it has worked for others... The BluOS android app has never connected the headphones in any shape or form.. the 'Bluetooth Headphones' - Devices icon just spins out forever... I'll do up some screengrabs to explain it better

[stefano_mbp]

@The Computer Audiophile
I’m very impressed that in your review there is no mention about the terrific way BluOS manages the tags.

No multi item tags are considered/processed as they should be (ie Artist and Genre), according to ID3 and Vorbis standards.

What is an app without the ability to “surf” the music library with all the metadata informations available? Particularly for classical music.

Take a look to Lumin app with MinimServer and compare it to BluOS  .... BluOS is the Hell and Lumin the Paradise.

I do understand that BluOS is a complete environment but the ability to manage metadata should be at the first place, without it my library is totally unusable.....

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, stefano_mbp said:

@The Computer Audiophile
I’m very impressed that in your review there is no mention about the terrific way BluOS manages the tags.

No multi item tags are considered/processed as they should be (ie Artist and Genre), according to ID3 and Vorbis standards.

What is an app without the ability to “surf” the music library with all the metadata informations available? Particularly for classical music.

Take a look to Lumin app with MinimServer and compare it to BluOS  .... BluOS is the Hell and Lumin the Paradise.

I do understand that BluOS is a complete environment but the ability to manage metadata should be at the first place, without it my library is totally unusable.....

Looks like you found a product that meets your needs (Lumin) and understand that the BluOS platform isn't for you. That's great to read. 

[stefano_mbp]

6 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Looks like you found a product that meets your needs (Lumin) and understand that the BluOS platform isn't for you. That's great to read. 

That’s true but we would like to find in the reviews all the pros and cons described objectively, not everyone is capable of understanding all aspects of technology and certain huge flaws should be highlighted.
Otherwise what are reviews for?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, stefano_mbp said:

That’s true but we would like to find in the reviews all the pros and cons described objectively, not everyone is capable of understanding all aspects of technology and certain huge flaws should be highlighted.
Otherwise what are reviews for?

There are endless reasons for writing a review and endless audiences which read a review. Listing "all the pros and cons described objectively" would lead to a treatise that possibly 1% of readers would find useful. There must be a balance and an understanding of one's audience. As the saying goes, you can't please all the people all the time.  

[dainapoo]

Hi, 

 

A little late to this party, but, also right on time. Haven't been checking in, in awhile. I'll just start by saying that I've been streaming in some form since about 2000. Without going through all the girations, I'll just say that my first real venture into streaming was in 2007, when I bought a Squeezebox. I've tried many different things over the years, staying with one for several years before moving on. I had a PC with an expensive Lynx AES 16 audio inferface going out through SPDIF, until my son in law told me about these things called Raspberry Pi's. Eventually I settled on running Pi's or Pi like devices through 3 different zones in my house and using Diet Pi and Squeezebox's own/old Logitech Media Server software. When my Squeezebox died, I just bought another Pi and used my phone for control of all the zones. It's worked just fine. .

 

Meanwhile, my main "Audiophile" system had a Pi-like streamer from Allo, and I had separate everythings - meaning DAC, Phono preamp, headphone amp, main preamp and streamer, all of these connected in some fashion to an ancient slightly modified Dynaco PAS 3 preamp. I also have a tuner, and a turntable all feeding a Quad power amp. This drives Magnepans with a pair of Vandersteen subwoofers. Over the years, there has  been many devices in and out of my system - this was just the latest, but at 66, I'm fairly happy. Then I moved about 6 months ago. And during that time, I got the urge to simplify. I had been following different Swiss army knife-like devices. I purposely didn't set up my system, I kept looking, thinking, reading, and one day, I revisited something I'd looked at, but didn't really consider before, again. Of all the products in the world, it turned out to be the C658 from NAD. I only knew about it from reading reviews of the C298 amp - my Quad amp needed a little work, and I was considering the simple C298. I sold and owned NAD stuff back when I was in the business, but it had been awhile. Then I read or re-read one of the C658 reviews, and almost like a lightning bolt, I thought, "what am I waiting for?"- this thing has all the things I own separately now AND it has DIRAC!! Which I had been following for several years. And it was not going to break the bank - I could keep everything and try this out and if it didn't work out, I'd just sell it! It was almost over night. But, what about this Blu OS? The only thing I had not been able to verify regarding Blu OS was that "FOLDER MODE" you mentioned. I'd organized my files going back to the beginning and over time, I developed my own genres and I have everything right where I want them. About 27,000 files worth plus Qobuz. For me, without it, It's a dealbreaker. I tried Roon, but I couldn't find any of my files. I just assumed there was a "native mode", that would allow me to browse my hard drive, because I had used players going all the way back to Winamp, on a PC, coming out straight to an integrated amp, before DACs were even known, or maybe even existed as a separate audio product. But, NO! It didn't. I talked to a few people at Roon and they explained why they didn't offer it and explained all the things I got because of their extensive system, with all the metadata etc. All I could say was great, but right now, I can't even find most of my music. I don't "just search",  because at my age, I forget what the artist is even called sometimes! But I know it's somewhere in a genre that I call Indie (including synth)-Pop-Rock-Folk (makes perfect sense to me!) and from there it's in alphabetical order.... ahh, there they are! - The XX. I found an answer to the Folder mode question in a BluOS forum, so armed only with that, I pulled the trigger. Anyway, two weeks ago I set up the system I had in my old house, in my new house, to get a baseline for sound and this weekend, I'm making the big switch. I'm cautiously optimistic. Maybe I'll report back. Thanks so much for this article I'd overlooked before. Feeling even better still!

 

Best,

 

Daina Wilburn