Using the B2 as a NAS with SONOS

[Miguel San Martin]

Hello,

I just purchased a Brennan B2 and I noticed that when I use it as a NAS for my SONOS I can not search the B2 music library by Artist, Album, Song, or Genre. Also I was a bit disappointed that of the 5 CD’s I ripped, the CDDB in the B2 only identify 2 of them (my B2 is connected. Is WIFI to the internet).

So I would like to know if I can use a ripper software like “dbpoweramp” in my MAC to rip my CD’s and then transfer the library to the B2. Would that work? Can the resulting library in the B2 be accesible by SONOS in a way that I can search it by Artist, Album, Song, or Genre, like I do with my iTunes library?

Any help on this matter would be highly appreciated.

Thank you.

[PMB]

Hi Miguel.

Sonos requires 'tags' to display the titles, artists, etc, the B2 does not use these, so they need to be added.

dbpoweramp has mentioned a number of times on the Forum and it sounds like it is a good solution for ripping and naming CDs. You can transfer the music from the computer to the B2 using a USB memory stick or HDD or SSD, via NAS mode or using the 'upload' function on the web UI.

The B2 may find more titles if you do a Web Upgrade to update the software.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[pbrow...@gmail.com]

Miguel, 

don't know anything about Sonos, but I also had problems with CDDB  identifying my CDs - I was getting c. 75% recognised. Whilst browsing through the menus on the B2 I noticed in settings/maintainance an option to 'get MYDB'. This ( I think ) downloads an older, different DB onto the B2 HDD. I have had 99% success with this, including obscure stuff and CDs which CDDB had previously failed to recognise. Some CDs did get more than option  displayed, but turning the dial on the B2 got the correct option, usually it was the second one if not the first.

I guess I should have made myself more familiar with  the menu system sooner, but I was keen to start ripping and there seems to be so much info without the best of structure that I missed it.

Hope this helps

regards

Patrick  

[Miguel San Martin]

Thanks Patrick, that worked extremely well!

I am surprised because I read that if the B2 is connected to the internet it will use the latest CDDB and not the internal one that came with the product. I guess that that was not the case.

Cheers,

Miguel 

[Miguel San Martin]

Thanks Paul.

A couple of questions:

1)Will the tags that dbpoweramp adds to the music library (in order to be able to search for artist, genre, etc.) create any problems when I try to access the library with the B2, once load it in the B2? 

2)If I already have a music library file in the B2 from ripping CD's locally, for example, and then I import one created externally in my MAC from ripping CD's there, what happens to the local music library? Does it get replaced with the new one that I uploaded?

Thank you for your help, again.

Miguel 

[PMB]

Hi Miguel,

Since it's introduction the B2 used the CDDB from freedb.org which worked well and found most CD titles. However that service was closed earlier this year and we switched to using MusicBrainz. This appears to be not so good as the freedb at finding titles. Martin Brennan is looking at using more than one CDDB site, such as Discogs, to improve the lookup results.

1. I haven't used dbpoweramp myself but many on this Forum do and I'm sure they would have reported any problems with the dbpoweramp tags.

Comments from dbpoweramp users please, especially if you also use Sonos.

2. Importing the iTunes library - this will be added to the music already on the B2. You may get duplicates if the albums appear on both libraries. It won't delete any music already on the B2.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Daniel Taylor]

The tagging information in music files is totally separate from the filename (and folders) that the B2 uses.  Adding or changing the tagging information will not interfere with the B2's operation in any way.

I do all my ripping on my computer using dBpoweramp CD Ripper.  There, I can add all the tagging information I want and edit it to my satisfaction.  Then I Import the music to my B2 via USB.  Works great.

[Miguel San Martin]

Thanks Paul!

[Miguel San Martin]

Thanks Daniel, I got it!