NODE ICON (N530) Reference Music Streamer

The NODE ICON is Bluesound's flagship music streamer.  Solidly built and housed within an aluminum chassis, the anchor point of the ICON is its dual-mono DAC Chipset, using ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M DACs. As a result of this choices, everything surrounding the ICON has been improved as well, from power supply circuitry down to isolation circuitry and filtering.  Independent tests have shown that the ICON is more than a capable DAC, it's excellent.  With nearly 2 volts of analog output at 115-117 dB S/N, and a 20 bit dynamic range using single ended outputs, this setup is clean and compelling.  The I/O interface is equally impressive with a host of inputs including analog, HDMI eARC, optical, and USB-C.  Outputs include optical, coaxial, subwoofer, and both balanced and unbalanced analog.  The network interface has also been widely improved, as well as BlueTooth AptX Adaptive.   The ICON can also be used as a headphone preamp with THX AAA headphone technology and dual headphone output jacks. DIRIAC Live sound optimization can be utilize to measure and match room performance and acoustics, and the full-color 5" (non-touch) display is vibrant and beautiful.  $1,199