Amplifier

[Peter Welham]

Does anyone know of a good amp with at least 2 digital inputs and ideally 4 speaker output, to go with my Brennan, can be 2nd hand, in fact probably cheaper 2nd hand.

I've looked at the Yamaha WXA 50 and the Denon PMA 30/50

[jon]

I use a Rotel RA-06 which I’ve had for years and gives great sound. Unfortunately it has no optical ins. The RA-10 has 2 and was thinking of getting one. Just a suggestion.

[ALAN SMITH]

I use a Marantz HD amp1. It has 2 optical inputs. It is not a cheap amp but it sounds superb. The B2 when played through a good amp sounds as good as any high end cd players that I have heard in demos I have had in the local hi fi shops.

[Edwyn Corteen]

Cambridge CXA60 has two digital inputs and sounds superb with the B2 it also has outputs for two sets of speakers, highly recommended.

[Stephen Bennett]

I am not sure this might be of interest to you but I output via the optical cable to a single Devialet Gold Phantom ... I have found this to be the most elegant solution to have outstanding sound quality and minimal equipment connected via wires ... regards ... Steve

[Richard Williams]

Hi everyone, thanks for adding me to the group.

On the back of the Devialet conversation, before i buy a Brennan  I would like to know if it is possible to play from the Brennan 'without wires/optical cable' to my Devialet Phantom Speaker as it is not practical to run any cables to my Devialet and I cant have the Brennan next to the Devialet. To this end, can the Brennan send to the Devialet via WiFi or Bluetooth or Airplay  'as standard' ? 

Many thanks in advance

Rich

[Daniel Taylor]

The wireless options for playing music from the B2 are Bluetooth, NAS, and Sonos.  If the Devialet can connect to Bluetooth, or access a NAS drive, you should be good to go.  But I doubt that it will behave as a Sonos speaker.

[Richard Williams]

Hi,

Yes it does support Bluetooth...so that appears to be the (only) solution.

Many thanks

Rich

[PMB]

Hi Richard D,

Considering the very high cost of the Devialet units and the various claims, I would consider Bluetooth to be too large a compromise in sound quality. If possible I would go for the optical connection.

If Devialet support DLNA that's another option as the B2 supports that.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Richard Williams]

Hi Paul,

Many thanks ... i've checked and Devialet Phantom does not support DNLA :-(

I agree with you re. compromise.

I've even checked to see if optical can in some way be transmitted wirelessly, but it seems that may not have been invented yet.

The Devialet, whilst not 'in my opinion true purest HiFi, has an incredible frequency response, low distortion and would i'm sure would sound awesome with all of the clarity and dynamic range a CD / FLAC would provide from the Brennan.

I will keep on (re)searching as in all other resects the Brennan ticks all my boxes.

Cheers 

Rich

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

Hi Rich,

Just a though but could there be a DAC that you could send the B2 optical output to that then outputs something that your "Phantom" can use?

[Richard Williams]

Hi Fred, 

That's an interesting angle, will look into that :-)

Cheers

Rich

[Daniel Taylor]

In my own opionion, unless you can get a pure (read non-Bluetooth) connection to your amp, buying the Devialet equipment would be a waste of your money.  The purity of a CD will be degraded by Bluetooth.  That degradation does not bother many people, especially if they are using what might be called non-audiophile speakers.  My understanding is that Devialet is a rather expensive audiophile speaker, and it seems silly to limit the purity of the signal fed to it.  Again, just my own opionion.

[Richard Williams]

Hi Daniel, 

Yes....in an ideal world I want to connect optically and hear the Devialet at its full potential.... I can tell you already its pretty impressive just from Spotify over bluetooth ! Really want to hear a CD/FLAC over optical :-)

Cheers

Rich

[Daniel Taylor]

Rich,

Sorry, I lost track of the fact that you already own the Devialet.

I believe that there are options for sending a full resolution digital audio signal over a distance, either using some sort of cable or wirelessly.  You might investigate that.  They might be sort of pricey, but could be worth it.

[Richard Williams]

Hi Daniel, yes I am a proud and very pleased owner (of just the one Silver Phantom). Not everyone's cup of tea, I accept, but it works for us, looks quirky (most people don't initially figure out what it is ie is that a heater ??? etc ) and it really 'moves some air' on those deep notes :-)

I suspect also my solution will be expensive, but ultimately worth it to rediscover my CD collection again.

Rich

[David Wheeler]

Hi Rich - I would endorse Daniel's opinion that it would be a shame to degrade the potential of the Devialet speaker by using Bluetooth. I am aware of these units, as the only non-B&O products I have seen on display in a Bang and Olufsen showroom! It will be worth persevering with options on a decent connection, as I have proved to my satisfaction using B&O equipment that I have had for many years with my more recent B2.

For serious indoor stereo listening, I take the B2 optical output into a DAC which feeds line level signals to my active, ie with built-in power amplifiers like the Devialet,  B&O speakers, and the sound is as good as I have heard this side of astronomically priced equipment (some might put the B&O and Devialet in that category, but that's another discussion!).

More pertinent to your requirement, for outdoor use I use the B2 to serve another B&O speaker (a Beosound 2) wirelessly via DNLA.  This also sounds very good indeed, but the B&O app that controls it is nowhere as good as the B2 one.

I am surprised that the Devialet does not work with DLNA, as it accepts 'WiFi' (unspecified) and several other forms of wireless inputs.  One of those is UPnP, which I know nothing about, but appears to be a way of forwarding a router port.  Perhaps somebody else here could advise on this one?

Another route worth investigating might be optical repeaters to extend the range from the B2's optical output.

best of luck

David W

[Richard Williams]

Thank you so much David, that's given me a lot of lines of enquiry!

An optical repeater might be a solution if I can take the optical cable to outside my house and back in again where the Devialet resides.

I've always wanted to own a B&O system ! Still not ticked that one off.

Thanks again Rich

[PMB]

Hi Rich,

Does the Devialet have "aptX" enabled Bluetooth - this CODEC provides much higher quality audio over Bleutooth. If it does you could try to find an "aptX" Bluetooth transmitter (Blitzwolf, Avantree, etc) with optical input to connect to the B2.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Richard Williams]

Hi Paul,

Yes ! according to the APTX website at least ! Although cant find reference on Devialet's site ?

https://www.aptx.com/products/devialet-phantom

"Devialet Phantom

The Devialet Phantom supports Qualcomm® aptX™ audio technology for high quality wireless audio streaming." 

Many thanks will look into aptX Bluetooth TX !

Cheers

Rich

[jon....@ridgewaybarn.net]

David W writes: 'for outdoor use I use the B2 to serve another B&O speaker (a Beosound 2) wirelessly via DNLA.'

My wife wants a B&O speaker....but I thought that the B2 did not 'do' DLNA...my Sonos works fine, but when the man from B&O came with a demo he could not get it working. Unfortunately I was not around at the time to see what steps he did (or didnt) take.

Could you explain further?..Thanks...jon

[Mark Fishman]

There should be a "get DLNA" menu item under maintenance somewhere. After you "get" the DLNA software you have to turn it on. It interferes with the recent Sonos support, and might interfere with NAS use, but the B2 does do DLNA.

[PMB]

Hi Jon,

The B2 does have a DLNA function - Maintenance menu >> DLNA on-off. In this mode the other device (B&O) is in control of what's played from the B2.

DLNA does need to be off for 'play B2 to Sonos' to work though.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Chris Jones]

Quad Vena II Play or if you have the budget  QUAD Artera Solus Play, I currently have my B2 connected to my Quad 34/405-2 using a cheap DAC from Amazon, sounds fantastic, however I am thinking about changing to the  QUAD Artera Solus Play.

Regards

Chris

[David Wheeler]

Hello Jon, and others

B2 definitely does work with DLNA on a B&O wifi enabled speaker, as Paul and others have indicated here.  As we know, recent updates have added a better interface for the very popular Sonos system, the consequence of which is that the B2 has to be set to operate with either Sonos or DLNA.  So you have to go into the settings and make sure that DLNA is turned on, and I guess that NAS is also turned on, as that's what the B2 will be doing, ie acting as a server.

I don't know about any of the other enabled B&O units, but the sound from the Beosound 2 is very impressive, as is the look of the speaker - my wife also fell in love with that!  The Beosound 1 has the advantage of being battery powered, so is completely portable, but loses some of the punch of the 2.  In both instances, as Paul and others here note, the B&O will 'pull' music from the B2 rather than the B2 streaming music to it, but it has to be said that the B&O app that controls this is not a patch on the Brennan one.  There's no album artwork, no intuitive searching, no easy interface.  What you get is really just a representation of the file structure as you would see looking at the B2 using it as a NAS to  your computer.  You do however get random playing of all tracks, which in the garden is how we use it.

We have also found the connection of the B&O to be occasionally flakey, and it's not our router or signal strength, as we have loads of BT's disc extenders all over the house and outside, so never have drop-outs on other gear.  I don't think we have the 5GHz/2.4GHz issue either, as the B2 does not lose its app control when playing to the optically connected system indoors.  When the B&O drops out, it seems to revert to some playlist  that I have never made, and I cannot see the other 9000 or so tracks any more.  This is usually resolved by deleting the B&O app and re-installing - the equivalent of 'turn it off, wait, then switch back on' I guess.  The app will then offer the choice of Bluetooth, DLNA or other connection, and find the B2 when DLNA is chosen.

In summary, the B&O wifi speakers work with B2, have a great sound for casual use, but I just wish they would come up with a better interface app.

rgds

David w

[JFBUK]

Hi Jon & David,

there are alternative apps that will act as a DLNA control point/controller. I use MediaMonkey on Windows and Android for example. It does have a bit of a struggle with album art when it is managing media on a DLNA media server though. 

Its better with NAS storage in that regard and of course you can configure the B2 to act as a NAS 

John