Bluesound, together with such brands as NAD and PSB, is part of the large Lenbrook concern, well known to true connoisseurs of good sound. The company was founded just a few years ago. At the same time, it cannot be classified as an “upstart” that does not have a production basis in the form of advanced technologies, traditions and its own philosophy. The fact is that the founders of Bluesound have extensive experience in developing audiophile devices, having worked since the 70s of the last century as part of the designers of NAD and some other cult brands.
Obviously, the creation of their own brand by such venerable developers could not but rely on an original idea. This idea was to achieve the perfect combination of Hi-Fi and Wi-Fi or, as the company slogan says, creating “Hi-Fi for the wireless generation.” This choice of direction can be called truly successful, because there is more than enough work in this niche. Today, the audio device market offers a fairly large number of wireless multiroom systems that allow you to stream audio over your home network. Thus, the user can enjoy music in any room. However, audiophiles have many complaints about their sound quality. The fact is that the developers of such systems, as a rule, are computer scientists, so technical characteristics and functionality in them prevail over sound quality.
Is it any wonder that such a situation cannot suit the developers who stood at the origins of analog Hi-Fi? Therefore, they decided to combine truly high-quality sound with the achievements of modern wireless technologies, creating a multi-room system worthy of the attention of the most demanding audiophiles. Bluesound is developed by an alliance of high-fidelity audio experts who have pledged to create the ultimate wireless Hi-Fi for High-Fidelity Audio playback. The designers and engineers who created Bluesound, who spent their entire lives working in the music industry, could not be satisfied with anything less than perfection. These are engineers from the world famous hi-fi equipment manufacturer NAD, who were pioneers of the hi-fi industry in the 70s of the last century. They continue to develop innovative technologies to accurately reproduce music. Bluesound isn’t just another computer company. Bluesound engineers know everything about sound. Select the music you want to hear and send it to any room. After all, music should always be available! We’re passionate about musical detail, texture and volume (we’re not just talking about decibels here) and to that end, we’ve carefully designed an advanced digital platform that lets you enjoy the clarity and detail of HD Audio. Listen to music in the same quality as it was recorded in the studio. Exactly the way the musicians would like you to hear their music. Add the best internet radio stations, cloud music services and your digital music library. Good sound? And we think so too. And the critics too. You don’t have to be an expert to appreciate high-definition audio. But you may be one of those who lost track of time listening to your favorite music in a new quality.
Application for controlling BlueSound from your phone
Before getting acquainted in more detail with the main technologies and products of Beyerdynamic, it is worth learning a little about where and how the products of this brand are developed and manufactured. Today we can quite reasonably admit that material media of digital music content are irrevocably becoming a thing of the past, giving way to cloud storage on the global network, servers on the home network, or, in worst case scenarios, the flash memory of your smartphone. The music library has migrated from shelves and cabinets to directories on servers on the network and cloud storage, and its use has become much more convenient. At the same time, there remain lovers of high-quality sound who are categorically not satisfied with the capabilities of mobile gadgets and cheap acoustic accessories for them offered by the mass market.
It is for them that reputable brands have developed network audio components, and some manufacturers have even organized separate sub-brands for such equipment. This is how the Bluesound line of equipment was born in the depths of the world-renowned Hi-Fi company NAD. In principle, a regular computer can handle the task of playing music from the network. We, of course, will not seriously consider the option of using it autonomously to listen to music through multimedia speakers or laptop speakers, but by equipping your computer with a high-quality external DAC with a USB interface, which, in turn, will be connected to your stereo system, you can achieve very good results. But the best option, both from the point of view of ease of use and from the point of view of sound quality, would be to use a specialized network streamer, that is, an audio file player capable of receiving music material in one way or another from storage on a home or global network.
Application for controlling BlueSound from a tablet
Under the Bluesound brand, NAD specialists have assembled devices that at first glance are completely different in functionality, which are united by a common digital platform responsible for streaming music from network storage in global and local networks, as well as from external drives with a USB interface. First, we will dwell in more detail on this general part, after which we will go through the entire line, noting the distinctive features of specific models.