Long term customer loyalty

Answered
Andrew Thiele
Great new products guys but please don’t treat your existing customers (and fan base and biggest potential future market) with such disrespect - let us know up front what is happening with legacy products? Will my n130 get Dirac and dsd? If so when? If not are you doing any trade in specials or a discount - you have been selling up to this point - do people who have invested in your platform already get anything? This is important relationship building - if I’m going to upgrade in the future to your new products I need to know you continue to treat owners with respect - is my node n130 now a boat anchor compared to the new node?
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Comments

45 comments

Date Votes
  • JG.B.

    Many thanks Matt!

    Very happy to see there is traction and satisfaction about Dirac implementation into Bluesound (it is not a surprise TBH).

    Am sadly a N330 owner so doomed to wait a bit more but already extremely happy to see Bluesound innovates, take this lack of EQ function seriously and that Nodes owners can benefit from Dirac.

    Keep us posted on timeline for powered Bluesound devices and once again: congrats for the successful Dirac roll-out to Node!

    1
  • Matt S.
    Brand Manager

    Hi all - looking at a BluOS release next week (likely Apr 15th) that will add Dirac Live support to the Bluesound Node (N130) and Node X (N131). Pending final approvals from both BluOS and Dirac.

    After that, the team is looking at amplified products, which also includes a list of NAD Electronics products.

    Thanks -
    Matt

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  • JG.B.

    Great news and great success to a large extent!

    Many thanks Matt. Let us know expected timeline for amplified products when you have an idea.

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  • JG.B.

    Hi Matt. Hope all is well. Any view on timeline for implementation of Dirac into amplified products?

    Many thanks

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  • Mark Borg

    Can we have an idea of when the N330 will get Dirac. I
    Come on guys, give us a ballpark date! We were promised before summer, and that starts on the 21st June! 😊

    1
  • Matt S.
    Brand Manager

    Hi everyone, thanks for the nudge. No concrete news or dates yet, and giving ballpark dates doesn't serve you very well. What I can tell you is that our team just completed the main stage of a large-effort project to update low-level BluOS to support Dirac on more models. In early testing with an NAD M10V3, Dirac Live seems to be working - so that is very good news as it relates to Powernode. If things are going well with the amplified NAD streaming products, then there's a good chance for a quick port of the project into Bluesound amp products (including the new Powernode just announced yesterday).

    Will come back here again soon with the next update.

    Thanks!
    -Matt

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  • Mark Borg

    Thank you for the update Matt! As you can probably tell, a lot of us are excited for this update!  Hopefully things go smoothly so we can have it sooner rather than later!

     

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  • JG.B.
    • Edited

    Many thanks Matt! Huge demand for this in the owners community. Great to know there is a chance to see this coming at some point even if in distant future.

    Denon/Marantz connected amp proposing Dirac now so that's reassuring on feasibility and offers an alternative for people looking for immediate and more cost competitive option (as WiiM has been offering for the last 3 years).

    Exciting time for HiFi enthusiasts with so much innovation (congrats for the new Node range and the announced Powernode by the way).  All the best

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  • JG.B.

    Hello Matt,

    Hope all is well. Any news on Dirac coming to the amplified Bluesound range?

    Many thanks!

    1
  • JG.B.

    Hello. Any update on this? Hope all is well. Many thanks!

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  • J.L.

    At this point the silence around Dirac Live is hard to defend. Bluesound repeatedly promised a release before summer, and many customers spent thousands of euros on hardware with the expectation that this feature was finally coming.

    Now we’re months past the deadline with zero updates no explanation, no revised timeline, not even an acknowledgement. For a premium audio brand, that’s simply not acceptable. When a company markets and sells products based on future features, it has a responsibility to keep customers informed, especially when delays stretch this long.

    Right now it feels less like a delay and more like we’re being ignored. A straightforward status update shouldn’t be too much to ask.

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  • JG.B.
    • Edited

    Hi J.L.,

    Fully aligned but Powernode 2025 (N331) is sold as Dirac-ready on their own web page so let's be optimistic, it is likely that Dirac will be released for at least that new unit in a few months or more.

    Then will it be ported to older amp units? Guess it will be a matter of does Lenbrook think they have more to gain by forcing a share of old Powernode users into buying the new version or by selling more Dirac licenses. They will probably start with offering it on new unit only to maximize unit sales and propose Dirac to remaining older units users in a few years (2 to 3 typically).

    Nothing to expect anytime soon but definitely going into the right direction. And for those looking for Room Correction immediately, Marantz and Denon and of course WiiM since already maybe 2 years now offer attractive options (not mentioning the pricey NAD Lenbrook options on which RC has been deliberately made an exclusivity for years at Lenbrook).

    At the end of the day Lenbrook is not making any money from long term customer loyalty but from upgrades. Dirac licenses being an exception, once you purchased the gear that's it, software updates are given for free and they have no additional revenue as any equipment company. On top of that Sonos and WiiM competition is fierce so might be quite challenging.

    That probably explains why after having announced here Dirac will be ported to older Powernode units they are not replying anymore (has been the same in posts asking for EQ features for years) but let's see and keep hoping for it. At least Node users have a Dirac option, that is great and thanks to Bluesound's slow but continuous efforts

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  • Matt S.
    Brand Manager

    Hi everyone - sorry for the delay here. Was checking in with and waiting for some answers on both sides, the BluOS dev team and the Dirac team, as none of this is just up to us. Sounds like the previous gen Powernode (N330) is VERY close to being certified by Dirac so we're looking forward to being able to announce that product as Dirac Live capable! Other models will follow as the teams work through the variables in each product, and through the certification process.

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  • JG.B.

    Many thanks for taking the time Matt. Awesome news! Great to see that progressing. So Dirac live ready communication imminent, when should we expect actual Dirac implementation in your view? Can it be as short a c.6 months or does it take longer in general?
    Great stuff anyway and awesome progress. Thank you for pushing that hard

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  • Jordi Vilanova

    “not making any money from long term customer loyalty but from upgrades” seems a bold assumption. I fail to count how many apple products I have bought till now. And sure that if Bluesound keeps supporting their base as much as possible my next upgrade from an N330 will be probably a fancy NAD M10 or just dreaming for one of the Master series 🥰

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