Bluesound Pulse Flex

Features

Bluesound Wireless High-Resolution Audio Eco-System: The Pulse Flex wireless speaker is part of Bluesound's wireless high-resolution audio eco-system. The Bluesound wireless high-resolution audio eco-system consists of music players, amplifiers, hard-drives, and wireless speakers to playback your high-res and low-res music files, along with your favorite online music services throughout your home using your home's WiFi network. With an advanced WiFi antenna design and blazing ARM Cortex9 Processors, Bluesound ensures a solid connection in every corner of your home. Play your music in perfect sync or play different music simultaneously to any Bluesound device in any room.

Note: Up to 16 Bluesound devices can be connected in a strictly wireless environment. If you want to connect more than 16 Bluesound devices, you will need to connect the Bluesound devices to your network using a wired connection. Bluesound can then control up to 64 devices in a strictly wired environment.

Direct Digital Technology: Bluesound's 32-bit architecture combined with 8x oversampling, paired with their own innovative DirectDigital Amp and DAC platforms, ensures that your lossless high-res music playback is flawless, with precision, power and clarity - at any volume. The Pulse Flex wireless speaker delivers 20 watts of bi-amplified power to its one 3.5" mid driver and one 1" dome tweeter, while its state-of-the-art DSP equalization maximizes bass power and clarity.

Wired or Wireless Network Connection: The Bluesound Pulse Mini can be connected to your home network and Internet provider via a hardwired Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) jack connector or wireless WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) connection. Either network/internet connection allows you to stream music from your Windows or Mac computer and NAS drive (such as the Bluesound Vault, sold separately); as well as stream select online music services.

Note: Bluesound operates only on 2.4GHz WiFi (not 5GHz).

Bluesound Controller App: The free Bluesound Controller App turns your Apple iOS (7.0+) iPod/iPhone/iPad, Android (OS 4.0+) smartphone/tablet, Windows (Vista or higher) PC or Mac (OS X 10.7+) computer into a full-featured remote control for the Bluesound wireless music system. The Bluesound Controller App on your compatible device uses your home's WiFi network to connect with Bluesound devices, so you can play all the music you love anywhere in your home for a wireless multiroom music experience. Get on-demand access to your music libraries on your home network, stream live Internet radio from almost any place in the world, or listen to one of the many music services available on Bluesound, all from the palm of your hand with the easy-to-use Bluesound Controller App.

Supported Music Formats: The Bluesound wireless audio system supports both low-res and high-res audio files; including MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC, ALAC, WMA Lossless, MQA, WAV, and AIFF. Bluesound has been designed to work with today's larger music collections, and has indexed libraries up to 100,000 songs in demonstrated practice (this will depend on the music's metadata & artwork). Bluesound also offers gapless playback by default for all supported file music types.

Notes: Bluesound cannot index or play AAC files with the extension ".m4p". These files were purchased in iTunes prior to 2009 and are subject to copy protection. Apple Consumers with an iTunes Match subscription can delete and re-download these files free of charge from their iTunes Cloud

MQA (Master Quality Authenticated): Bluesound is the first wireless multiroom audio system to support MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). MQA is a revolutionary end-to-end technology that captures and delivers master quality audio in a file that's small enough to stream or download. Bluesound worked closely with MQA to implement technology inside each Bluesound component to ensure the listener will hear MQA encoded music and streams exactly like the source and the way the artist intended you to hear it when it was approved in the studio.

Note: MQA (Master Quality  Authenticated) support will require a firmware update.

Online Music Services: With a network and internet connection, the Pulse Flex lets you access select online music services & internet radio. The Bluesound Controller app on your Apple iOS or Android device will serve as the controller for these apps and provide song/artist information with Album Art.

• Amazon Music: Listen to millions of songs, thousands of playlists, and ad-free personalized stations with Amazon Prime & Unlimited Music. With the addition of Amazon Music HD, you will now be able to play Ultra HD music (24-bit/48kHz to 192kHz) on supported Bluesound devices from the BluOs App when choosing Amazon Music. An Amazon Music (Prime, Unlimited, or HD) subscription will be required.
• Spotify Connect: If you subscribe to Spotify Premium and have the Spotify App on your Apple iOS or Android smartphone, you can stream Spotify to the Bluesound system. Spotify is a digital music service that gives you on-demand access to one of the largest music libraries in the world (over 15 million tracks and counting). Spotify makes it easier than ever to discover, manage, and share music with your friends. You can browse music by artist, album, track, or most popular; and create your own music library with customized playlists.
• TIDAL: TIDAL is a global streaming service that offers over 30 million songs in high-fidelity CD sound quality. TIDAL has two pricing tiers; either $9.99 or $19.99 a month. Both pricing levels allow you to access TIDAL's entire music library. The $19.99 tier has the added benefit of high-fidelity sound at CD-level quality
• TuneIn: The Bluesound system includes access to more than 70,000 free internet radio streams from all corners of the globe via the TuneIn radio service. Just select the TuneIn logo from the main Music menu and browse among the 70,000 stations neatly organized into popular categories and select a station that appeals to your mood.
• iHeart Radio: iHeartRadio is a free, all-in-one digital radio and music streaming service that lets you listen to thousands of live stations from across the country and allows you to create personalized custom stations featuring songs from the artist you select and similar music.
• Napster: Napster is a streaming music subscription service (starting a $10 per month) that allows you to play the full-length songs you choose on demand from a collection of over 10 million songs, without ads and without having to purchase or download the music.
• Slacker: Get the sound quality that you deserve with the new Slacker Radio® music library available in high-quality AAC audio on Bluesound. Listen to music streams at a bitrate of 320kbps and enjoy all your favorite Slacker stations in pristine MP3-quality.

Note: Availability of online music services may vary by region. Not all services may be available at time of purchase. Some services may be added or discontinued from time to time based on decisions of the music service providers or others.

Computer Audio: The Bluesound wireless music system will pull music from an existing digital music library across the network on your Windows PC or Mac computer using Windows or SMB File Sharing (SAMBA) and the Bluesound Controller App for Windows & Mac.

• Windows: Music files stored on a Windows desktop or laptop can be accessed by Bluesound using Windows File Sharing. You will need to download the Bluesound Share Utility for Windows - Bluesound Share Utility Windows v1.6.zip. This utility will work on Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10.
• Mac: Music files stored on an Apple iMac or MacBook can be accessed by Bluesound using SMB File Sharing. You will need to download the Bluesound Share Utility for OS X - Bluesound Share Utility OSX v1.2.zip.This utility will work on any version of Apple OS X 10.8.x and higher.

Bluetooth w/ aptX: The Bluesound Pulse Flex features built-in Bluetooth 4.0 with support for wireless music streaming from your Bluetooth-enabled Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad, Android smartphone/tablet, Windows PC/Phone, Mac computer/laptop, and more. You'll be able to stream stored music and music apps on your Bluetooth-enabled device to the Pulse Flex. In addition, the Pulse Flex offers aptX for CD-quality sound from Android (OS 4.0+) devices. You can even distribute Bluetooth audio to the rest of your Bluesound wireless audio system throughout your home or office over WiFi.

USB Port: The Bluesound Pulse Flex features a USB (type-A) port to directly connect your USB mass storage class (MSC) device; such as a thumbdrive or external hard-drive. The unit's USB port supports music playback from these compatible USB devices formatted in FAT 32 or NTFS.  Not only can USB audio be played back on the Pulse Flex, but can also be wirelessly distributed to the rest of your Bluesound components throughout your home for multiroom playback.

Notes:

• USB mass storage devices that require more than 0.5A of power will require a separate power supply.
• The USB port is not compatible with the direct connection of an Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad or Android devices.

Optical/Analog Input: The Pulse Flex is fitted with a 3.5mm Aux input which can be used as an analog or digital connection. As an analog input, simply connect a stereo minijack audio cable from your analog source to the Pulse Flex's Aux input. As a digital input, use the included 3.5mm-to-Optical adapter along with an optical digital cable (sold separately) to connect your digital source to the Pulse Flex's Aux input. As an analog or digital input, the unit's Aux input supports 2ch PCM audio (not Dolby Digital or DTS). Audio from the Optical/Analog Aux input can be played back at the Pulse Mini speaker and wirelessly distributed to other Bluesound components in your home for multiroom playback.

Soft-Touch Controls: The Pulse Flex offers soft-touch, top-panel controls to operate basic playback functions like Volume Up/Down, Play/Pause, and Previous/Next Track. There are also 5 preset buttons to store up to 5 of your favorite Internet Radio stations or online music service content.

Headphone Output: A 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the rear of the Pulse Flex for private listening with a set of headphones. The dedicated headphone driver is rated 0.0055% THD @1kHz, 35mW. It is designed for use with most headphones, with a minimum impedance of 14 ohms. The Pulse Flex speaker will be muted when headphone are connected.

AC Power + Battery Power: The Bluesound Pulse Flex operates off of standard household current using it's internal power supply and the supplied 6.5' detachable AC power cord. An optional battery pack (813BP100, sold separately) delivers 6 hours of high-res streaming.

Mounting Options: The Pulse Flex speaker can simply be placed on a table-top, shelf, stand, desk, or other piece of furniture with a flat surface. There is also a M6 threaded insert on the back of the speaker which allows you to wall-mount it using an optional wall-mount bracket (813VM100, sold separately).