A lovely looking, really well-made piece of kit that does so much, but crucially does it sound good? Hmm, yeah? Kinda.Ok, so I've recently upgraded many aspects of my old hi-fi and stumbled across the concept of streamers, which, being somewhat out of date, I never knew existed until recently. I'd actually been doing something similar by plugging an old Echo Dot into my amp via the 3.5mm jack output and connecting my MacBook or phone via Bluetooth and it was fine for me. That is until I got the upgrade bug and decided to rework my system from the ground up. For reference, my setup now is fairly modest in audiophile terms. I have a Rega Brio amp, Rega Planar 2 turntable, and everything connected with QED Performance interconnects and QED XT25 speaker cable. Not shabby at all, but pretty low-mid, entry-level stuff. My speakers are Rega Kytes, but I actually got this Bluesound Node at the time I was demoing a pair of B&W 607 S2, so I have tried this with the same system on both sets of speakers pretty extensively.First up, the build quality and look are top-notch. In pictures I thought this looked kind of cheap and plastic-y compared with some of the more old-school hi-fi gear, I figured this is the future and naff plastics are the new brushed chrome. It's really not the case, however. In-person this actually looks and feels really nice. It has a good weight and heft to it and the glass top and small LEDs actually look very high-end. The unboxing experience in itself was really nice and plugging it all in I actually got a lot more excited about it as a whole. The capacitive touchscreen glass is an especially slick touch and does set the whole thing off nicely with its proximity effect sensor that turns it on or off depending on if you are moving your hand to touch it.Once we were plugged in, I very quickly realised that streamers live and die off the back of their software. The Blesound Node uses the company's BluOS to connect and control your Bluesound devices. I used it on my Macbook, PC, iPad, and iPhone and the experience was basically the same across all platforms and felt smooth and well planned out. Set up was actually a breeze. After plugging it in and selecting the unit it began installing everything and upgrading the firmware automatically. This did take a bit of time, about half-hour in total which I felt was surprisingly long, but I basically just sat down and had a cup of tea whilst the bars crept up. Once it was fired up, I connected all my accounts, Tidal (this supports Tidals highest quality, MQA files), Spotify, Amazon Music, favorited a bunch of radio stations, and got ready to actually listen!Sound quality is obviously very subjective and I'll forego the usual nonsense of "wide soundstages" and "fast, transparent sound" blah blah blah. The Bluesound to me sounds good. Does it sound considerably better than Bluetooth streaming to my Echo Dot? Yes, for sure, undoubtedly it does, but honestly, I'm not convinced it sounds £550 better. In even a modestly decent system, this will stream music at a level of quality that will make muggles quiver as they magically bounce a song from their phone via Spotify connect and realise that this is what music *actually* sounds like. If you find yourself being particularly sensitive to Bluetooth compression or, in fact, any digital compression then you'll appreciate what the Bluesound Node is doing instantly. If your ears are a bit more like mine and have been battered by abuse for the past 20 something years, then maybe you'll be less impressed. I think this sounds excellent, but I really don't think it sounds that much better than cheaper options. As a stepping stone between the Dot and this, I also tried an ifi Zen Blue Bluetooth receiver and to my ears, I couldn't really tell a great deal of difference between the Dot, the ifi, and this. It was there, but to me at least, it was relatively small. Ultimately, what the Bluesound offers is another step in your upgrade chain, with the real value, for me at least, being in its versatile usage. The ifi Zen Blue, for example, is purely a Bluetooth receiver, whereas the Bluesound Node is so, so much more, and that, I believe is where the real value lies. If you listen to any internet radio, for example, then I'm happy to report that even relatively low bitrate streams sound excellent through this. Multi-room streaming? Absolutely, it's somewhat clunky unless you use other Bluesound devices, but it works, I can connect to my Bluetooth speaker in my kitchen and continue listening to my music whilst I'm cooking. Need a headphone amp? This basically has you covered via its 3.5mm jack and Bluetooth capabilities. I can even stream my record deck to my Bluetooth headphones or to my bedroom Bluetooth speaker. Ridiculous.There are some downsides, however. Weirdly, with all the different services, the integration is sort of all over the shop. This isn't really Bluesounds fault, as it relies on what the company's want to do RE allowing third parties to connect and use their software APIs etc. Basically, Tidal integrated perfect with the BluOS system and everything was usable in the BluOS app itself, which was perfect, but at the same time, Spotify won't allow for that and so you actually have to jump to the Spotify app and play music on the Node through Spotify Connect. This isn't a problem at all, but it just feels clunky and makes the BluOS software seem redundant and half-baked. Again, this isn't actually Bluesounds fault, but it's just my feelings on the matter when actually using it. Some people might even prefer this if they are particularly happy with the Spotify app, for example, but for me, it would have been amazing to have all music services consolidated into one, perfectly integrated system, but that is wishing far too much of a bunch of companies, all with their own interests at heart.My second gripe is once again not so much with Bluesound, but with the integrated radio and the silly UK laws that forced the wonders of global, internet radio into a closed box due to copyright laws, forcing apps like TuneIn to remove or make unavailable thousands of foreign radio stations. What this essentially means is that if you have a particular station you like, but it's not British, then the chances are, it won't be integrated into the Bluesound Node, as it won't be available through TuneIn. There is a way around this, as you can create a custom favourite and use a URL to stream the station directly from the internet, but it's sad that you have to do this and for many, they just won't have the savvy or the technical know-how to think to seek a workaround in the first place. It's such a backward, inward way of dealing with a medium that was so wonderfully open and global in the past. As I say, this isn't really Bluesounds fault though.So they are my two big gripes and neither is really a very big mark against the Bluesound Node itself, which I suppose, is actually quite impressive. As a unit, it's a lovely little thing to look at and feels well made and solid. The software is a touch clunky, but overall quite easy to use and feels good across multiple platforms and devices. As far as features, this thing is actually mental. My partner asked me what it was and what it can do, and when I explained all of its features, how it streams music from the internet, plays the TV through its DAC, streams my vinyl player to the bluetooth speakers in the kitchen, works as a headphone amp for both a wired set of speakers and my Airpoids Max, etc. etc. She was honestly shocked and for probably the first time ever seemed genuinely impressed at my silly Hi-Fi tinkering. So overall, is it worth your money? I think so yes. Actually, I really think this is quite well priced when you do consider everything it can actually do. The sound quality is excellent, I wasn't as bowled over as I thought I was going to be but then, as Hi-Fi enthusiasts, when are we ever bowled over really? Everything is such small, iterative steps in an ever-evolving chain of upgrades that slowly improves the overall sound and once you hit that point of diminishing returns within your system, you're really just min-maxing for tiny gains, but somehow it's all still worth it. I would say that's doubly true for the Bluesound Node, as when you're sitting back and listening to music, flicking through your various services on your phone, essentially using it as a remote, and enjoying seriously high quality sounding music in probably the most comfortable and easy to use way imaginable, it's hard to knock it really and very quickly makes you wonder how you coped without it until now. If you're on the fence and can afford it, I would say pull the trigger, I really don't think you'll regret your decision.I hope you find this review helpful, I appreciate it's long-winded, but I'm just hoping to help out others like myself, normal people who like to pour over the details and read a lot before making their hi-fi purchases!