Powernode 2i

$1549

Perhaps best described as a smart amplifier, you can just add a pair of speakers to the Powernode 2i to create a zone of Bluesound music anywhere in your home, using the BluOS app to play all the streaming services from online and your own files across the network up to 24-bit/192kHz high-res, and also in its 2i version offering two-way Bluetooth using the latest Bluetooth 5.0 so you can stream to wireless headphones, though there’s also a headphone output for direct connection.

You can create a bigger system by plugging in local sources, using its USB-A, optical and analogue minijack inputs. Also new for ‘2i’ is Apple’s improved AirPlay 2, which brings more options for control in Apple households, including using Siri for voice assistance. It also allows voice control from Alexa devices. We quickly decided that an amp like this needs a physical remote control, which is now available as a $99 option, but there’s also a clever trick — you can program Bluesound 2i products to recognise any remote control you like for 15 functions; just select the chosen function in the app, point the remote and hit the button you want to use. It took us less than a minute to get an old TV remote control working with the Powernode 2i. At last, a smart amp with good old-fashioned touch-of-a-button control from the couch!

Best of all, the Powernode 2i sounded immediately like a hi-fi amplifier, and no surprise, really, as it uses NAD’s Hybrid-Digital circuits, rated (and being NAD, probably understated) at 2 × 60W into eight ohms. From the first serious listening sessions, the difference in musicality seemed obvious: more dimensionality in every way, more attention grabbed, more information detail combining to deliver a wide acoustic sound stage.