Brennan B2 (480G Black) HiFi - CD Ripper, Storage and Player with Bluetooth, Spotify, YouTube, Internet Radio, Stereo Power Amplifier, NAS, Wav, Lossless (FLAC) and MP3.

I’m not often as pleased with a Hifi thingy as this Brennan B2. I recently upgraded some other gear and came to the realization that most all my MP3’s simply weren’t good enough, so I was looking for a dedicated CD ripper along the lines of the Astrell & Kearns, but stumbled on this. I like that I know what it is inside (Raspberry Pi, SSD, audio hat/connection, OLED screen, CD drive, and the code to tie it all together nicely) and how polished it is. Martin Brennan has given serious thought to this thing, and it shows. Is it perfect? No, but it’s REALLY good at its job. Think of it as a jukebox- it’ll “eat” all your CD’s (MP3 or FLAC) and give you a simple nice UI for sorting/playing/etc. You can rip and export, as I’ll be doing with all my CD’s to make lossless copies this time around. From there you can export to whatever other player you want, or you can use the line out, optical, or HDMI to send the sound where you want. The speaker plugs are tiny- I had to find 5mm banana plugs so as they wouldn’t touch. It’s also on 15Wx2, so you’ll not likely going to rely on this as your primary sound system, but in the right environment it’d be serviceable. I was debating loading the B2 up with all my music (you can import via USB as well if that’s more your angle) and then connecting it via HDMI to my home theater, but came up with a better long term fit. I hooked up a DAC and headphone amp (Schiit audio Modi Multibit and Valli 2) via the optical link (this specific cable is not included) and am delighted with how well it’s all coming together. When I can’t be loud, I can bring up the B2 UI, put on the cans and get nice and loud between my ears, whilst not inspiring murderous thoughts in my significant other. There are some nice additional tricks- like being able to play the audio of a YouTube video (like, think music videos) as well as plentiful internet radio stations. If Brennan reads this, and there’s an idea of making a “B3”, I’d vote for more wattage to the speakers, and more space between the plugs. I also noticed that the optical output is limited to the CD quality (16Bit/44KHz), which makes sense- it’s consuming CD’s, so there’s a fit. However, with services like Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, and others offering HD audio (meaning properly greater than CD quality like 24Bit/192Khz or more) this could be a valuable addition.I hope they come back in stock soon. I’m getting the sense that my household is going to want/need a “his and hers” pair of these little sound Swiss Army Knives. :) [Note on image: the screen is fine- the refresh rate seems to be camera shy].

Having lived though and beyond the CD music revolution, I have a largish collection of CD I hardly ever use because of the inconvenience of shelf-based media. The Brennan B2 looked like it would allow me reduce my physical collection while allowing easier access to the entire library. I am quite satisfied with the product.Set up is straightforward. Ripping a collection of CD’s takes a while (about 6 min per CD), but only has to be done once. Note that this is for the ripping process; compression (to lossless FLAC or MP2) takes place in the background during idle time.The price point for the version I selected was about what I had imagined: about $550 for the 480Gb model. Not a bargain, but certainly a fair market value for a unit with a 480Gb SSD. The device allows access via the front panel, a remote, a dedicated app and through a web interface. Clearly, the latter is the most useful for whole-house streaming and allows the most visibility and control over the unit. In its present release I would say that its capabilities are acceptable. Some of the screen designs are too compact for easy selection of on screen options. (Note: I most often use a iPad Pro to view the web app). Some selection information is not provided, most notably the track length and progress. Hopefully these shortcomings can be rectified in future releases. On the plus side, there is a relatively robust Playlist function available.This unit is particularly easy to connect with Sonos speakers. Sound quality is outstanding with the FLAC compression. There are also physical connections and Bluetooth is available.Recommended for anyone with a large collection of CD’s sitting on the shelf they wish to access.

The Brennan B2 is a very capable audio file storage and playback device. You can load and archive a few, to hundreds of CDs into it. It basically consists of:a hard drive (multiple sizes available, depending on the size of your music collection),a CD disk drive (for CD ripping),a processor (Raspberry Pi, which operates in LINUX, no need to understand LINUX),a stereo power amp (enough power to drive respectable bookshelf speakers),headphone output, optical output,(2) USB ports, one of which is used for your backup hard drive and the other can be used for a WiFi dongle, Bluetooth dongle, or outboard CD drive (In my case, I opted to extend the lifespan of the internal drive by using an external drive which I could easily replace).There are a number of possible configurations for the USB ports. You may not need the dongles.The unit communicates with your home network via WiFi or an ethernet port, hidden within the case. It is easily accessible via the removal of two screws to access it.The unit functions as a local music player with massive storage capabilities and as Network Attached Storage, so the music files can be accessed by other devices in your home network.The manual is very basic and could be somewhat better. There is a wealth of operation information on the company website, but it is a bit chaotic in format, in my opinion.However, the best is yet to come...........................The online forum is by far, the best that I have ever encountered ! The Brennan community consists of some very knowledgeable experts with respect to their devices and to how they behave in various operating system environments.This device is fundamentally a gem !Martin Brennan and staff have thought about almost everything one could want this type of device to do and implemented it !Thank you !