Brennan

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Mrs Muttleysnoop

Original Poster:

1,412 posts

183 months

Saturday 30th January 2016
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Mrs snoopysmutt wants to go digital! Has a collection of CD's and vinyl (those black round things). What's the best way of digitizing and then listening to these antiquated things? Have read of Brennan, seems to be a solution to de-clutter but is it easy to use for a non tech luddite. Anyone got first hand knowledge of the B2?

mike_knott

339 posts

223 months

Sunday 31st January 2016
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Sorry, no experience with the Brennan but I would say definitely rip everything to .flac (or another lossless format) so you never have to redo it if formats fall out of favour in the future. You will also need to make backups for when your hard drive trashes itself.

With this in mind, a Brennan that will store a decent music collection (>130 discs) appears to cost £480 and seems to have an awful remote control. I don't know if it stores files in an externally readable format (if you ever want to upgrade), or if it is possible to back up your collection, but if you can't then I would steer clear.

You could get a NAS and a couple of spare HDD's for backup for a few hundred, and there are various music players (Sonos, etc) for a similar amount (and up!). You could also store photo backups, etc. on the NAS.

The advantage of the Brennan is probably that the tagging is done automatically but a modest laptop with a couple of CD drives should rip 2 CDs in around 5 minutes so, while it is not an easy (or tempting) job, it is not the end of the world.

(I ripped my collection about 6 years ago: laptop running EAC to rip in FLAC format onto a NAS, played on a Logitech Squeezebox. Second copy in .mp3 format lives on a USB stick in the car and also on Google Play Music so I have *all* my music at home, in the car and on my phone. One of the best things I ever did; which probably highlights what a mediocre life I have lived!)

Mike...

Mrs Muttleysnoop

Original Poster:

1,412 posts

183 months

Sunday 31st January 2016
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Thanks Mike. It is obvious that I need to look into this further and forget about Brennan.

Crackie

6,386 posts

241 months

Sunday 31st January 2016
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I don't have experience of the Brennan either but it appears to be well thought out. I use a 2TB version of this http://www.novafidelity.co.uk/x12features/ which is very similar to the Brennan. The 2TB versions are both £570.

The remote is certainly better on the X12, connectivity and features are comprehensive ( Built in amp, good analogue pre-amp, great digital pre-amp, decent headphone amp, easy to use internet radio, easy streaming from other devices )

Annoyingly the X12 doesn't do wireless straight out of the box, you have to buy a separate dongle; Brennan appears to be the same though. They both will rip vinyl to their hard drives but they both need a phono stage of some kind to amplify and equalise things to line level before it can be ripped.

Brennan looks decent, X12 is very good imho and can be purchased at Richer. I think you'd be fine with either.


Patch1875

4,893 posts

131 months

Monday 1st February 2016
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We went with sonos and a NAS a few years ago all worked well but tbh it's pretty obsolete now with Spotify etc

We sold all our CDs to music magpie for buttons!


Bullett

10,873 posts

183 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
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dbpoweramp is what I use for ripping to FLAC, it's not free but it is easy to use and has been extremely good at tagging at the same time.
I dump the files to a NAS and playback via Squeezebox or a client on my desktop. Control via an app or physical remote, multi room or individual streams.
That gives me flexibility and future proofing.

It's slightly geeky to set up but not difficult. I think what the Brennan and other similar units offer is simplicity (at a price).

Mrs Muttleysnoop

Original Poster:

1,412 posts

183 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
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Thanks all. It's the geek bit that worries me! Perhaps I need to lower my aspirations to an MP3 and docking station and sell the vinyl.

85Carrera

3,503 posts

236 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
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I have a Brennan and am very happy with it. Good bit of kit. Very easy to upload CDs, not sure how you'd upload vinyl though.

I'm sure that there are vastly more expensive and/or complicated lossless options, but in the real world suspect you won't notice the difference.

if you want something that's easy to use and looks good, I'd recommend the Brennan.

Crackie

6,386 posts

241 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
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Mrs Muttleysnoop said:
Thanks all. It's the geek bit that worries me! Perhaps I need to lower my aspirations to an MP3 and docking station and sell the vinyl.
Have a look at this article http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-5/audio-qu...

Some will dismiss this idea as a joke and claim that it can't be hi-fi......others, particularly those who understand how good the measured performance is, will tell you just how capable it is.

S/H iPhone 5S + 64GB expanded memory = £170ish

Regarding your vinyl, can you currently playback ? If so how do you do it ? If you have an integrated amplifier then you can feed from the line out sockets, via one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/391034474885?adgrou... and then rip all your vinyl using http://www.audacityteam.org/ . Audacity is free and easy to use; you can also you use it to clean up the scratches, pops and clicks. Very simple but also very time consuming to do but it gives you the option


Edited by Crackie on Tuesday 2nd February 23:26

Monty Python

4,812 posts

196 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2016
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While I wouldn't dismiss it as a joke, one persons' view does not make it true. Everyone has different hearing so this sort of "information" is only useful as a starting point. If he'd done blind testing with at least 50 people then I'd take more notice.


Watchman

6,391 posts

244 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2016
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I am another who has a NAS and Sonos but I agree that my own collection is now largely obsolete thanks to internet radio. We rarely actually delve into our own collection.

That said, I'm currently (for the past week) ripping my mother's CD collection because she has decided to ditch her ancient stereo in favour of a couple of small Sonos speakers. We have looked at the most cost-effective way of storing her collection and I think - given that it's not terribly expansive - she could store it all onto a ~100GB iPod which we happen to have. There's a guy in the US selling 2nd hand Sonos iPod docks for ~£35, so I bought one. Mother is familiar with the iPod interface, so she could either "drive" the Sonos from that, or use the iPad interface to access the radio stations.

Be aware that the Sonos iPod dock only works with a few iPods.


Another thing... I would not bother trying to rip vinyl before you have checked if it is available from a CD-rip on-line somewhere. Either keep the vinyl for the "experience" or get the music ripped from a digital source. Vinyl rips are usually quite poor.

Edited by Watchman on Wednesday 3rd February 19:00

Crackie

6,386 posts

241 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2016
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Monty Python said:
one persons' view does not make it true. If he'd done blind testing with at least 50 people then I'd take more notice.
I didn't imply there was anything magical about the iphone or the reviewer's hearing; I just thought it might be a simple cost effective option for the OP .

Clearly one reviewers's opinion does not make it true; Ken Rockwell's subjective opinion does not carry any more ( or any less ) weight than any other reviewer's. Measurements do not tell you about the phone's sound quality but they do tell you what the output level is, that the phone has a low noise floor, has low jitter, has a usefully low output impedance which also means it will be relatively immune to the effects of peripheral cables and other gear.

Interestingly, Stereophile magazine, who also publish comprehensive, pertinent, measurements think that the iPod's audio stages are well engineered and sound great as a fully fledged hi-fi source.........







Edited by Crackie on Wednesday 3rd February 18:54