Better Tone Control / EQ / Loudness / Room correction
Answered
Hi all,
Creating a new post to reconfirm improved tone control or better EQ (similar to what you find in Spotify), not even talking about a dynamic loudness option or a room correction paying option would be hugely appreciated by a vast share of Bluesound users who have selected Bluesound gears for the Hi-fi / "Better than Sonos approach".
Have scrolled the forum and found no less than 15 already existing posts asking for that / something of that kind, totaling 54 votes and 116 comments probably making it one of the most requested feature by far.
Considering this for the upcoming major software update would be an awesome 2023 gift for the community. A huge thank you in advance!
Existing posts details: "ADD A BETTER EQ SECTION TO THE PLAYERS" Gregory Carriere, "MORE ADVANCED TONE CONTROLS (EQUALIZER)" Johan B, "ROOM CORRECTION" Doug Anderson, "AUDIO QUALITY REVIEW" Gregory Carriere, "EQUALISER, CONTROL BY FREQUENCY RANGE" Ricus, "EQUALIZER AND PNG SUPPORT" Patrik Bergh, "EXTERNAL DAC / EQUALIZER FOR POWERNODE" Gordon S., "DYNAMIC LOUDNESS CONTROL/COMPENSATION" Ggichon, "TONE CONTROL FREQUENCIES" Gianni Vignola, "EQUALIZER" CHOUANARD, "EQUALIZER" robot, "7-BAND PARAMETRIC EQ...." Jason Collier, "MULTI-BAND EQ" George Allen, "TONE CONTROL IMPROVEMENTS" fafa44, "ROOM CORRECTION / DIRAC LIVE" Maximilian Sprenger
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These are also my 3 greatest wishes for 2023. After all, we are talking about one of the most advanced streaming amps on the market. The settings are just too primitive for that.
1. Better EQ setting2. Loudness like Fletcher Munson (stepless adjustable)
3. Simple room measurement like Sonos or nubert X-Remote via iPhone.
Some things may not be implemented due to NAD contracts or more expensive devices
Hope this forum offers not only a communication among users. I hope things that have been demanded for years will really be implemented.
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In my opinion, the best implementation of an EQualizer is in ROON, which brings a high-level standard to MQA-Tidal master format audition, and from android is "USB audio player pro".
If this were implemented on the Node-BlueOs it would be extraordinary (I would give up roon).
-an equalizer for mqa format I don't think it would compromise the bit-perfect format.
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Hey everyone, we're looking at all of this now. We've got the general BluOS platform upgraded now to 4.0 which makes conversations like this easier. Definition of a Fletcher-Munson feature and conversations about how we'll be able to implement any additional EQ are happening now. I don't have an exact timeframe but thought I'd update here.
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Personally I steer clear of tone controls but if better EQ is implemented PEQ would be the way.
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We're looking at it all! :) That's not to say we can or will do everything at once, but I would say everything is on the table at this point. It's with our engineering and dev team at the moment to check the effects of different possibilities on headroom.
It's much more likely to be a phased implementation, perhaps starting with a basic GEQ and expanding in the future to PEQ. No promises quite yet.
What would you like to see? We very much want our community here to be part of the conversation.
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Hello,
Just to flag this (https://wiimhome.com/WiiMPro/Overview) offers both graphic and parametric EQ (as well as Chromecast and DLNA by the way) so all of this should be technically feasible on Bluesound at an acceptable cost. This (https://www.octavio.fr/produit/octavio-stream/) seems to offer EQ as well.
Relatively inexpensive and efficient Room correction options seems also to exist (e.g. Nubert nuconnect ampX). Let's continue to drill-down into this in case Bluesound offers no option
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Many thanks to all that have participated and supported this post.
After 1 month I assume we shouldn't expect any official answer on this (esp. given the post has been tagged as "answered" with no answer).
Guess cheapest option to add EQ to a Powernode is to purchase a relatively inexpensive WiiM and connect it through Optical/Jack to bypass any streamer functions while waiting for an unlikely update from Bluesound on that front. Might be far from ideal but they offer Chromecast connectivity, DNLA and transparently communicate on their roadmap (PEQ coming soon apparently).
All the best going forward
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Yeah, even though I love the Powernode it will be hard to ignore a product like the Wiim Amp.
But, kudos to Bluesound for having opened this possibility now. Hopefully in the not too distant future.
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I love Bluesound and its emphasis on a seamless, high quality audiophile listening experience that is accessible to all ages and levels but I agree with JG's request and those others he lists. That's the one thing that would make the experience even better. So fingers crossed that something is included in the upgrade - even if it's not full room correction which I realise comes at an external cost.
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Since i bought a bluesound product not happy with the sound combination in my place .. an Eq will definitely make my music sound better for my taste .. people are asking it for years now and still didn’t happen.. for me reason enough to go for something else when im done with my sound :(
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I bought the Power Note three months ago because it was supposed to be the best streaming amp under $1000. but I wouldn't buy it again at the moment and wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless the software changes a lot. it's missing a lot of small features, see above, that I would expect in this price range. There is now a lot of competition on the market that is functionally equivalent or better and at a very small price. At the moment I would go for a good stereo amplifier and a Wiim Mini. In this way, one would have been better prepared for the future. Bluesound now has to make an effort if they want to continue selling devices at this price. To the Bluesound team, please make an effort to remain the best
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WiiM launching an Amp version next month as I understand it. c.€350. No brainer to me but totally respect people are ready to pay x2 to x3 extra for Bluesound premium look & feel. Just a shame EQ is out of question and consideration for users community feedback is limited.
A lot of good points with Bluesound though: love the products, user troubleshooting tickets are answered quickly and with relevance, wireless network connectivity is top notch
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Equalizers appeared on mid-market music gear in the 1970s. Fifty years later, why are Bluesound customers not having this basic function available from a brand that seems to target "audiophiles?"
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Primarily because they don't want to compete with their pricy Dirac enabled NAD range I guess.
But to be fair to them very few "audiophile" equipment include EQ (across all brands), had hard time identifying any, That's a shame given room impact is by far the most important thing to fix to achieve audio quality while lowering distorsion, THD+N or using pricy cables have minimal to no impact at all. That's weird to see how much money is invested into sophisticated electronics when such basics as room EQ are not adressed
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Awesome to hear Bluesound is considering this Matt. Do keep us posted on when to expect anything, even in far future
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@Matt S
Parametric EQ would be a superb addition. I’ll buy a second N330 in a heartbeat if/when this gets implemented.@COmbat
I dont think that is possible inside the BluOS ecosystem. You’d have to look into external DSP solutions for that.But, does the KC62 have manual PEQ filters? If so, perhaps you can tune a single PEQ filter to adjust the slope of the sub crossover region to better match the speakers(?)
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Thank’s for coming back on this,
From my perspective it is already quite easy to use GEQ from music playback sources (e.g. Spotify, iTunes etc). But I would very much welcome having GEQ options integrated in the amp also to use for TV and home theatre.
I would perhaps most welcome an addition of PEQ filters, and the equalization normalisation/Fletcher-Munson feature as you also mentioned previously.
Especially now that we see e.g. the Wiim Amp coming with a 4 band PEQ and statements about a future upgrade to 10 bands in total, which would be awesome in my book if Bluesound also could do.
As an example of use case, I now I find myself in a ‘clinch’; having a great amp (N330), great speakers, a subwoofer and doing room measurements.. but no easy way to add my PEQ filters and loudness equalization (to work on all sources), without looking at external devices/solutions from miniDSP, computer playback etc. There really needs to be some functionality for all of us that wants to implement some room correction imho :). The fletcher-munson sure would be a great step in that direction too.
Of course I could go the separates route as well, but don’t really want to as the Powernode is a great aio.
Fredrik
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Hello all. Happy new year.
@Matt: checking-in to ask if you had any news from the engineering team on that front? How are discussions going?
Many thanks,
JG
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Too late for me. I had the Powernode N330 for 2 months but couldn't resist the temptation of parametric eq and room correction so have bought the WiiM Pro Plus and will be running it in to my Kef KC62 sub and using the high pass filter to feed two Aiyima A07 Max amps in mono mode before feeding my Kef LS50 Meta. The WiiM and two Aiyima are half the price of the Bluesound but sound better even before doing room correction. WiiM have changed the game.
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Hello C0mbat,
Totally understandable and nice set-up congrats!
Think Bluesound has still the build quality, classy touch-screen and top-notch network connectivity on its side (how is the WiiM WiFi connectivity quality in bad signal situation by the way?) but WiiM is moving very fast and already offering awesome value for the money (WiiM Amp is 60% cheaper than the Powernode!).
Think Bluesound is an HiFi harware company where Linkplay is a software tech company and that makes all the difference but good to hear from Matt they are eventually at least considering to offer some sound management to their units (to be fair Bass/Trebble has been implemented a long time ago) after having despised their community feedback for years...
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Hi Sam,
No news here or elsewhere on the forum yet I am afraid but would be great to have an update from Matt indeed.
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Hi,
Just a quick feedback on the WiiM Amp: did purchased one to replace my Powernode and tested it today. Build quality as good as Bluesound (binding posts are even better),incredible value package (they even provide high quality HDMI, RCA and toslink cables) but extremely poor WiFi connectivity in my busy environment.
Amp was unable to connect to 5 Ghz and connection to 2.4 Ghz was so poor the unit was not usable where my Powernode has never failed.
Sending the WiiM Amp back and still hoping Bluesound will bring at least some decent EQ to the package one day or another.
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Hi - agree with all the above but don't forget us Android/Samsung users! Also, agree with Seppi on tone controls at high volumes but at lower volumes more sophisticated controls would be very welcome, and preferably a simple room correction service.
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Unfortunately, this is not so easy to do with Android. There are too many different devices and microphones. Nubert solved it with a pluggable USB microphone for Android users. Sonos lets it stay.
I recently bought the Powernode with the hope of long and good software support compared to other manufacturers. I hope I won't be disappointed.
p.s. Everyone has that one friend with an iPhone ;)1 -
Hi,
Could you explain why this post has been marked as "answered" where there is no official answer provided?
Many thanks
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payed almost 1K for a bluesound powernode, I think I'll send it back and get a cheaper amp without nothing to it and add a streamer like wiim pro. In this combination I will get many more features (like chromecast support, room correction etc) at the same cost or lower. Hardware wise the powernode is very good but the software and support from bluesound lacks. Got it, you are a startup but the prices you are asking for the whole package is very high for what do you guys offer.
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I came here in search of a way to do more than just control treble and bass. Looks like there's no EQ available. I really like the unit but I need a little more control of the mids. Thankfully, Crutchfield has a liberal return policy. If they ever get an EQ I'll try out the unit again.
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Basic EQ options are the most important thing to achieve decent sound quality and communicating on great SNR or THD+N makes no sense if room screws everything.
Unfortunately let's face it Bluesound will most probably never implement that, primarily because they don't want Powernode to turn people away from ridiculously expensive NAD products.
Would strongly recommend you turn to WiiM as an alternative, which is arguably as efficient for streaming, better sound quality thanks to PEQ, more interested and responsive to its community of users for sure (just compare forums) and twice cheaper (yep, that makes a difference)
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I'm returning the Powernode. That was a dealbreaker for me. If the WiiM introduces a version with an amp, I'll give it a try. Thanks.
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People generally recommend the UMIK-1 mic you can find at Audiophonics and REW software. Cheap alternative being HouseCurve app and an iPhone.
I'm not confident Bluesound can compete or will react with an update neither.
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