These are not the same size of amplifier: Bluesound POWERNODE has roughly 3.2x the power of Arcam Solo Uno. That is about 5.1dB, so it is a question of room size and how hard your speakers are to drive, not of one being the better amplifier.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | Bluesound POWERNODE has more power - 80W against 25W into 8 ohms. That is about 5.1dB - a different class of amplifier rather than a bigger version of the same one, and far more than most rooms will ever ask for. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Bluesound POWERNODE the better fit for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room, and Arcam Solo Uno for desk or near-field listening and a small room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Noise floor | B | Arcam Solo Uno is the quieter design on paper - 117dB against 100dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board. Bluesound POWERNODE goes higher - 384kHz against 192kHz. Very few recordings exist above 192kHz, so treat this as headroom, not as sound quality. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Bluesound POWERNODE has BluOS and Amazon Music; only Arcam Solo Uno has Chromecast, Apple Music and Pandora. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Bluesound POWERNODE takes more analogue sources - 2 against 1. |
| Use with a TV | depends | Only Bluesound POWERNODE has HDMI eARC, so the television can drive it directly and one remote controls the volume. If the system is for music only, this changes nothing. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Bluesound POWERNODE has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Shelf space | depends | Arcam Solo Uno takes up about 17% less shelf area (348cm² against 420cm²), and it is 55mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Arcam Solo Uno costs less - $769 against $949 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Bluesound POWERNODE is the cheaper watt - about $12 per watt against $31. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Bluesound POWERNODE B Arcam Solo Uno
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Bluesound POWERNODE leads across most of the measured areas for a fairly modest premium, so it is the easier pick if the budget stretches. Arcam Solo Uno is the one to take if it does not. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - Bluesound POWERNODE has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 25 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 55 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Bluesound POWERNODE poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason. If this sits under a television, Bluesound POWERNODE is the one to buy - HDMI ARC means the TV remote controls the volume and there is no second box in the way.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.