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Posted: |
Jul 19, 2018 - 8:42 AM
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By: |
rickO
(Member)
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Hi FSM Folks,
I just wanted to share a recent investment I made, in regard to music players. I decided to purchase a "Brennan B2" CD player, 1,000 GIG unit. It's very small, about the size of a car radio console, and you can tuck it onto a shelf. It weighs quite a lot, as it is made out of solid aluminum. In my opinion, it's a solid machine, and high performing. It uses a fiber optic cable onto your receiver.
It can rip CD's into uncompressed "FLAC" (which is a must); play internet radio, make playlists, rip CDs, has the ability to upload digital files (like online purchases), has a blue tooth to hook up things like amazon echo or what have you, and it uses an IP address to link onto your computer, tablet or smart phone, so you can organize the files on the B2. No downloading needed. Think of it like iTunes or Spotify only without the bother. And the B2 console itself has a screen and a toggle button to navigate that way, if you don't want to use a computer.
The reason I mention this beautiful machine, is it makes music listening such a wonderful experience. You can hook this up to high fidelity speakers, and it pushes out amazing sound quality. Also, when it comes to our beloved soundtracks, it's a must! The recent release of Goldsmith's THE MUMMY is a great example of why I love my B2. Disc 1 has over 70 mins of the score, followed by the small remainder of the score onto disc 2, which makes it annoying to switch out the disc or even wait for a disc to swap over (if you have an older, multi disc player). But with the B2, it automatically segues into the second disc, uninterrupted, without delay. Intrada's ROCKETEER is another example.
Anyone here own a B2? Thoughts? This thing is a dream come true, it's a perfect thing to me.
-Rick O.
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Disappointed after seeing that I'd misread one of the sentences. I had wondered how you could "fuck a CD player onto a shelf."
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Following. My $12.99 thrift store CD player is getting cranky.
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What is the benefit over ripping through a regular CD drive via EAC on a computer?
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I don't have a Brennan but I do use a NAD C658 DAC Network Streaming DAC. All my music collection is ripped to a 4TB network drive which the C658 reads from.
I do have a CD player it's a Audiolab 8300CD, I love slot loading CD players they are much cooler than the ones with disc trays.
Interesting. So your C658 is the control interface by which you select the music to play? Why not use a computer connected to the drive?
And for ripping CDs are you just using a basic CD drive?
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What is the benefit over ripping through a regular CD drive via EAC on a computer?
There is none in the result, the resulting files should be the same quality.
I suppise the advantage here is in the "all in one" system, that rips, stores, tags, serves and plays your CDs.
I think any hifi equipment that makes you happy is good hifi equipment.
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So does that mean the device is networked? I'd be nervous about having the wrong information inputted into the tagging system if it doesn't have an interface that I can interact with.
What a weird and unknown topic - I'm learning that there is standalone ripping HARDWARE, but also that you can use a DAC instead of computer for high-res audio playback.
I think I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around why standalone HARDWARE would be preferred to a computer, which could still serve the purpose of playback AND storage?
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I'd also be curious about the experiences FSMers have had with this unit! I no longer have a computer with a ripping drive (just a laptop, tablet, and phone nowadays). My OPPO 4k player does an amazing job, but it doesn't rip of course. This device, 2 terrabytes no less!, looks amazing if it is reliable and worth the investment? Anyone else have one?
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Posted: |
Aug 18, 2021 - 1:04 PM
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By: |
T.J. Turner
(Member)
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What a weird and unknown topic - I'm learning that there is standalone ripping HARDWARE, but also that you can use a DAC instead of computer for high-res audio playback.
I think I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around why standalone HARDWARE would be preferred to a computer, which could still serve the purpose of playback AND storage?
Really? lol Welcome to the world of audiophilia!
PCs were not made for audio playback, they just feature audio playback. And the majority of the time it's an after thought! The power supply CPU and RAM are often not stable because they are shared resources to other components and the operating system. This may be a cause of jitter or noise. Also the signal paths on the motherboards are often too poorly implemented for clean audio signals as they can carry RF noises, hum from electrical grounding issues, jitter, and noises by hiss or high frequency noises, sometimes you can hear noise just by moving the mouse around. Windows has had a long history of taking audio and resampling it to what ever is set in the sound settings, preventing a bit for bit representation of the audio quality. This is a problem for programs like iTunes that rely on windows mixer and api because they are forced to play everything at the same sample rate and bit depth regardless of what the file or streaming quality is.
So some audiophiles like to separate the audio from the PC as much as possible by using dedicated hardware that is actually intended for audio without any compromises.
It's a similar principle from stereo systems from the 70s through the early 90s where every function of your system has its own dedicated deck. Your turntable, tape player, CD player, AM/FM Tuner, and amplifiers were are separate decks so they didn't have to share any resources with other components, ensuring the integrity of the audio quality. (assuming each component is high quality)
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What a weird and unknown topic - I'm learning that there is standalone ripping HARDWARE, but also that you can use a DAC instead of computer for high-res audio playback.
I think I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around why standalone HARDWARE would be preferred to a computer, which could still serve the purpose of playback AND storage?
Really? lol Welcome to the world of audiophilia!
PCs were not made for audio playback, they just feature audio playback. And the majority of the time it's an after thought! The
Yes, yes, to what you said. I was not talking about the audio playback, but just the ripping part. Personally, I prefer to rip and tag my CDs on a computer and store and currate my music on a NAS system. For listening, I never use a computer. My Dell computer is a working laptop, for music playback it sounds like $%##.
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Really? lol Welcome to the world of audiophilia!
PCs were not made for audio playback, they just feature audio playback. And the majority of the time it's an after thought!
Yes, yes, to what you said. I was not talking about the audio playback, but just the ripping part. Personally, I prefer to rip and tag my CDs on a computer and store and currate my music on a NAS system. For listening, I never use a computer. My Dell computer is a working laptop, for music playback it sounds like $%##.
Yes, what both you T.J. Turner and Nicolai P. Zwar are saying now makes a lot of sense. I have indeed noticed a lot of noise with the headphone jack on my computer while making music and it's been probably 20 years since I heard that mouse issue on a PC but I distinctly remember that phenomenon.
My housing setup doesn't really accommodate nice loud speakers so I'm pretty much stuck with headphone-listening. But I can totally see the benefits for high-res audio (for which I know little about) to have separate playback units.
NPZ, I'm at the point where I'm planning to transition to a NAS for all of my media because it's a pain trying to keep track of it on separate computers. I'll probably still rip on a computer, but you've both given me good ideas on what to explore for optimal playback.
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