Incidentally I use Bluesound2i as root endpoint into Qutest and find it good sounding. Not sure if it is 500 worthy but on a mainstream level it is good
You’re the first poster to voice this so strongly. Frankly, I’m glad to hear it, because I was really wanting to stick with all Naim gear in my system.
I must say that I couldn’t imagine that a $700 cad Node 2i, would sound as good as a $10,000 cad NDX2, as some have suggested.
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If the Node was priced at £3k opinions would different.
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@jmtennapel
Those are some very good points you make. I have an SU, and I am receiving an SN2 tomorrow in the post (apparently). Running the SU thru the SN2, I be connecting a pre thru a second pre. Not ideal, but doable.
When I watched a video on the bluesound site today on the Node 2i, it said it was also a preamp. So if I get a Node 2i, will I have the same double preamp path that I’ll have with the SU?
And will the Node 2i sound as good as the SU digital section?
If it does, then I could sell the SU after I buy a Node 2i, and save my pennies for a high-end streamer in the meantime.
Thanks for your time on this.
Dave
I don’t know why I find these particular connections confusing, but I do. It’s weird, because I’m usually fairly bright. Duh? Thanks for your insight, and I’ll study the info you posted and the SU and SN2 connections tomorrow.
But I believe you’re correct that the best path is to aim towards a Naim streamer as a source for the SN2.
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I have just moved from the Node 2 to an ND5XS2, feeding my Chord Qutest. I thought that the Node 2 was excellent at it’s price. The Naim streamer does seem to be more detailed and very enjoyable. However, glad that I had the home trial because digital front ends do not seem to have night and day differences and you are into the realms of subtle changes
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well the node 2 has the advantage of quite a few streaming services, including amazon…
I initially purchased my Node 2i for Amazon HD but eventually switched to Qobuz, read a few reports on BubbleUPnP server and decided to give this a try using a PC as a host this allowed me to stream Qobuz Hi-Res to my 272 and as a bonus also to the UQ2 so sold the Node 2i and freed up some cash.
A few days ago I configured BubbleUPnP server to run on a £50 Raspberry Pi4 smaller power footprint to the PC and this transcodes Qobuz FLAC to WAV on the fly to gen one Naim streamers.
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Hi HiFiman,
Can you list the steps to get Bubble UPnP Server running on your Raspberry Pi?
I’ve read a bunch of bits on the Internet and I’m not yet clear.
It’s my job for the weekend, to do the same as you and swap out a PC.
Thanks, MaxiMe
I doubt it.
I once bought a dCS Network Bridge streamer for about that amount - and it was very clean, but also really ‘nothingy’ in terms of SQ.
Now that you’ve sold your Node 2i you must feel good to have got shot of it, eh?
Are you saying I’m the one person ‘being very negative’?
Or am I being very positive about my belief - as evidenced by my ears in my system - that the Node 2i is very poor bland and nowhere near as good as the 272/555DR as a streamer?
Just because my opinion of the Node is very negative, it doesn’t mean that I’m being very negative - that is confusion on your part of two separate things.
By the way, have you ever had a Node 2i in my home and tried it?
Also, please note that my friend, @HiFiman, who has been signing the praises of the Node 2i for ages on this forum has just sold his and started using his 272/555DR again…
So I’m not the only one who has realized that the Node 2i is not as good
Hi Jim the only reason I sold the Node 2i is that the Raspberry solution covers all my gen 1 Naim streamers and this made the Node redundant.
As a product I still hold the Node 2i in high praise and its an excellent product.
cheers
but not ‘excellent’ enough to keep…
The Rapberry pi running BubbleUPNP server is a slick solution. The little device can be hidden out of sight and is very stable.
INSTALL BUBBLEUPNP the hard way, assumes you are familiar with command line and linux:
After you get Raspbian Buster Lite Installed do this:
Install Java:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jre-headless
Install ffmpeg:
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
cd
mkdir bubbleupnpserver
cd bubbleupnpserver
wget https://bubblesoftapps.com/bubbleupnpserver/BubbleUPnPServer-distrib.zip
unzip BubbleUPnPServer-distrib.zip
chmod 755 launch.sh
./launch.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 &
Add launch.sh to crontab
@reboot /home/pi/bubbleupnpserver/launch.sh >> /home/pi/bubbleupnpserver/bubble.log 2>&1 &
Connect on:
http://lPofYourRaspberryPi:58050
Above is for the geeky people. If it all sounds like insanity to you, try gentooplayer:
https://gentooplayer.com/download
Burn that image to your SD card, plug it in to ethernet and power, it will set itself up.
Connect to gentooplayer via your web browser on laptop or device:
http://gentooplayerrpi64:5000/
Then go through the menus to enable BubbleUPNP server.
It’s so easy 
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Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for the Pi4 64bit
following this link https://ubuntu.com/download/raspberry-pi
Once you have a bootable MicroSD boot the Pi
Install Java v8 first
sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk openjdk-8-jre
java -version
Installation of BubbleUPnP
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
cd
mkdir bubbleupnpserver
cd bubbleupnpserver
wget https://bubblesoftapps.com/bubbleupnpserver/BubbleUPnPServer-distrib.zip (this is case sensitive)
unzip BubbleUPnPServer-distrib.zip
chmod 755 launch.sh
./launch.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 &
Remote manage Pi
You will need to know the IP address of the Pi
ip a
Look for eth0 and inet address then reserve this IP on your router.
I use Putty to remote manage the Pi if you type screen this will keep the settings alive once you disconnect from Putty to return to this session rerun Putty and type screen -r
Configure BubbleUPnP server once running open a web browser and on the address line
IP x.x.x.x:58050 (IP address from ip a command above)
He has options, now… many ways to do this.
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@dknk @HiFiman
Thanks both, looks like an “interesting” weekend ahead. I’m not a total noob with Linux, but this could be a stretch.
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As the Raspberry Pi serves both 272 and UQ2 the Node became redundant on the 272.
Most evenings when the wife and kids are in bed and I fancy cranking up the volume I have to use the UQ2/Allaes in the extension, when pushing the UQ volume to level 50 you cannot hear this upstairs and now I can play Qobuz on the Qute without moving the Node 
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I can see from your icon that you’ve been cranking it up!
I must say, since getting the SL2’s, I really love turning to volume up to 30 or even 40 if I can get away with it.
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