Bluesound node Icon Vs Eversolo DMP A6 Master Edition sound quality comparison?

[Al ears]

But as with all products, it is designed as a whole, just like loudspeakers. Sometimes a manufacturer will choose a technically inferior aspect over a superior one because it benefits the product as a whole. But of course, people who base everything on measurements don't get that.

People that base everything on measurements also don't get that a piece of equipment on its own is never used in isolation but integrated into a system.
They cannot measure synergy.....

 

[davidf]

People that base everything on measurements also don't get that a piece of equipment on its own is never used in isolation but integrated into a system.
They cannot measure synergy.....

I'll wager he doesn't believe in it.

 

[GroeneLeeuw]

But as with all products, it is designed as a whole, just like loudspeakers. Sometimes a manufacturer will choose a technically inferior aspect over a superior one because it benefits the product as a whole. But of course, people who base everything on measurements don't get that.

Designing a product is always a trade-off, the reviewer understands that well and explains what choices have been made concerning this specific product. Explains well too what are the strong and weak points of those choices.
The conclusion is: with minor changes this is a very good product.

Measurements are a much better way of showing what is good about a product and what not, and what changes could be made to improve than someone writing what their impressions are listening to music A or B, that the highs were sweet or that the bass was lacking, etc.
This is an objective review, not someone writing a bunch of words that can say much or nothing about a product.

 

[RTHerringbone]

This just happened, so I'll be in a position to give my highly uneducated tuppence-worth by the end of the weekend.

 

[RTHerringbone]

Up and running quickly and easily. The app is good - not quite as good as the all-excellent TIDAL / WiiM / Spotify options, but it's good enough and has some benefits over the alternatives - like it's easier at a glance to see which albums are High-Res (saving an entire click over TIDAL).

I've tried listening through the speakers today but it was tricky with rowdy kids pottering about, so I couldn't really make any well-informed judgements. When I did have the space to myself I instinctively felt that things were perhaps a touch more refined with the ICON but that would likely be a smattering of confirmation bias in my one brief window of peace.

This is all very makeshift at the moment - things will be nicely positioned in a new unit within the next week or two. Tonight I'll do some listening through headphones and as the WiiM is still connected, I can have a good spell listening to both streamers. The WiiM continues to use the DAC in the A25, whereas the ICON is connected via RCAs and so is using its onboard dual-mono setup.

 

[RTHerringbone]

A fairly prolonged listening session tonight didn't yield any super strong conclusions, but the ICON did OK.

One very good thing was that I could immediately tell on the ICON when I'd accidentally chosen a "High" (FLAC) album instead of a "Max" ("HiRes" FLAC) and when I switched, the jump in fidelity was plain to hear. Now that's probably no different to the same circumstance with any streamer, but it was a nice bit of positive reinforcement that a few weeks with TIDAL has trained my ears.

I listened to a variety of stuff by Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Tift Merritt, Foo Fighters, Nick Drake, The Egg, Norah Jones, Dire Straits, The Cardigans, Jim Hall and Howlin' Wolf. I'd usually listen to three or four tracks on one streamer before flipping to the other. One instant thing I could tell was that the fixed volume limit on the WiiM is higher than the ICON, so that immediately created a false impression in the WiiM's favour.

Honestly, a number of tracks were pretty much a dead heat to my ears, and it was only outlying sections of certain tracks where I could really hear the upsides of the ICON. Coldplay's Warning Sign has a piano section where the bassier lows were far more clearly presented on the ICON, whereas the Mini seemed a little fuzzy. At the other end of the spectrum, some rat-a-tat cymbal work on Number Cruncher by The Egg was also more clearly delivered by the Bluesound box - you could really appreciate the crispness as opposed to the more tinny blur of the WiiM.

White Limo by Foo Fighters is a favourite test track of mine as it's a curiously melodic racket where the density of much of the track can descend into chaos. The WiiM deals with it well, but the ICON seemed to cope even better, adding some organisation and separation, but not in a clinical way.

Early days and really a product costing 10x the price of the WiiM Mini bloody well should sound better. It does and I'm pleased (and relieved!) but I need more time to tune myself into it to get a real feel for it. Hopefully over the course of the week when the kids are at school I can have some good speaker time with it. On BluOS - I don't like how the Search function compares to the WiiM interface, and I also prefer the layout of the track being played on the WiiM app over the BluOS. They're minor, easy-to-fix UI issues - basic layout stuff that really should be obvious.

 

[The_Lecht_Rocks]

ICON has a superior DAC circuit to analogue out without doubt. Tuned far better than my WiiiM Ultra.
ICON DIRAC also game changing but I resent the cost.
WiiM EQ not a patch on DIRAC but it’s embedded free!