Bluesound Pulse 2

Wonderful sound, easy set up, works great with Spotify and Tidal

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The speaker set up with only a couple of glitches that were easy to resolve. I tried to set it up from the web without success. Set up from the app went without a hitch. The app is easy to use and meets all of my needs well. The speaker sound is full and easily fills up a large open room, 35 x 20 open to the second story. My system includes a Synology DS 218+ NAS for music storage. The speaker connected to the NAS without difficulty. My music is stored in lossless format, primarily ALAC.

Pros: Easy to set up Fills large room Full sound Plays lossless formats

Cons: No stereo setup

Great sound from a small package, and interfaces nicely with Spotify and my in home system. Setting up software to manage 2 BlueOS devices was not very easy. I eventually had to contact Customer Support, and they helped me to work it out.

Pros: Great sound from a small package, and interfaces nicely with Spotify and my in home system.

Cons: Setting up software to manage 2 BlueOS devices was not very easy. I eventually had to contact Customer Support, and they helped me to work it out.

Measured up to my high expectations! Sounds rich and full, links to anything, bluetooth or bluesound via wifi, and can be placed almost anywhere. Its portable so just at home on our patio as in our livingroom. I shopped everything in its class and picked the winner!

Pros: Wireless, it Can be placed anywhere you have a power outlet, and has rich warm sound.

Cons: There are none.

I have had this unit since it first came out. Since then I have added two pulse Flex to my setup. I have had zero issues with these players themselves. The only thing that I figured out when I first purchased them was that my network was sub par. Updating my router and modem fixed any delay and disconnect issues I was having. I use all apple products and it works flawlessly. My advise to anyone giving a bad review for connection issues is update your hardware first. The Bluesound Players are highly advanced technology and need to be paired with quality hardware to work at optimum levels. Don't be a cheep skate :) and you will be happy!

Pros: *Excellent sound quality especially with MQA TIDAL* *Excellent build quality* *Quality Quality Quality*

Cons: *Price point a little high* BUT you get what you pay for. If you want house shaking bass then you will need to add the SUB or a SUB

Available professional reviews are consistent in praise and, IMO, you can trust them. Shockingly good sound. Also to be trusted are complaints that setup is extremely confusing. Dont hesitate to call in for help if you are stuck. Good news is that Bluesound help is very nicely responsive and email or callback is next day or sooner. I'll be adding more components over time.

Pros: CD+ quality sound from just a single device and a decent mobile phone.

Cons: If not familiar with the full streaming technology there's a bit of learning curve.

Got this Pulse 2 for my bedroom. It sounds great, fills the room easily, and now syncs with my other two zones, a Bluesound node with my main system, and a Powernode 2 in my office. I love the synced music as I travel around the house, and all sound fantastic!

Pros: Sound Quality, wifi or wired setup, syncs with all other BlueOS stuff. Really high fidelity, blows away my friends Sonos!

Cons: Set up and software took me a bit to master.

Have two Pulse 2 speakers paired left and right channel - they sound absolutely amazing! That combined with the other Bluesound products through the house, and I am loving the system all. The app still leaves a little to be desired, but very solid overall.

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Wanted a top quality wireless speaker. Compared to Bose sound touch 20 and the Naim Qb side by side for 2 weeks at home. Sonos best by some distance. Compared Sonos vs Bose in store and Bose was much better than Sonos. Naim seriously disappointing sound quality esp at the price, it's the most expensive. I really wanted to like it. Bose was pretty good but sound nowhere as clear and clean as the Bluesound. I was willing to pay the much higher price for Bluesound vs Bose but for many the Bose sound quality will be surprisingly good given the much lower price. Bluesound genuinely high end sound quality. You should not buy Bose or Sonos without trying this. Thanks Crutchfield for their great return policy. Used with tidal Hi Fi lossless streaming..

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Cons:

I think it is important to break this review into two parts. One part being the 'customer experience' and the other being on the merits of the player. The customer experience at this moment is about 1.5 stars. Set up out of the box is not intuitive at all. You can't just whip out your phone and pair the device to this speaker. There is a whole set up process that you have to go through to just get the player up and running let alone hear any music. Once I did that, I heard about 10 seconds of a song and then the music went away because it detected that a firmware upgrade was needed. FRUSTRATION. Hooking up component audio is much easier and rewarding. Customer service is totally lacking at Bluesound as well. I find this highly disappointing since I have shelled out this much for one of these and I have intent to expand them further in other rooms. Instead, Bluesound wants it's customer base to rely on forums. While this is an acceptable means of communication, it should only be considered as an add-on to customer service - this is not the case at Bluesound. For the second part of the review, I cannot yet comment because well, I am still unable to play any music, even after following the very minimalist instructions. It seems these devices were designed for Millennials who don't enjoy reading manuals like some older audiophiles do - Studying a the manual was part of the experience and learning your new equipment but, you won't find that here.

Pros: I haven't found any yet

Cons: Setup is jenky and cumbersome No out of the box excitement ZERO customer service and support Rely on forums to resolve issues

Crutchfield response on 2/1/2017 We're sorry you're having issues with your music player. Whenever you encounter a problem with anything you purchase from Crutchfield, especially a situation like this, please contact our tech support team right away. They can help get your system up and running correctly or set up a return within 60 days of purchase. We forwarded this review to our Technical Support team for follow-up. Lifetime tech support comes with every Crutchfield purchase.

I've had this product for 2 weeks and I am quite content. Overall, the music quality is exceptional. It blows Bose and Sonos out of the water. The user experience, on the other hand, has much room for improvement. A couple of things to mention. First off, bluetooth can take a few moments to connect, which can get frustrating sometimes. As well, the app can be rather glitchy at times and can lose connection with the player over Wifi. This has happened to me several times. I would also say the general feel of the app and aesthetics need some serious work. I would recommend this product to someone who has a good ear for music quality. I would not recommend it to someone who wants a quick and easy way to seamlessly listen to their music. Hopefully Bluesound puts more work into their app in the future.

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Love the weight and feel of this product but have not powered it up yet. The main reason to buy was to get the tech support from the experts at Crutchfield with no upsell as you get from local vendors.

Pros: Expensive and looks it.

Cons: Might be too expensive for some.

The audio output is very good but not great. I bought the system because it is far superior to the competition like Sonos or Bose. However, setting up the system is a challange. The online instructions are poor and misleading. Even with assistance from Crutchfield tech support after a week I still am not getting the wifi output. A negative for me personally is that the Pandora can be connected only by bluetooth.

Pros: Better sounding than the competition but not great

Cons: Terrible setup instructions. Pandora can be accessed only by bluetooth. More expensive than the competition

I purchased the Sonos Play5 immediately prior to this purchase and ended up returning it. Overall, I'm very happy with the hardware and software of Bluesound.

Pros: * Sound clarity and bass * Software synchronization - when I move from my desktop to iPhone app, the track I have playing is readily displayed * Supports 24-bit * Supports more than 65K tracks - A main reason I returned Sonos. I believe Bluesound has a max 100K, but I'm a year or two away from that limit.

Cons: * Form factor of speaker - the length of this speaker does not fit as nicely on my shelf as the Play5, but I'd never want to sacrifice sound quality for form factor * Initial set-up was a bit more cumbersome and the instructions missed use cases, but once I was up and running, I had no issues

A great satellite unit for my master bedroom.

Pros: Great sound Easy to set up HD streaming music Great looks Strong DAC Controlled and powerful sound

Cons: Slightly more expensive than competiton

I purchased the Bluesound Pulse 2 speaker to go with their Node 2 streamer. I have an oddly shaped den and needed a robust speaker for a spot in the room that is hard to set up correctly for listening purposes. The Pulse 2 did not disappoint - it is, by far, the best speaker of this type I have listened to. My system is a hybrid of two systems including 8 Sonos speakers, and a Connect, in conjunction with Bluesound's Node 2 and Pulse 2 for high-resolution playback. I had previously used the Squeezebox line for high-resolution audio files, but it "expired" and I was faced with 1000+ high resolution files I could no longer listen to (Sonos is wonderful, but it can't play high-resolution files) or finding an alternative to integrate into my setup - Bluesound is the perfect solution for my needs. The Pulse 2 is an incredible speaker - it literally fills the room with its' power and I find that I sometimes forget to turn on the stereo receiver that has the Bluesound Node 2 attached so I am basically filling a room with one speaker rather than using the stereo setup that also includes 2 excellent Martin Logan bookshelf speakers. The Pulse 2 picks up the slightest nuances in the music, gives the feeling of being in the front row of an acoustically perfect concert hall, and overall is the finest speaker I have now. I am stunned at the power and clarity - it isn't a large speaker, but it sounds incredibly robust - perfect in every way.

Pros: Incredible sound Easy to integrate into music systems Powerful and robust - sounds like a much larger speaker than it's size would indicate

Cons: Initially I was hesitant because of the price, but now that I have it integrated into my system, I can say it was worth every dollar. It's hard to describe the incredible sound that is rendered from a speaker this size - it is amazing and truly can fill a room with glorious sound.

The sound is very good, better than any of this type of speaker I've listened to. Don't buy it if you are looking for typical nice loudspeaker sound though. It still isn't of that quality. Which brings me to echoing an earlier review that stated it's too expensive. I agree. Sounds very good but this much?? Really? Margin must be pretty high on this product.

Pros: Very good sound, not great but very good. The best sound of any speaker of this type I've heard. Portable, easily unplugged & transported to other rooms.

Cons: Too expensive for what it is.

Let me start off by saying that I am not an A/V expert, but we listen to a ton of music/radio all day in our home from a variety of sources (PC/Sirius/Tablet/Phone). I was between Sonos (Play 5) and Bluesound (Pulse 2) product. My goal was to access all my music via tablet/phone. Sonos & Bluesound both allow you to do that. In all the research I did, all signs pointed to the Bluesound being superior in sound quality. We have our Pulse 2 in a large, high ceiling room (open concept kitchen/dining/living area..room is approx 25x30), which is perfect for the unit. The Pulse 2 fills the room with crystal clear, warm sound, that is great even at low levels. The sound follows you throughout the home. It's powerful, super clear, and just the right amount the base. Someone came over last night (who knows nothing about sound), and remarked how great the unit sounded. My wife and I are both big fans, it's a great product. Looks great, packaged great, sounds great. I also bought a Pulse Flex to move around the house, but have not opened it as of yet. Will review at that time. Crutchfield was great, I had never purchased from them before, but they are awesome. Even calling me after placing my order to ask if I had any questions on the product. Well done guys! Again, I am thrilled with the Pulse 2

Pros: Sound is awesome. Warm, clear, fills large rooms with ease, even at low levels. Sound is always with you. You'll catch a vocal, a symbol, a guitar that sounds like it's sitting on your shoulder. Great looking product, fairly easy to set up over your wifi. Allows you access to all your stored music on your PC, your tablet, phone, Sirius (via Bluetooth), and TuneIn radio, among other services.

Cons: No shocker here, but the app is a bit tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it makes sense and it looks very good. All signs point to Sonos having the superior software, but this is about sound, right? The app could be more intuitive (i'm probably the 1000th person to say that), but again: Once you get the hang of it, it it nice.

Although this is a great sounding speaker I don't think it is worth the price.

Pros: Great overall sound. Powerful.

Cons: Too expensive.

Brilliant sound. Easily found and identified my music from existing iTunes and flac libraries. App works really well, though was a bit confusing at first.

Pros: Simple installation Amazing sound quality Plays multiple audio formats

Cons: Had to delete and reinstall app before I could browse and search library. No clear solution for subwoofer from Bluesound ( other than wired )