That’s right, the new Bluesound Node 3 has arrived with us here in Audio T Cardiff. It features an upgraded DAC as well as a festoon of extra buttons! But what else is lurking beneath this cool, stealth-like exterior…?

For those that aren’t familiar with the Bluesound Node series, they are, in our humble opinion, one of the best choices for streamers in terms of value for features. They are controlled by a fantastic user friendly app via smartphone or tablet and are constantly being improved upon with firmware and software updates, not to mention they have a remarkable sound quality considering the price tag. Realistically, if you wanted to significantly better the performance of the Node, you would have to spend well north of £1000.

Same Chassis, new tricks…

Superficially it looks no different to its predecessors, that is of course until you turn it on. Upon closer inspection you find that the top panel no longer consists of solely transport buttons, but now has five presets buttons and a volume slider control.

While at first I thought to myself “I’d never use a preset or volume control” I quickly found out I was wrong. The ability to have your favourite radio stations available at the touch of a button, allowing you to quickly throw some background music on without having to pull up a smart phone app was a incredibly refreshing experience. I also found the volume slider to be surprisingly responsive for a simple touch panel. It also gives a nice visual indication of how much volume you have to play with.

The Node 3 also now includes a HDMI ARC port, which really brings this streamer into the modern fold. This addition allows you to route all audio from your TV, Sky box or games console through the Bluesound’s new and improved DAC, giving a nice bump in quality while combining your Hi-Fi and TV in to one multi-media set-up.

So what’s under the hood?

Regarding DACs, the new Burr-Brown featured inside the Bluesound Node 3 gives a much more natural and smooth sound. Due to it’s differential output design it also has a much improved harmonic distortion reducing it to 0.002% THD, less than half it was before. Simply put this is a fantastic improvement to an already great sounding bit of kit.

The new processor has been bumped up to a 1.8Ghz Arm A3 and while the extra speed is not currently a noticeable improvement it could pave the way for an expansion of features in the future.

What we see here is Bluesound solidifying their position in the market and making an even more compelling product for the price. It would take a lot for anyone else to catch up and has been our go to streamer in this range for a long time now.

If you wish to listen to the new Bluesound Node 3 you can find them available for demonstration here at our Cardiff store or your local Audio-T which you can find here.

Thanks for reading.

Hefin, Nick & Kerrin - Audio T Cardiff

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Bluesound can be found at the following Audio-T stores