When I first read the Arcam rPlay vs Bluesound Node 2...article, my initial reaction was a combination of disblief and disgust. What Hi-Fi was never an epitome of journalistic excellence but from time to time they would have some articles that were informative if nothing else. This article is probably one of the best examples of total ignorance and heavy bias. I was ready to point to the number of the errors and omissions appearing in the article but after a while I lost interest in wasting my time explaining what was wrong with the article.
Recently two things happened that provoked me to make this post. They did it again in their newest review of the Bluesound Generation 2. They decided to ding a star from the rating no matter what. They clearly stated that they did not have a chance to listen to their favourite component, the Powernode 2 again. Anyway, since it was a dinging season, they decided to take action! Again, the main reason being the price increase. They again conveniently missed the fact that all Bluesound components come with 6 year warranty (extended warranty tend to be costly) and they missed that Bluesound plays MQA. Both features differentiate Bluesound from most of their competitors.
The second reason for making this posting is the fact that I read their statement about "The Trust Project" they are part of, and you can find it here:
https://www.whathifi.com/about-trust-project
I will not bother you by quoting the rules stated in the document they decided to disregard or overlook in their Arcam rPlay vs Bluesound Node 2...article. You can find it yourself if you follow the link.
In the initial paragraph the review is trying to make believe that both units are more or less the same:
"There’s no clear specification, beyond file compatibility, to draw comparisons between different models." If they bothered to read and understand the specifications, they would find out that there are a big differences both in connecivity and files played. The Bluesond supports MQA files while the rPlay does not. There is a note that the Node can stream MQA files from the likes of Tidal. Actually, it can play MQA files regardless of the source. No matter what, we are lead to believe that both units "Play all popular file types".The rPlay does not support bluetooth but if one could be added thath would probably be their own miniBlink and that would bring the price of the rPlay to GBP 485. Unfortunately, due to a very limited connectivity of the rPlay, bluetooth can not be added. Anyway having a bluetooth connectivity may be very important, especially for younger generations where the phone is a center of your life. Otherwise miniBlink would not cost as much as it costs.Reading and understanding the specs and maual would also reveal that the Node 2 is a perfect base for a full system based on active speakers and active sub if needed. You can even add a turntable because there is an analogue/optical input (dual purpose). If you do not feel like using your computer to store your music collection, you can connect any USB HD to the USB port on a back of the unit with enough power for the HD. The control app is available for Android, iOs, Windows and Amazon Kindle. You can "teach" the Node to listen to any IR remote and control the basic functions. Blusound also supports Roon integration.If you added additional four years of extended warranty to the rPlay (2years vs 6 yearas free for Node) and hypothetical bluetooth, the rPlay is probably more expensive. I would not bother to compare computing and processing power of the two.I am finding the following statement to be the most pathetic in the whole review: "The rPlay has a pair of volume control buttons on the top of each streamer, while the Node 2 opts for touch-sensitive controls to skip and pause your audio. We prefer the latter, as it has greater usefulness in day-to-day operation." Any person having a basic interest in controls on top of the Node would understand that you do not need five buttons to skip and pause your audio.I will noth even bother to comment " the most important aspect of any streamer – sound quality". By their own admission in the original rPlay review it has "Rather confined presentation". Since there was some doctoring on top of the reduced rating from five to three stars of the original Node 2 review, it is hard to determine how the sound was rated originally. Anyway, since they own the stars, they can give them or take them any way they like it. The whole review has so many flaws that the outcome of it is totally irrelevant.