Ga onbeperkt met Magzter GOLD

Ga onbeperkt met Magzter GOLD

Krijg onbeperkte toegang tot meer dan 9000 tijdschriften, kranten en Premium-verhalen voor slechts

$149.99
 
$74.99/Jaar

Poging GOUD - Vrij

Bluesound Powernode

Stereophile

|

June 2022

Streaming integrated amplifier

- By Ken Micallef

Bluesound Powernode

Old-school audiophiles like me cling to our vinyl records and CDs. We spin them on turntables and slide them into transports, which send electric signals through wires to solid-state or tubed amplifiers—a string of hardware devices. But, despite our object-attached ways, we’re quite aware that we are living in a software-enabled, Bluetooth-connected, Wi-Fi–facilitated world. Even our Milky Way galaxy is wireless; as that pontificator of everything galactic, scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, has proclaimed, “We’re all connected.”

“Connected,” though, can mean different things. For some, it means stumbling down the street staring at a smartphone screen and bumping into strangers as life rushes by. For others, it’s a way to carry their office wherever they go—a curse if you ask me. But for still others, including the multitude of music lovers who have purchased Bluesound’s NODE streamer, POWERNODE1 streaming amplifier, and VAULT storage, it’s a net positive: They can have music—a big fraction of all the music there is—almost anywhere they want.

Debuting in 2012, the Bluesound Node and Powernode have sold upward of a million units, a roaring success for parent company Lenbrook, which also owns and shares technology from PSB speakers and NAD, no strangers to high-value audio equipment. NAD, in fact, produced what might be the most iconic high-value amplification component ever made, the 3020 integrated amplifier, which launched in 1978 for $135. That’s just under $600 in today’s dollars.

MEER VERHALEN VAN Stereophile

Stereophile

Stereophile

15 FOR 50 1975 IN 15 RECORDS

WAS IT SOMETHING IN THE AIR, SOMETHING IN THE WATER? COSMICALLY INSPIRED BY THE STARS AND THE MOON? OR MAYBE THE DEVIL WAS FINALLY CLAIMING HIS OWN AS ROCK MUSIC IN ALL ITS VARIANTS WAS UNASSAILABLY ASCENDENT.

time to read

12 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Doing it for themselves—and for us

Women have undeniably become the most dynamic and vital creative force in music today. Without their good energies and ideas, music, which in the digital age has become more background than art, would be much less interesting and inspiring.

time to read

3 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

The BEAT Goes On

Adrian Belew had an itch that needed some serious scratching.

time to read

7 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Half a century in hi-fi

Not many hi-fi dealerships can say they've survived half a century of history. Natural Sound, which is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, about 20 miles west of Boston, is one that can.

time to read

3 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

The skating force phenomenon

At the beginning of last month's As We See It, I wrote that I've lately been focused on \"analog things.\" I proceeded to write about refurbishing and modding my old McIntosh tuner. That's \"analog thing\" #1.

time to read

4 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Monk's tenor

In Robin D.G. Kelley's definitive, 450-page biography of Thelonious Monk, Monk and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse first meet on p.100, in 1944.

time to read

4 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

ECM's vinyl essence

In the 1990s into the 2000s, I had the pleasure of interviewing jazz drummer and composer Paul Motian for both Modern Drummer and DownBeat.

time to read

3 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

T+A Symphonia STREAMING INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

German aesthetes are fond of saying “Das Auge isst mit”: “The eye feasts too.” In audio terms, your ears do the listening, but your eyes want their share of pleasure.

time to read

18 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

Umami tunes

If you go to Tokyo, there's a good chance you'll develop a new appreciation for shopping malls. The Japanese know malls. They know just what to do with them. Inside a Tokyo mall, you can peruse the usual handbags and shoes in their unending variety. But you can also stare at Fuji apples as large as a baby's head swaddled in tissue paper, flip through the world's most exquisite stationery, stock up on fabric from the 1920s, and taste things that will haunt you well into retirement.

time to read

12 mins

November 2025

Stereophile

Stereophile

The Meters

That sound: body-scratching grooves, syncopated second-line rhythms, bass, guitar, and keyboard lines so deep they seemed to bubble up from the earth beneath New Orleans.

time to read

4 mins

November 2025

Translate

Share

-
+

Change font size