I’ve carped almost ad infinitum in these pages about the difficulties of photographing an audio component that’s both shiny and monochrome. So, when I realized that next up on my photography schedule was the recently released $999 Bluesound NODE ICON, I figured that I might be in for a bit of frustration. You see, the ICON is almost completely black in color. Further, it sports a large 5-inch screen on its face that’s reflective when turned off.
The Bluesound Node ICON has an elegant visual display.
In fact, the ICON gave me as much trouble during the shoot as some of the five-and six-digit Burmester components. The chassis of those Germany beauties are, in large part, mirror finished. Turning off my camera’s autofocus feature helped a bit with the ICON shoot. I also cheated by allowing a beam of sunlight from a nearby window to strike the ICON’s chassis, thus providing the camera with just enough detail to focus.
Having finished the job, I placed the ICON into my audio system and again discovered that these days great sound is not too expensive. Its features include a dual-mono DAC design, a generous selection of analog and digital inputs and outputs including balanced XLR outputs an HDMI port, a headphone output, and Dirac Live room correction functionality, the latter of which is an upgrade that’s available for purchase directly from Dirac.
Here's a closer look at the subtly textured casework.
The NODE ICON offers a number of analog, digital, network, and wireless connections.
For a complete list of features and specifications, click on the product page here.
The compact NODE ICON measures 8.7 x 3.3 x 7.6 in (W x H x D).
All images courtesy of Howard Kneller. Howard is the co-founder of The Listening Chair with Howard Kneller, a reviewing and news organization for all things audiophile.
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