Bluesound Powernode (2025) Review

Price

In the UK, the Powernode is available for £899. Unlike sister company NAD which is exclusively available from Sevenoaks stores, Bluesound has a wide selection of retailers to choose from so it shouldn’t be too hard to locate one. In this USA, it is (for now at least) $1,199 USD. In Australia it does not appear to be on sale yet at the time of writing (October 2025).

When looking to buy the Powernode, do check to make sure you are buying the correct model. The preceding Powernode is also simply called ‘Powernode’ and it looks very similar. Ensure that the unit you are buying is listed as ‘Powernode (2025)’ or Powernode (N331) for the latest version.

Design

• It’s a Node… but bigger.
• Black and White finishes
• BluOS app is still brilliant.

Bluesound is nothing if not logical when it comes to their industrial design. Sure, they have been busy of late with the Node Nano and Node Icon which take the design language to slightly different places but, with the Powrnode, it’s business as usual.

The footprint is the same as the standard Node but the height is increased to allow for amplification to be fitted. Is it extremely exciting? Not really but it won’t alarm people new to hi-fi and neither does it take up very much room.

While the company has dabbled with a silver finish with the limited edition Node X from a few years ago, the Powernode returns to business as usual and is available in a black or white finish. This isn’t hugely excting but it’s fairly pragmatic; if one doesn’t work for you, it’s likely that the other one will.

Build is solid rather than spectacular. Compared to the Node Icon which really does manage to feel a bit special at the price, the Powernode is more prosaic – solid but not spectacular.

You will have noticed an almost complete absence of controls on the Powernode as well as no display. I’ve become quite comfortable with the little haptic panel on the top of the unit that Bluesound uses on a few of its products as a control point but there is less visual feedback of what the Bluesound is up to any given point than there is on a WiiM product for example.

No remote is supplied but there is the ability to assign unused IR codes on a remote to control functions on the Powernode.

The main control point for the Powernode is the BluOS interface and it’s here that it still retains an advantage over most rivals.

In terms of streaming service choice, BluOS is still the more comprehensive and its multiroom support is also best option on the market, both in terms of the number of supported zones (which for most of us in the UK is something of an abstract concern) and the number of different devices that will join the party (which isn’t).

Even when BluOS isn’t the best at something, it’s right behind the leader in a way that doesn’t make you regret choosing it. Then, should all else fail, it plays nice with Roon too.

Specification

• 100 watts into two channels…
• …and 80 into three
• Small selection of additional inputs
• EQ more limited than some Bluesound offerings.

As noted, the Powernode is a Node with an amp added. This means that the Powernode has a class D internal amp and quotes an output of 100 watts into 8 ohms (which in keeping with other Lenbrook devices has no differing 4 ohm figure, simply a peak output of 265W given). The company has vast experience with Class D amps and the implementation here is not radically different to the C700 v2.

Except, in one key regard, it is. As well as the 100W into two channel figure another set of figures quotes 80 watts into 8 ohms… over three channels. Peer at the back of the Bluesound and there is another set of terminals lurking on the back to allow for the connection to be made.

This means that the Powernode can run left, right and centre channels. Then, like the C 700 v2, you can use Bluesound wireless rears to become a five channel system. These speakers need to be Bluesound to work so this would mean a minimum of an extra £560 for a pair or Pulse Flex speakers which is not tiny money but it’s still a feature that no other notional rival can match.

As I have already noted, the Powernode uses BluOS which is exclusively stereo and the optical and analogue RCA connections aren’t going to be much help either. The responsibility of getting actual multichannel content to the Bluesound falls to a Dolby Digital capable HDMI eARC connection that will receive a signal from your screen (and in turn, anything connected to your screen).

As standard, this is summed to stereo but, in the audio settings you can activate the centre channel and also a subwoofer channel (if this is not active, you can still use a sub but the information is split via internal crossover and is not a dedicated LFE channel).

This puts the Powernode into a different category to anything else in the market. For the less committed, the Powernode offers a streamlined way into multichannel that very little else on the market is attempting to do. Like the C 700 v2, it can arrive in the house as a stereo product and become a multichannel one if you choose but equally be as happy going the rest of its days in stereo.

The one thing that has fallen by the wayside in this over the standard Node is the option to use Dirac Room Optimisation. This means that that the options for adjusting the Powernode’s output to suit your room are more limited and this might be a problem in more challenging spaces.

Performance

• Plenty of power on tap
• Genuinely excellent sound quality
• Adding a centre speaker benefits the-already good- HDMI performance
• Analogue input offers respectable sound too

As I noted earlier, the Powernode delivers 100 watts into 8 ohms. This is the same as the Marantz M1 and no more than a WiiiM Amp Ultra at £400 less. The thing is though… behind the on paper numbers, the Bluesound feels like it has more power on hand than either of these devices.

I was able have all three running at once and, even with levels matched as scrupulously as a voltmeter would allow, the Powernode consistently produced the sound I enjoyed listening to the most and did so at the lowest overall volume setting of the three (all of which were notionally 100 steps overall). Not only does it have plenty of grunt, it’s good grunt too.

It’s also worth noting before we so much as hint attaching more than two speakers to them, that the Powernode sounds seriously good in stereo as well. Listening to Gus Gus’ tremendous Mobile Home on the Bluesound via a set of Neat Petite Classic speakers isn’t ‘good for a compact streaming amp’, it’s good full stop; able to match the performance of the £600-700 integrated amplifiers that have been hitting the market in quantity.

Trying to work out where the decoding of the Powernode ends and the amplification begins is largely pointless but, when I sat down and listened to the fantastic Toward the Within by Dead Can Dance, the overall effect was immersive (and we’re still on two speakers remember), tonally superb and good enough for me to stop listening to the equipment and simply listen to the music. 

Being at my most critical, the Bluesound doesn’t truly let superb recordings show their worth in a way that some more conventional amps at the price can… but in return, it stays listenable when rivals are starting to get a bit sharp and forward.

Used via BluOS and Roon, the Powernode is a pleasure to listen to and this doesn’t change when you move to the HDMI eARC connection. Like the Marantz M1, even when the output is stereo, the Bluesound ekes positioning information and detail out of mixes that more conventional ARC implementations receiving a stereo downmix can’t do.

This is something you really only notice when you move back to ‘normal’ ARC fitments. It suggests that this might be the next area where manufacturers choose to differentiate their products.

Of course, based on the effect of adding a centre speaker (in this case, a fairly teeny Elipson Planet M), does suggest that Bluesound might be on to something here.

Dialogue is consistently good in stereo but 20 minutes of series Elementary (which I have long used for testing because the dialogue in the middle seasons can be barely intelligible) does suggest that there might be something in this dedicated channel business. I have no idea how many people are going to go full multichannel with a Powernode but after some time with it, I am more convinced by the idea of it.

If you want to go the other way and add turntable via the analogue input, the Bluesound puts in a decent showing. Compared to the more old school amps from Rega and Audiolab, with their dedicated phono stages, the Bluesound requires more hardware and can’t sound quite as natural with tidy pressing of Depeche Mode’s Ultra but it’s more than good enough for secondary use.

Rather better news comes in the form of the headphone out. This is the same THX AAA device as you’ll find in the Node Icon. It’s a superb headphone amplifier and one that will handle any headphone under a grand in fine style.

Should you buy it?