Advantage of B2 compared to ripping to my computer hard drive?

[David Cooper]

Hi.  I'm a noob regarding digitizing my music.  I have around 400 CDs that I want to rip, store, and make portable/mobile on various devices including my phone and car audio.  What is the advantage of Brennan B2 over just ripping CDs to my computer hard drive using some app?  Sorry but I'm an old guy just getting started on this subject.  Thanks.

[Patrick Palmer]

The ease and speed of ripping to WAV is amazing, then saving as FLAC (lossless) to HDD or choose to save as MP3, etc. is also seamless. Add to that the track, artist and album information is saved (almost always automatic or can be typed in later or modified) and get album cover artwork!!!!

A truly amazing product for audiophiles, get the BSP50 speakers or run through your amp/speakers and much more.

[Jim Jacobus]

Ripping to your computer and using something like VLC media player is one way to go or setting up a PLEX server on your home network is another.

I purchased a B2 several months ago the the following reasons:

- I wanted a dedicated server to hold all my music. Having it local on one computer does not necessarily make it available to other computers or your home audio system.

- I have about 1000+ cds and I wanted to finally get them all ripped and organized - it's a long term project.

- Additionally, I have hundreds of albums that are in digital form only. The B2 allows me to upload them and keep them all organized like my CDs.

- The B2 has a nice web interface which makes adding and organizing easy. I think this software is the best value of the B2. There's also a mobile/phone interface which is nice. You can manager your library from any phone computer on your network.

- Using the web interface it's easy to edit track and album information. The B2 accesses MusicBranz so you can get album covers and other metadata.

- When you rip a cd, the B2 uses MusicBranz to attempt to find the correct album info. You don't necessarily have to enter the album and track info manually.

- You can play music using the B2's dedicated jacks or Bluetooth. Bluetooth allows you to connect to any number of speakers. The web interface makes that easy. Sonos seems popular, but I just recently purchased Creative T100 speakers for my desktop.

- After you rip a cd, the B2 will convert the WAV file to FLAC while it's idle. That's a nice feature that runs in the background.

- Making playlists is easy.

So my bottom line is:

Pluses: 

- well done interface that works on any computer on my network

- organization - I've got one 2TB drive with all my music organized - that I can backup

- can play music on any speaker or computer on my network.

Minuses:

- the internal CD reader isn't very fast and I'm concerned about it failing. I have and external cd play ($26 on Amazon) that I use instead. Problem solved.

- i'd like at least one more USB connection on the back. trying to use the WiFi, external CD play and bluetooth at the same time isn't possible - answer to that is to hard-wire into my network using a cat-6 cable (instructions on the website).

[DavidC]

Thank you Guys.  And I forgot to mention couple things.  I do have decent home audio system.  The amp is Pioneer Elite SC-35; it's about 10 years old.  The speakers are Vienna Acoustics.  So I want to output to that. And I want to rip to the purest format which I guess is FLAC.

[Jim Jacobus]

I don't think the Pioneer has Bluetooth. You can plug the B2 directly into one of the numerous inputs in the back of the Pioneer. 

[JFBUK]

Hi David,

Looking at the spec of your Pioneer and what you said in your original post were your requirements, I think you might want to try some things first which may be possible with what you already have.

Your Pioneer supports playback of audio files from a USB storage device so you could rip some CD(s) on your computer, copy them to a USB drive , and then see how that works for you when you connect the USB drive to your Pioneer.

Reading the Pioneer documentation it seems that once you choose USB as your source you will see the lists of folders and files on your TV screen ( I'm assuming your TV is hooked up to your Pioneer) and then navigate and control which ones you want to play.

Your Pioneer does not play back FLAC files using this method but will play back WAV files. WAV files are lossless but uncompressed so bigger than FLAC files.

Assuming your 400 CDs are on average 1 hour in length then ripping them all to WAV would be approximately 250Gb .

You will not get all the sophistication and extras of a B2 but it may be sufficient.

John

[RandyT]

Hi David, and welcome,

The first thing you'll find is that this forum is full of very helpful and knowledgeable people. I actually have a file folder where I print out some of the information and procedures I find here. 

Like you I wanted to feed into my main system and I do this via the optical output on the B2 > external DAC > preamp/receiver. The sound quality  using this path is likely the best you'll get from the B2 and it's excellent. The B2 is also small enough to take with you.

Another plus is the built in amplifier. I believe it's a 15/wpc, class D amp and it sounds pretty good. I actually have a small set of bookshelf speakers plugged into my B2 and if I'm home, there's background music playing thru those speakers. The good thing about this is that the smart phone app will let you control the volume of those attached speakers. You will need some very slim banana plugs for the speaker connections though.

One of my favorite things is the Radio Tuner. It's not really a tuner in a traditional sense but will stream music from most any radio station that's available via the internet. And these are from all over the world. I believe the database of stations is around 44K. 

I've recently found what is likely the best station I've ever listened to and it plays ALL THE TIME at my house.

There's more to like but those are some of my favorites. To be honest, there is a learning curve to this and it's not for everyone. If you invest a little time you'll love it. Like many on this forum, I was wanting to get all my music in one place and that's happened for me. Yes it's taken a while but I wouldn't go back. What I have also discovered with the radio function is that I'm finding more new music and I've bought more CD's this past year than I've bought in the past 10. 

Randy

[DavidC]

Thank you.  I'll investigate further using the USB.  I tried some time ago, but it occurred to me that I may not have the supported file formats on the USB drive.

[DavidC]

Thank you RandyT for the discussion and encouragement.

[DavidC]

Thanks JFBUK.

On Wednesday, October 27, 2021 at 6:26:45 AM UTC-7 JFBUK wrote:

[PMB]

Hi Randy,

What's the best ever Radio Station........?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Jeff. M.]

I think I've found it! And it's a url stream! Will post later, see if anyone can help me save it somehow. This relates to a post a few days ago. 

[RandyT]

I was wondering if anyone would ask! Thanks Paul.

On your Brennan look for BLUES RADIO ATHENS. Since I'm in the southeast U.S. I naturally assumed this was Athens, Georgia. How wrong I was!! It's Athens, Greece.

This appears to be an internet only radio station where they have a lot of freedom. I have not heard ANY commercials for any thing yet. About every 15 to 20 minutes you MAY hear something like, "You're listening to Blues Radio Athens, Greece."  That's it, nothing else. I believe I've heard them ask for contributions via PayPal one time. It's basically non-stop music.

You can follow their play list via their website; bluesradio.gr, click on the Blues Radio in the small header row and scroll for the playlist. Of course you can listen via their website, not only on your Brennan.

Obviously my comment of the best radio station ever is my opinion only. But if you like to listen to the blues, check it out. BTW, it's not all old style 'cryin' blues. There's lots of R&B mixed in too. It's a fun station. I hope y'all enjoy it.

Randy

[PMB]

Hi Randy,

I'll have a listen, thanks.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[JFBUK]

for all those who enjoy the Blues I recommend

BluesMusicFan Radio

available on your local Brennan or here

https://www.bluesmusicfan.com/

John