Thoughts on the Brennan B2?

I recently came upon this product on YouTube. If you're a CD junkie like me it has the potential of being a significant bit of kit. While it has a good number of incredible features, such as store music files in FLAC, it does seem to have it's limitations. Not sure but it doesn't seem to store hi-rez files and it has no RCA output jacks; so apparently no aspirations of being a high end product. I did a SHF search which resulted in no hits so wondering if anyone has tried it and what their thoughts were.

 

I'm highly considering one or two!

 

I like many features of the B2 but what would make it really powerful is if you could then stream the music to your work computer or your smart phone; so you could listen to your music wherever you go. That's what this or any music server really needs to be able to do.

 

It does have bluetooth connectivity which is nice

 

Latest versions of the software enable the B2 to act as a file server.
This means transferring music to the Brennan and creating backups is easy - you can simply copy files to or from a PC, Mac or Linux box. Also of course you can play files stored on the brennan on a PC.
Before this I used to use SCP rather than USB drives for copy as suggested by Brennan. I always rip CDs on a PC so that I can populate the ID tags, so that the FLAC or mp3 files can be used mobile players that support them

 

Pulled the trigger and bought a Brennan B2.

Still digging into the functions... Bluetooth works fine, but you need to enter your router IP address into a web search to reach the web interface where you can organize your music, rename albums, create playlists, stream endless internet radio stations from around the world. The system seemed buggy at first, but apparently, router IP addresses change slightly, so you have to check it all the time, or somehow set up a dedicated IP address for your B2.

I've been burning CD's all day, and sometimes it just refuses to read them and rip. Leave it alone for a few minutes, try it again and it works. Touchy.

I haven't tried Sonos or NAS with it, nor have I attempted to link it with a tape recorder or record player to record those sources onto the B2.

I'm still not sure if I can transfer my music on my IPOD onto the Brennan or create backups.

The unit is very solid feeling. Hope it is built to last.

 

Transferred a bunch of MP3 files from my Mac to Brennan B2 with Bluetooth. So convenient.

 

One nitpick. The Brennan has a tendency to get overwelmed if you burn disk after disk. If you give it some time to compress the files and come back later, it recovers nicely.

Funny note. After burning 15 discs in a row, the Brennan gave me a message that said, "See you later" and then froze up. Must be English humour.

 

Just saw a YouTube ad for this, and was intrigued. I'm kind of a technophobe, but if it's simple enough to use, I might be tempted.

 

I've always felt the Brennan was the coolest thing I've ever seen in an Airline catalog. Seems to be a good turnkey CD ripping solution for some people.

 

Man, what an elegant solution. Me want.

 

Another note on the B2.

I've noticed that occasionally, some discs will fail to play on my Brennan B2, yet play fine on other cd players.

Perhaps the B2 is more sensitive to defects in the discs?

 

I bought one for Christmas but haven't messed with it yet, maybe tomorrow.

You have to keep a continual lookout on their web site, but they sell factory refurbished units for $100 off the regular retail price. I bought the smaller memory one as it should fit my needs and can be expanded with a attached external hard drive. Buying the refurbished model saved me an additional $100.

The unit looks to be brand new.

 

Another note:

I don't recommend allowing the Brennan to name the disc and provide a tracklist.

Oftentimes it will mix up the track list. It is safer to rip a cd as ALBUM 1,989 and then manually supply the title and track lists.

Another irritating feature of the Brennan is that if you have 1000's of albums on the system, and you rip a new cd onto the system, you either have to search for it with keywords, or scroll through all previous rips to find it. I wish newly ripped cd's would appear at the top of the list. My spotty wi-fi makes scrolling a slow painful process.

In general, take it slow, be careful about naming albums and tracks.

 

Two (and a half) questions please:

1. Does the B2 hook up to my present system like a standard CD player sending signal to my Adcom preamp and onto my Sunfire amp and then to the speakers?

2. Can I attach a back up hardrive, like a Passport, loaded with music and load files from it into the B2 to play? And then delete files from the B2 to make room for others?

 

The Brennan looks to be very similar to offerings from already established players in the audio biz, like NAD’s Blusound line of products. I’m not sure what more or different the Brennan brings to the table.

 

There have been LOTS of turnkey products like this available over the last five years, with Cocktail Audio, NAD (Blusound), Denon, Marantz, and others with similar units. What does the Brennan do that these other units do not?