Hello! I have the Bluesound Vault 2 and have been extremely happy...but, more impressed...by it ever since I bought it this past April. The happy part is in that it does everything my dealer and Bluesound said it would do. The impressive part is that it sounds much better than I ever expected.
As others have said, there is really no difference between the Vault or Node performance-wise, BUT, I have to echo what 2psyop has said above: The ease-of-use of the Vault as a ripping and storage solution cannot be overlooked. I, too, had most of my CD’s ripped to my main PC as well as backed up to a NAS. But managing the tagging info, album art, etc. became such a time-suck for me that I ultimately went with the Vault because of the promise for a more convenient solution for keeping all my music properly tagged, with the right album art and managed with a very easy to use app.
Now, while I could have just imported my music files to the Vault, I decided to take the extra time to rip ALL of my CD’s to the Vault natively. Both my dealer and Bluesound recommended this route as a way to insure a perfect, bit-for-bit rip as well as for maximum accuracy for the metadata and album art. While I can’t say that the Vault made a better lossless FLAC file than my PC, I do know that of the 638 CD’s I ripped, I only had to manually adjust/enter tagging info or album art on 31 CD’s...a very, very good "hit" rate by the Vault! Of the other digital-only albums I had to drag over into the Vault, the hit rate was a incredible 89 for 103. The Bluesound app and Vault are the closest thing I’ve found to Roon in terms of keeping a music library managed automatically, as well as integrating Tidal and internet radio.
While there is a big price delta between the Vault and Node, I look at the amount of time that I now don’t waste in keeping an ever-growing music library managed as money well spent. I have a NAS drive hooked up to the Vault that backs-up its library automatically, so there’s that additional peace of mind as well.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, rather than looking at the Vault as an over-priced 2TB hard drive and CD-ROM, look at it as a way to save you effort and time. Only you can say how much that would be worth to you. Either way, Bluesound makes a terrific product!
Enjoy the music...
Arvin
Audio Research D240 MKII s/s amp, LS-7 tube pre & PH-3 tube phono; Denon VL12 turntable w/Ortofon 2M Bronze ; Thiel CS3.5 speakers; Bluesound Vault 2; Audioquest and MIT interconnects and cables
As others have said, there is really no difference between the Vault or Node performance-wise, BUT, I have to echo what 2psyop has said above: The ease-of-use of the Vault as a ripping and storage solution cannot be overlooked. I, too, had most of my CD’s ripped to my main PC as well as backed up to a NAS. But managing the tagging info, album art, etc. became such a time-suck for me that I ultimately went with the Vault because of the promise for a more convenient solution for keeping all my music properly tagged, with the right album art and managed with a very easy to use app.
Now, while I could have just imported my music files to the Vault, I decided to take the extra time to rip ALL of my CD’s to the Vault natively. Both my dealer and Bluesound recommended this route as a way to insure a perfect, bit-for-bit rip as well as for maximum accuracy for the metadata and album art. While I can’t say that the Vault made a better lossless FLAC file than my PC, I do know that of the 638 CD’s I ripped, I only had to manually adjust/enter tagging info or album art on 31 CD’s...a very, very good "hit" rate by the Vault! Of the other digital-only albums I had to drag over into the Vault, the hit rate was a incredible 89 for 103. The Bluesound app and Vault are the closest thing I’ve found to Roon in terms of keeping a music library managed automatically, as well as integrating Tidal and internet radio.
While there is a big price delta between the Vault and Node, I look at the amount of time that I now don’t waste in keeping an ever-growing music library managed as money well spent. I have a NAS drive hooked up to the Vault that backs-up its library automatically, so there’s that additional peace of mind as well.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, rather than looking at the Vault as an over-priced 2TB hard drive and CD-ROM, look at it as a way to save you effort and time. Only you can say how much that would be worth to you. Either way, Bluesound makes a terrific product!
Enjoy the music...
Arvin
Audio Research D240 MKII s/s amp, LS-7 tube pre & PH-3 tube phono; Denon VL12 turntable w/Ortofon 2M Bronze ; Thiel CS3.5 speakers; Bluesound Vault 2; Audioquest and MIT interconnects and cables