Anyone got a Brennan ?

[Prosebass]

I have been looking into getting one of these [url="http://www.brennan.co.uk/"]http://www.brennan.co.uk/[/url] but I am a bit of a Hi-Fi snob and worry that the quality won't compare well with the original CD's
Has anyone got one and if so what are your impressions and what gear do you run it through ?

Paul

[discreet]

According to the website the default compression rate is 192k, so if you wanted 100% lossless storage you wouldn't be able to store anywhere near as many CDs as is generally advertised... I'll be very interested to read further comments though, I was looking at one of these as well but had the same concerns about quality. I get the impression it's not exactly a high-end bit of kit!

[Prosebass]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1333875524' post='1607520']
According to the website the default compression rate is 192k, so if you wanted 100% lossless storage you wouldn't be able to store anywhere near as many CDs as is generally advertised... I'll be very interested to read further comments though, I was looking at one of these as well but had the same concerns about quality. I get the impression it's not exactly a high-end bit of kit!
[/quote]

I have noticed the 500GB version will copy uncompressed so I would get my 500 CD's on that and at 12x record (5 minutes a CD) would only take 40 hours of copying. But I wonder if the D/A converter is any good as I would be using the line out on the unit into my power amp.

Edited April 8, 2012 by Prosebass

[discreet]

This from 'Gramophone' may be of interest...
I was looking at Squeezebox too, but again I'm not really sure if the quality is there!

[url="http://www.gramophone.co.uk/forum/audio-and-video-equipment/the-brennan-jb7"]http://www.gramophon...the-brennan-jb7[/url]

Ultimately though, I think a solution with no moving parts has to be the way to go.

Edited April 8, 2012 by discreet

[yorks5stringer]

I was tempted but upon reading the reviews thought I'd wait until something better came along...are these new fangled "CD's" any good?!

[discreet]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1333887712' post='1607722']
...are these new fangled "CD's" any good?!
[/quote]

Dunno mate, I'm hanging on to my wax cylinder player for now.

[BigRedX]

All these devices just do what you can do with a computer and iTunes but less well and for more money, and they only do one thing. The hardware might look better in your living room, but you could always do what I've do which is to hide the computer part away in a cupboard and just have the display and keyboard on show.

[discreet]

What also bothers me is the fact that it's basically a hard drive, which is going to fail at some point. If you're going to back up your audio database anyway, then you may as well use your computer... I really think streaming will be the thing when the quality is sorted. I like the idea of audio on demand.

Edited April 8, 2012 by discreet

[BigRedX]

I hate the idea of audio on demand. Not only are you reliant on having a decent internet connection all the time, but you're also reliant on the music you want to listen to being available somewhere. Fine if your tastes only run to the mainstream. Not so good if you more obscure stuff. I like music too much to treat it as being ephemeral.

[apa]

As per discreet and BigRedX posts. What do these things do that a computer cant apart from the speed of copying?* Its a CD player and a hard drive and thats about it isnt it?

* Isnt it a damn sight quicker to open the CD on your computer and copy and paste?

A

[discreet]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1333889445' post='1607749']
I hate the idea of audio on demand.[/quote]

I [i]do[/i] have a decent internet connection... most of the time. It's rare for me not to find what I want to hear - and my tastes don't run to the mainstream only, that's for sure. And I [i]don't[/i] treat music as ephemeral! If it's playing through my system I can listen to it just as closely regardless of where it's coming from.

Having said that I still miss vinyl. The whole process of buying an album, getting it home, holding it, [i]smelling [/i]it, reading the notes, the lyrics, looking at the artwork... jumpers for goalposts...

[jezzaboy]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1333889950' post='1607757']
I [i]do[/i] have a decent internet connection... most of the time. It's rare for me not to find what I want to hear - and my tastes don't run to the mainstream only, that's for sure. And I [i]don't[/i] treat music as ephemeral! If it's playing through my system I can listen to it just as closely regardless of where it's coming from.

Having said that I still miss vinyl. The whole process of buying an album, getting it home, holding it, [i]smelling [/i]it, reading the notes, the lyrics, looking at the artwork... jumpers for goalposts...
[/quote]

And rolling some "jazz cigarettes" on the sleeves. Can`t forget that!

Jez

Edited April 8, 2012 by jezzaboy

[discreet]

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1333890903' post='1607772']
And rolling some "jazz cigarettes" on the sleeves. Can`t forget that!
[/quote]

Not sure what you mean of course, but anything to enhance the listening experience...

[Prosebass]

The last thing I want to do when listening to music in the lounge is have to fire up my laptop. I already have about 500 MP3 albums on the laptop and when working indoors have this plugged into a small music system.
What I want is a stand-alone unit that holds my entire CD collection in lossless .wav format that is easily accessible and sits on top of my Hi-Fi amp.
Just need to know if the output from the Brennan D/A converters is comparable with a good CD player.

[discreet]

[quote name='Prosebass' timestamp='1333893828' post='1607827']
Just need to know if the output from the Brennan D/A converters is comparable with a good CD player.
[/quote]

I can't seem to find this information, which doesn't bode well in itself. Also, the sole audio out connection seems to be via a stereo 3.5mm jack socket, which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, either. It may be worth dropping Martin a message through the website.

[url="http://www.brennan.co.uk/docs/file/How_it_works.pdf"]http://www.brennan.co.uk/docs/file/How_it_works.pdf[/url]

[BigRedX]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1333889950' post='1607757']
I [i]do[/i] have a decent internet connection... [b]most of the time[/b]. It's rare for me not to find what I want to hear - and my tastes don't run to the mainstream only, that's for sure. And I [i]don't[/i] treat music as ephemeral! If it's playing through my system I can listen to it just as closely regardless of where it's coming from.

Having said that I still miss vinyl. The whole process of buying an album, getting it home, holding it, [i]smelling [/i]it, reading the notes, the lyrics, looking at the artwork... jumpers for goalposts...
[/quote]

But having to stream your music makes you reliant on both your ISP and stream provider(s). More things to go wrong. OK so my musical tastes are probably a lot less mainstream than most peoples, but when at least a 3rd of my music collection isn't available to me from the on-line music stores, that's worrying. And it's not just obscurity that's the problem. I just did a search on 5 big-name Japanese artists that I own CDs by. Apart from the odd track on anime compilation albums nothing is available to me unless I have a Japanese IP address.

Edited April 8, 2012 by BigRedX

[leftybassman392]

I just know I'm gonna sound like a philistine for saying this but can somebody tell me what's hard about taking a CD out of it's case, inserting it into your CD player and pressing 'play'?

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Prosebass' timestamp='1333893828' post='1607827']
The last thing I want to do when listening to music in the lounge is have to fire up my laptop. I already have about 500 MP3 albums on the laptop and when working indoors have this plugged into a small music system.
What I want is a stand-alone unit that holds my entire CD collection in lossless .wav format that is easily accessible and sits on top of my Hi-Fi amp.
Just need to know if the output from the Brennan D/A converters is comparable with a good CD player.
[/quote]

Who says anything about having to fire up a laptop (and shouldn't your music be on a real computer)? My iTunes server goes into sleep mode when I'm not using it to play music. It takes just a couple of seconds to be ready to play. No more than either my CD player or amp take to power up. Also I can't imagine that the Brennan would power up instantaneously.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1333896973' post='1607886']
I just know I'm gonna sound like a philistine for saying this but can somebody tell me what's hard about taking a CD out of it's case, inserting it into your CD player and pressing 'play'?
[/quote]

No playlists. No random choice. No automatic skipping of duff tracks on an album. That's just 3 for starters.

Edited April 8, 2012 by BigRedX

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1333897068' post='1607890']
No playlists. No random choice. No automatic skipping of duff tracks on an album. That's just 3 for starters.
[/quote]

Well my CD player has a remote so that pretty much takes care of choices 2 and 3. As for playlists, meh!

Don't get me wrong - I was an IT coordinator in a previous life, have pretty much my entire CD collection (plus a number of movies) on iTunes, and if I say so myself have a good working relationship with technology of all kinds. My point is that the whole purpose of HiFi is surely to reproduce music the best it can. None of the items listed above has anything to do with that.

If folks want to spend their hard-earned on such kit, far be it from me to stand in anybody's way. I'm just wondering why anybody would feel they need to spend this much money so they can have playlists and random selections.

[discreet]

And where do you listen to music? In your 'office' on your computer while you're doing something else, or in a comfortable 'lounge' setting listening carefully to a high-quality system? I like to do both, but they are very different experiences and have a bearing on what technology you're going to use for the purpose... IMHO, YMMV and so on and so forth.

Edited April 8, 2012 by discreet

[BigRedX]

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1333898449' post='1607913']
Well my CD player has a remote so that pretty much takes care of choices 2 and 3. As for playlists, meh!

Don't get me wrong - I was an IT coordinator in a previous life, have pretty much my entire CD collection (plus a number of movies) on iTunes, and if I say so myself have a good working relationship with technology of all kinds. My point is that the whole purpose of HiFi is surely to reproduce music the best it can. None of the items listed above has anything to do with that.

If folks want to spend their hard-earned on such kit, far be it from me to stand in anybody's way. I'm just wondering why anybody would feel they need to spend this much money so they can have playlists and random selections.
[/quote]

Your remote might allow you to skip a duff track but with my system it's done automatically so I after the first time there's no user interaction required ever again. My random selection is of my entire collection or any defined subset, not just a single CD. It's all about flexibility. I can listen to a CD as the artist intended or I can hear random selections of all my music - a sort of Radio BRX - or anything in between. The music on my iTunes server is at CD quality and plays through the same D/A convertors into my HiFi as my CD player so there's no difference in quality whether I play the actual CD or the version stored on the computer hard drive. Also my computer hardware only cost a little bit more than my CD player, so if you're serious about your music listening experience it's still possible to have the same audio quality but more listening flexibility for a similar price.

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1333898652' post='1607917']
And where do you listen to music? In your 'office' on your computer while you're doing something else, or in a comfortable 'lounge' setting listening carefully to a high-quality system? I like to do both, but they are very different experiences and have a bearing on what technology you're going to use for the purpose... IMHO, YMMV and so on and so forth.
[/quote]

Yup, fair point. If I'm not in the lounge it'll be the iPhone or the laptop. Isn't the Brennan supposed to sit in your lounge as part of your HiFi though? As such it has the status of a convenience item. If the HiFi was integrated into the house so that you could have the audio experience as you moved around then I could see the point - sort of. I guess what I'm saying is that I'd rather spend the money elsewhere in the audio chain - or indeed on more music. Then again, I've done far too many stupid things with money over the years to criticise anyone else for their choices.

[discreet]

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1333902124' post='1607972']
Isn't the Brennan supposed to sit in your lounge as part of your HiFi though? As such it has the status of a convenience item.
[/quote]

That's right, what I'm getting at is (generally speaking) most people don't have their computer in the lounge. When all audio-visual and computing devices, phone, internet and what have you are combined into one set-up (convergence) then that will change the dynamic again. I definitely think that not having music on vinyl (or CD) devalues it somewhat. And if you're of a generation who is used to not paying for music anyway, even more so.

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1333901342' post='1607964']
Your remote might allow you to skip a duff track but with my system it's done automatically so I after the first time there's no user interaction required ever again. My random selection is of my entire collection or any defined subset, not just a single CD. It's all about flexibility. I can listen to a CD as the artist intended or I can hear random selections of all my music - a sort of Radio BRX - or anything in between. The music on my iTunes server is at CD quality and plays through the same D/A convertors into my HiFi as my CD player so there's no difference in quality whether I play the actual CD or the version stored on the computer hard drive. Also my computer hardware only cost a little bit more than my CD player, so if you're serious about your music listening experience it's still possible to have the same audio quality but more listening flexibility for a similar price.
[/quote]

Indeed; many, many convenience features for no loss in audio quality. I do get it. However the thread is about the Brennan system in particular, and as I've said already I'd need a better reason than convenience to spend my money on one. We're all giving opinions here aren't we? This is mine.