The Brennan B2

[Lat-Literal]

Does anyone have any views about this or any other Brennan?

How does it fare against a Spotify subscription and a CD collection?

[umslopogaas]

The advice I have had from my local expert whose advice I trust, is avoid. Whatever it promises, will come at a cost.

[Dave2002]

I know someone who has the earlier model. Last time I discussed it with him he seemed quite pleased with it.

On the other hand there are other ways of getting a similar result with similar levels of expenditure.

The new model seems to do FLAC.

http://www.brennan.co.uk/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brennan-B2-2Tb-Metallic/dp/B017Q9MMSA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1457778298&sr=8-6&keywords=brennan%2Bb2&th=1

A Spotify subscription will probably only do digital compressed audio - unless the plans have changed recently. Using CDs or SACDs should give better quality.

There are ways of getting higher quality from downloads or streaming sites, but the monthly costs go up and the equipment needed might also be more expensive if the best sound quality is wanted.

If you already have CDs then investigate ripping them (suggest to FLAC) and storing the files on suitable storage devices - such as a 2 or 3 Terabyte hard drive. That will cost around £100. Once that's done it's not too difficult to connect to devices to play the files.

[BBMmk2]

It''s quite expensive but either I am being rather stupid but I find it hard to understand?

[Dave2002]

It''s quite expensive but either I am being rather stupid but I find it hard to understand?

What's the problem?

The idea behind the Brennan devices is similar to some CD players in cars. You shove a CD in, it plays it, but also remembers it so you don't have to put the CD in again to play it again. Effectively they rip the CD to memory, and then function as a form of digital library.
Earlier models used digital compression (lossy) so there was some quality loss - but some people didn't mind, and perhaps many people didn't notice.
The newer models are still using digital compression, but from CDs it's lossless.

Similar results could be obtained by devices, such as, for example, Mac Minis bought from eBay for comparable amounts, or some people are just using Raspberry Pi computers (really cheap) and a hard drive - but that's probably a bit of a DIY project for most of us. Cost of that would probably be about £150 for a decent sized hard drive.

Some people have expressed concern about the audio quality of Brennan systems, but I don't know if that's justified. Probably depends what you compare them with.

[Lat-Literal]

Thank you for all of these very informative posts.

I know someone who really loves his (old) Brennan while accepting that the technology might have moved on. It is therefore very interesting to hear what people on the forum who understand these things think of Brennans generally and the B2 which I found on an internet search. I admit to being a bit surprised at the cost of it. His, I think, was much cheaper.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I was put off Brennans by the false advertising of the product - claiming that putting a CD player into a CD player and pressing "play" was a long and arduous task. It went on to say how much space you would save - wrong, because you'd have to keep your CDs to stay on the right side of the law (and the rights of musicians). They also failed to mention the degradation in sound quality.

[Dave2002]

The earlier model, the JB7 can be had relatively cheaply from eBay - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brennan-JB...4AAOSwt5hYZCkQ - but the sound quality will be limited by the mp3 encoding.

The newer model, as I've already written, does FLAC, but there are very probably other systems which have better sound quality available at comparable prices, or perhaps for not much more.

Re cost - well you can pay £000s for a DAC if you really want to, with matching CD players, amps etc., and I'm sure you'd get significantly better quality, but at a significantly higher price.

I doubt that the Brennans will have a very high resale value - though having said that, what does?

If you have more than £1k which is burning a hole in your pocket, I suggest looking at some of the newer streamers, such as by Cyrus.

[MrGongGong]

I'm sure they appeal to the folks who like to have everything tidy
or those who are taken in by the B&O type nonsense
but it seems an awful lot of money to spend on something that in it's essence is very simple

[agingjb]

I'm content enough with my JB7 (with reservations), but I shan't replace it with another Brennan product. I gave quite a bit of feedback to Brennan; they thanked me for it; they ignored it.

[Anastasius]

Rubbish.

Impossible for classical music. The database has as much use or relevance for classical music as a chocolate teapot. Avoid.

[Flay]

- claiming that putting a CD player into a CD player and pressing "play" was a long and arduous task.

I must say I would find doing that quite difficult

[Zucchini]

I must say I would find doing that quite difficult

And me. But you can drop a square drain cover through a smaller dimensioned square hole, so I suppose ...

[gurnemanz]

Rubbish.

Impossible for classical music. The database has as much use or relevance for classical music as a chocolate teapot. Avoid.

This is my impression as well. Eg. No field for composer.

Digitising a large (several thousand) CD collection would not for me be worth the effort and man hours.

[Dave2002]

And me. But you can drop a square drain cover through a smaller dimensioned square hole, so I suppose ...

Only up to hole side size sqrt 2 x the length of the drain cover side, but yes - it's possible.

Re digitising the CDs, many of the players have databases which are difficult to manage, though some might be more tameable than others. I don't know if there are any "standards" for media databases which allow them to be migrated between software players to avoid having to redo the work each time a new player is tried out. The iTunes one is just about useable with care, but it does take time - which can be saved by just playing CDs in a player.