Has anyone tried the new gen of the Bluesound speakers? Are they better than the previous gen 2?
I tried the Pulse Flex about a year ago and while smooth, it was less punchy than a sonos one. Any experiences on the latest versions?
Cheers
I’ve gotten a setup with one Pulse Flex 2i each in the tertiary rooms (bathrooms, bedroom, guest room). Can’t compare them to the first generation but I think they sound pretty good. The guy at HifiKlubben was raving over them and said they were way better than the first iteration FWIW (he seemed legit… 
). Anyhow, no technical issues whatsoever with them. Very robust RAAT implementation it seems. Tomorrow Bluesound will release their Airplay 2 upgrade for the speakers if that’s your cup of tea, so you could use them in an Apple-centric setup with Siri and HomeKit.
If I must compare them I’d say they sound quite a bit better than the Libratone ZIPP and way better and fuller than the ZIPP Mini (Generation 1, between “Classic” and the recent gen 2). I’d say they would be pretty awesome in a stereo setup even, but I haven’t tried.
(My main setup consists of two Phantom Golds in direct optical mode (L/R) on a RPi/HifiBerry Digi+ Pro in the living room, joined by a RPi/DragonFly Red connected to Harman Kardon Soundsticks in my office.)
1 Like
Thank you for the feedback Sascha. Much appreciated.
1 Like
The latest update is finished on my Pulse 2, Mini and Flex. I don’t have the i versions. Not sure if any other issues are included.
RAAT 1.1.31
I wanted to warn you that I am experiencing quite some issues with the Bluesound speakers now. Here’s my thread. Losing connection to Bluesound devices
1 Like
Sascha many thanks for the heads up. Really great you are able to test all this. I am monitoring what you find and looking forward to any further info you may have.
Last weekend I went to my local dealer to try out a Flex 2i alongside a Node 2i. I brought along my MacBook Pro running my Roon Core and tested that way. Streaming to a single unit was never a problem but when I tried to group the Flex 2i and the Node 2i using Roon then … oh dear. Music would sometimes start on both but quickly went out of sync. Other times only one of the two units worked (despite having grouped them via Roon) and some other times playback would simply not start. All the usual set up actions were taken (restarted Roon core after enabling units, rooter restarted, Bluesound updated to latest firmware, etc.)
I did not exactly experience what you found (units disappearing from Roon) but playback via Roon on grouped units was definitely not working.
Everything worked perfectly when operating the units via the Bluesound app (including grouped synced playback). Also, when enabled the Bluesound as airplay endpoints then Roon could control them well (including synced playback).
On another note, the Node 2i digital out to a good dac sounded the same as a Sonos Connect (6 years old) on the same dac. (Lossless files).
All tests at my local dealer
2 Likes
Hi Yiannis, thanks for reporting back. Super interesting that you’re experiencing a lot of quirks, too. Something seems really wrong with the firmware here. I’m going to run while I can. Have never experienced any issues with my DIY outputs.
EDIT:
I’ve returned the speakers to the store for full credit and bought some passive speakers that I plan to run with a RPi+HifiBerry-AMP2+Ropieee config. Thanks HiFiKlubben for an easy return!
2 Likes