Digital Audio Bitrate from S/PDIF Output

[Conor Buescher]

Hi,

Does anyone know the bitrate that comes off the Brennan via the S/PDIF output?

From looking that the specifications page 

https://thebrennan.com/pages/b2-specifications

I don't see anything specific regarding the numbers and the documentation regarding the TOSLINK connector/cables seems a bit fuzzy.

I see that the interface was originally designed to handle 48kHz but has been revamped/expanded.  I was able to find some folks saying that 96kHz/24bit is doable but anything beyond that might be tricky depending on cables, etc.

I have some 96kHz/24bit music stored onto the Brennan B2 device but I just want to know if it's coming out of the machine at that bitrate or if the implementation of the output limits that to 44.1kHz or 48kHz or other.

Thanks,

Conor

[Daniel Taylor]

What comes out the Toslink digital output and the HDMI output is CD standard 16 bit/44.1 kHz.  Some higher rate files can be played, but they will be downsampled to 16/44 and you will not get the benefit of the higher sampling rate.  Some files seem to play okay, yet others to not.  I've not read anything definitive as to how to know what will work.  You just have to try it.  However, aren't higher bitrate files larger?  If so, and considering that the higher resolution is lost, I can see no benefit to having such files on the B2.

[Conor Buescher]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the clarification.  I wasn't sure if the Brennan would play higher bit rate files at the higher rate or just downsample them to 44.1/16bit so that's good information to know.

95+% of my collection is ripped CDs but I do have a few digital albums that are at higher bit rates.  I was thinking about looking into digital albums more and for the "future" having higher bit rates might be useful but I won't worry about it too much while the Brennan is a part of my system.

Thanks again,

Conor

[PMB]

Hi Conor,

Daniel is correct in saying that the B2 down samples higher bit rates to 16 bit 44.1kHz i.e. CD standard. I have stored and played 24 bit 96kHz OK but have heard that higher bit rates don't play.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Davywhizz]

When I first got my B2 I loaded some high res files I'd bought. What I found was most of them stuttered very badly on playback so I had to delete them. I think I've still got one that was ok at 24/96.

What I did next was use the dBpoweramp software Music Converter (which many of us also use to rip CDs prior to loading on the B2) to convert the higher res files to CD quality. From memory it was very easy: select FLAC then there's an option to "add DSP effects" which lets you resample to 16/44.1. The only other thing to be careful of is to make sure you keep the original file as well as the lower res copy. Again, I recall that was pretty obvious. If you have not too many high res files you might even get them converted in the three week free trial of dBp, though it's cheap to buy and really useful in B2 ripping.

After I'd got all my CDs on the B2 I bought a high res music streamer. The B2 now runs into that to benefit from its DAC, then both go into the hifi. The high res files I'd bought are now on a memory stick in the back of the streamer and its app recognises them instantly, including the album art and track listings, for gapless playback.

[Conor Buescher]

Thanks to all for the additional confirmation.  I have a few higher resolution (96kHz/24bit) files on the Brennan and they seem to play without any issues.  

At least the ones that I've actually played, I haven't played them all.

I'm considering adding a music streamer to my system but hadn't thought about running the Brennan into it as well.  I currently use an outboard Border Patrol DAC that I've got hooked up to the Brennan.  Putting a digital streamer into that chain would be an interesting idea.

Conor

[Davywhizz]

One reason I run the B2 into the streamer (Bluesound Node 2i) is that I then take a digital coax cable from there into a DAC/headphone amp, so I get both B2 and streamer outputs at the headphones end. I use the streamer's DAC for the B2 en route via RCA to the speakers, but it could just as easily go optically direct to the amp. One of the many nice features of the Node 2i is that all the connections are live all the time so there are lots of options

[Conor Buescher]

Is the Brennan's library available on the Node2i?  I'm wondering if they share the same hierarchy and if the music on the Brennan would be available on the BlueOS application.

Thanks,

Conor

[Davywhizz]

Hi Conor

Your message prompted me to try - so far I'd only used the B2 by selecting the Node optical input on the BlueOS app (which I'd renamed Brennan B2), then going to the Brennan UI, which works fine. 

Tonight I set my B2 to "start NAS" then looked for network shares on BlueOS. It was all very smooth - I entered the B2 username and password (root and brennan) and the Node took about 40 minutes to index about 850 CDs. 

The library, with artwork, seems to be all there and I can play it from the BlueOS app. I need to spend some more time with it, but my first impression is that it might take longer to navigate the library because the album artwork takes up more screen space than it does on the Brennan UI. There's a setting to optimise the artwork, which actually reduces the size, so I'm running that now.

[Conor Buescher]

Oh, very interesting.  Since you're not using the Brennan's optical out but rather as a NAS device I'm thinking that the Node 2i would play higher resolution files at their higher bitrate as the Node 2i won't downsample those files on the digital output stream.

While I like the idea of connecting the Brennan directly to the Node 2i (or having it wired/connected), having the ability to play higher resolution might be a nice benefit of having it connected to the streamer as a drive rather than a "music" source/component.  I guess, longer term, if I didn't want to use WiFi for music I could hard wire those devices with cabled ethernet connections.

One of the things that was a bit janky for me was connecting my Brenna to my DAC as my DAC doesn't support Toslink (optical) connections so I had to buy a "box" to do a conversion and while I never really liked the idea of doing that, it sounds alright, but being able to eliminate it and then stream to the Node 2i would have a couple of advantages including being able play higher resolution music files from the Brennan.

Thanks for trying that experiment.

Conor