srt101fan

Saw an ad for these recently. Anybody have any experience with these music devices?

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

I often see the ads too and the spec sounds brilliant. Very few on the used market which says a lot. I know we get streaming music but these CD "rippers" provides a neat solution to a CD collection gathering dust. I've been tempted to buy one but they are perhaps an expensive luxury.

srt101fan

Yeah, seems like a cool thing to have but, as you say, a bit pricey. I'm still trying to figure out what all it does.

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

If you have a Windows computer and a cd drive Windows comes with a program that will let you rip your cds and save them in different formats such as MP3 and FLAC. I put all my cds on two flash drives using FLAC . One for the house & plugged one into my car. FLAC takes a lot more room than MP3, but is just about CD quality. I imagine Apple has the same kind of program.
The Brennan just sounds like an expensive way to play music. The ripping part you probably already have.

srt101fan

Thank you. Maybe this is in the "cool but not worth it category"!

lordblair Loc: Oklahoma

I bought a Brennan device several years ago , a JB7, for about $700. It held all of our 1500 + collection easily, BUT, I did it without thinking I could have just as well put them on the computer app (iTunes) instead and saved the $700. Why? of course, I don’t know the capabilities of the B2, but my unit, which used online “look-up” easily enough, was a real pain for custom made recordings. It’s not unexpected that one would have to enter the title and track names of a custom recording, but the way to enter them! It was like a cell phone of the 90’s- the letter “c”, for example, three strokes on the ABC number. There was no alpha numeric keyboard, but just a number pad on the remote like an old phone- 1 2(ABC). 3(DEF) etc. There was also a rather restricted number of letters and numbers you could enter for each title, not to mention you might want to squeeze in the name of the composer, and then spend a lot of time “typing “ titles for individual tracks. The display was pretty small and would have to scroll across for anything but the shortest entries. Plus, it balked at some of the discs I tried to insert-maybe if it had a paper label. I had to rescue a couple of CDs with a tweezers! And the sound quality wasn’t all that wonderful. Also, I thought the search function (which you had to access through the above-mentioned process of typing) wasn’t very good. It had very little AI, in other words. I think I would have pulled out most of my hair if I had tried to make a playlist.
So, if you’re really sold on having one, go ahead! But, for me the graphics and access of a computer-based program are superior.
Dave

srt101fan

Thank you for your comments, good input!

Tote1940 Loc: Dallas

I have used iTunes now “Music” in iMac
Over more than 15 years ripped using Apple Loss Less around 4500 CD’s and LP’s previuosly burned to CD using external CD burner
It is pretty big 4.5 tera , on external drive
Have playlist by type of music, composer
Several times it has crashed and looks DOA, currently working well.
It is like a gugantic jukebox, just find right album and play
Mac goes into Stereo pre amp then amps to several rooms in house
Frequently scrounge antique stores, incredible LP finds that once washed and clean sound between acceptable and amazing
Have thought about these devices but think that Mac Music does the same and too old to think about ripping all these again

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

They're great for what they are, but they have their limits.

I have the Apple Music app, and GarageBand, so I'm set. I can rip my CDs, record my own music, and master and burn CDs. Now if only there were a way to convert vinyl records to AIFF files without a hassle, I'd be set.

Tote1940 Loc: Dallas

Agree with you, Apple Music works well, no limit on number of CD’s or others; allows saving in multiple formats.
Converting LP’s begins with cleaning the record. Have tried so many methods; finally washing with a manual device then just before playing carbon brush seems to work well. Used Sound Guard years ago, still trying to get rid of residue that gums up stylus
There are record players with USB but I think only MP3 recordings
Bought from DAK a gadget that has RCA audio in, USB’s into MAC then use Quicktime to easily record but auto level control i.e. dynamic range compression and MP3
To get better quality use a dedicated CD burner in HiFi, manual level . Then rip this into Mac.
With DAK sound capture device have digitized around 300 cassettes, using last cassette player that works !
Mostly letters so auto level not a problem
Comparing LP’s and CD’s I think main difference is quality of Audio engeneers; they were amazing in late LP era, while in CD’s quite a few sloppy recordings or dubs from master tapes some even with hiss