Memory almost full - and final review of Brennan B2

[Keith Knight]

Hello everyone

I have now got the problem of deleting files from my Brennan, clearly 2 tb is not large enough to add to my collection of music on it.

If I knew what I know now I probably would not have bought the Brennan outfit. Ripping CDs to Flac takes a long time, and then you can only use a proportion of the hard drive for storage, as the number of directories are controlled.  I got round this by uploading around 1000 music files to a directory when I realised this.

The output to Brennan speakers OK, but the fact that different cds are recorded at different levels, means some tracks are lower or louder than the other on random play which I use.  I now use another amplifier and the output is excellent.

I will format another hard drive and use that to store extra tunes to play on the unit.

It was a revolutionary way to store and play music when I bought it, but it now needs to be simplified and the storage space increased.  Amazon Music seems to be the answer as it plays all I need . I do hope that Martin will add Alexa to the software onboard.

Cheers Keith 

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Keith,

The 2TB HDD or SSD is the maximum size that the B2 can use.  It is not a Brennan limitation, rather it is a Microsoft limitation and it is an absolute limit.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say '  the number of directories are controlled.'  How many directories do you require?

Could you post here the # artists, # albums, # flac, # wav, #mp3, #aac tracks and total disk space used?

Also, if you want to include your 'b2db' and 'B2AlbumList.txt' files as attachments, then we could have a look and see if there are any possibilities for you.

To provide the two files, here are the steps involved.

1.  Insert a USB stick into the B2's USB C port (the stick only needs to be small volume as the files will only be about 5 MB or smaller).
2.  Format the stick to FAT32 if not already done.
3.  From the B2 front panel, select and run 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> 'b2db to USB'   (this is a text file so can be read by any text editor).

4.  From the B2 front panel, select and run  'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> ''List Albums'   (this is also a text file)
5.  Plug the USB stick into your PC/MAC.
6.  Select and upload the file 'b2db' into this thread.

Regards,

Peter.

[Mike W]

Keith, how many cd's are you hoping to add to the B2?

In the "Features" section of the web site it clearly explains, as items 1 & 2 on the list, what the storage options give you by different disc sizes/compression options with a maximum of 2tb. Not sure how you know something different now.

Mike

[Keith Knight]

Version 3
3220 Albums 0 mirror is the header

[JFBUK]

Keith,

is that what you hope to add or what you have already ripped ?

Could you post your stats as found in the Web UI (click on the cog wheel) ?

e.g.

Thanks

John

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Keith,

From the one stat that you have provided (3220 albums) and assuming that all tracks are 'flac' format, then I estimate that your collection is currently using about 900GB, so less than 50% of your disk is used currently.  We have some users with much larger collections, the largest I have on record is 119000 tracks in 6750 albums, so  you have a good way to go.

This leaves me wondering why you have a capacity problem and need to delete files?

Regards,

Peter.

[Keith Knight]

Hello 

Software Version B2 Mar 10 2022 10:28:42

169298 tracks in 3220 albums 1068 artists

1 WAV 8591 FLAC 159497 MP3 1208 AAC

Capacity 2000.00G Used 1095.45Gb

USB 0 tracks in 0 albums 0 artists

I have some reputable usb dongles which play on my amplifier.

I realised the problem with fake cards years ago and returned all the faulty ones.  I once bought a 2tb external hard drive and had the problem that another chap has had.  It had a tiny usb stick in it which had 16gb on it but it had been doctored to read 2tb!  I find if you buy from ebay using Paypal you always get a refund in the end.  I have bought reputatable drives and usb dongles at proper price. 7 day shop.com is also good for recordable usb sticks and cards.

Cheers Keith

[Mike W]

Hi Keith, I'm a bit confused. Have you loaded all of your music onto the B2 or are there more cd's to rip?

Your B2 disc is only showing as just over 50% full but you are looking to delete some and to have others on a usb device, if I'm reading your posts correctly.

Mike

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Keith,

Now, with more data to process, I can see your problem.  That is your collection has a very large number of tracks (169298 tracks) and this is the limiting parameter as the approximate number of tracks limit is about 170000.

We will need advice from Brennan Support to see if this parameter can be increased (it has been increased already).  You have plenty of space capacity otherwise.

Regards,

Peter.

[PMB]

Hi Keith,

You may filled the Track memory allocation - press the 'COG (gear) wheel' on the web UI and then click on 'Memory Usage' - what does it show?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Keith Knight]

Hello Paul

Tracks 169297/170000

Albums 3220/15000

Artists 1068/6000

Tracks Memory 5988730/7000000

Albums Memory 87762/900000

Artists Memory 26540/200000

I have probably filled it up because it says "almost full"  Some tracks are ripped to mp3 as well - quicker than using the brennan ripper.

All the best

Keith

[Daniel Taylor]

Hi Keith,

When you say "Some tracks are ripped to mp3 as well - quicker than using the brennan ripper." does that mean that you've ripped some songs to both FLAC and MP3 on your computer and then copied them all to the B2?  If that is the case, then you could have what amounts to duplicate copies of those songs.  Not exact duplicates of course, but copies of those songs in two formats.  I'm not sure what the B2 will do with those extra files.  But they are taking up space that could be better used.  Of course, all that is only if I've interpreted your statement correctly.  Otherwise, never mind. ;o)

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Keith and Daniel,

Looking at the stats that Keith provided, there are  8591 FLAC and 159497 MP3 files, so whatever Keith intended there is not an exact FLAC / MP3 duplication.

However, if both FLAC and MP3 have the same names (apart from the extention) they will appear duplicated in the B2 interfaces ( I believe).

Fred

[Keith Knight]

Hello Fred and Daniel

Problem here is not caused by duplicate FLAC and MP3 files. The FLAC represent most of my CDs ripped to using the Brennan. I got bored by that and ripped the rest of my CDs to MP3 on my latpop. I then transferred MP3s I have collected over the years, from external hard drives etc.  I am possibly greedy expecting more storage on the Brennan than it can offer!  

The Brennan is a good idea but possibly left behind by on demand music and radio stations on the Internet that play back to back music.  The Brennan Speakers do not provide an impressive audio experience when connected to the B2, but adding even a cheap amplifier to them brings out the best in them. One thing for certain is I am glad I am tech savvy at 70!  It is not easy to rip a large collection of cds using the Brennan either!  I think it is possibly overpriced for what it is, but thankfully I had the money to buy one and was inquisitive to see what it could offer.   I do connect up vinyl and cassette it and use it as a preamp for my hi fi.

Best wishes

Keith

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Keith,

The problem with your B2 is that the 'Tracks table' (held in main memory) has filled up.  The fix for this is to increase the 'Tracks Table' size, which, if possible, will be done by Brennan.  This has been done a number of times already for other users who have large collections, the last time this was done was in December 2021.

If you could provide an estimate of how many tracks you might ultimately be storing then that would give Brennan a good idea of how much to expand the table by, if this is feasible.

@ Paul; my 'Brennan Estimator' spreadsheet is showing that the 'b2db' is something like 6 - 7 MB in size so it might be worth checking if this file has any size constraints.

Also, the 'Tracks memory table ' is becoming quite full, so this would be worth checking out.

Tracks 169297/170000

Albums 3220/15000

Artists 1068/6000

Tracks Memory 5988730/7000000

Albums Memory 87762/900000

Artists Memory 26540/200000

Regards,

Peter.