Brennan or otherwise!?

[andyfincham]

Hi All

I have a large collection of CD's, which Ive collected over the years, but now don't play!

I'd like to get rid of them, but before I do, Id like to save the music

I've seen the Brennan products, but wonder if an Apple Pro drive attached to my Mac would do the same thing.

My system consists of cinema receiver, projector and surroud sound speakers in the living room, an airplay speaker in the kitchen and the Apple Mac in the study.

Any ideas or advice welcome

Andy

 

[bigboss]

If it's just about saving CD music, your Mac will do the same thing.

 

[eggontoast]

When you say "get rid of them" do you mean store, dispose or sell as technically you should be keeping the cd's after ripping them.

 

[amcluesent]

Rip to Apple lossless, get an Airport Express and connext optical out to S/PDIF input on AV Receiver

 

[amcluesent]

Rip to Apple lossless, get an Airport Express and connext optical out to S/PDIF input on AV Receiver

 

[domenn]

Hi check out Cocktail audio x30 nice looking unit , planty of storage , streaming , amp , dac .... I hope WHF? Will review it soon

 

[busb]

You should keep your CDs if you want to copy them legally so it depends how ethical you want to remain. You are half way there - your MAC has an analogue output & iTunes. You can rip your CDs from lossless for max quality down to AAC at various bit rates. I use AAC 320k VBR as a minimum but fed my MAC Mini's USB port into my DAC for conversion from digital. If you want to send music to your Airplay device, you will need an Apple Airport Express, IIRC. An Apple TV will do the same plus play video through its HDMI output but costs more & does not have an analogue output.

The only advantage of a Brennan is that it has a CD reader built-in but unless it's been updated, only supports MP3 at various bitrates. I'd stick with your MAC - the Super drives aren't that expensive. Sticking with iTunes allows you to download music at 256kbs. If you want tp play flac lossless files you will need additional software to allow iTunes to play them or a convertor like I use to change them to Apple lossless. I no longer play CDs unless a visitor insists!

 

[Alec]

You should keep your CDs if you want to copy them legally so it depends how ethical you want to remain.

No, it depends how legal-on-a-technicality you want to be. Ethics is different.

 

[mikeparker59]

You should keep your CDs if you want to copy them legally so it depends how ethical you want to remain.

No, it depends how legal-on-a-technicality you want to be. Ethics is different.

Pre-CD days I like I guess many, many others used to transfer my vinyl onto cassette tape, and play the cassettes to preserve my LP's and also to play in the car. Technically this was illegal. I'm sure those of us of a certain age remember and probably still have record sleeves with the cassette tape skull and crossbones logo 'home taping is killing music'.

Not sure why I mentioned that but it just occureed to me what if I rip a cd to i-pod or my NP30 then damage the cd? Should I also delete the copy if I throw the cd away? I mean I've paid for the music it was my cd, or have I just paid a licence fee to listen to the music (like computer software), which I can still do from my copy?

Would anyone really care?

:?

I saw the Brenna advertised when I was thinking of going down the hard drive route for music storage but quickly discounted it when I realised it would only rip to MP3. and found the squeezebox touch more to my requirements, unfortunately it was a piece of carp, buggy software on the device frequent hangs and crashes so I then went for the NP30.

 

[Alec]

This is it - no one would really care. I used to buy CD singles and make compilations out of them on tapes. I also used to - oh, sacrilage - take the best stuff from CD albums and do the same.

Anyway, I'm sure this is little help to the OP - apologies. It's just that not sticking by the letter of the law (I do, currently, by the way) does not make one unethical.

 

[mikeparker59]

This is it - no one would really care. I used to buy CD singles and make compilations out of them on tapes. I also used to - oh, sacrilage - take the best stuff from CD albums and do the same.

Anyway, I'm sure this is little help to the OP - apologies. It's just that not sticking by the letter of the law (I do, currently, by the way) does not make one unethical.

No I guess it's not helping the op. I would advise him to hold onto the cd's anyway, he may want to rip them again in future. Who knows what's next around the corner? I ripped quite a few of mine to MP3 when I had an MP3 player, then again to i-tunes at higher bit rate when storage prices came down, and now again to FLAC. I'm pretty sure FLAC will be the final format for me, and I do keep a backup of my rips, but the original CD is still one of the best backups.

As I said in last post I quickly discounted the Brennan as an option as it only does MP3. I think it could be a good option for someone who just wants the convenience, but this being a hifi forum I don't feel it's the right answer, others have suggested using the equipment he already has and yep that's a good idea.

I must say I find my NP30 ideal for my requirements. I use it with a portable hard drive plugged into the back USB. I don't have a NAS and don't have to have my PC on by using the NP30 they way I do, so I sort of use it like a Brennan but it does allow playback of FLAC files. OK folder navigation on the front panel can be a bit longwinded. If CA could get their Stream magic app to work properly it would be a very very good system.

 

[andyfincham]

Hi

Thank you for your reply, although I must confess I don't understand a lot of it so be gentle with me!

Ill keep my CD's in the loft, Apple seems the simplest, do the CD's take up much disc space?

slow the machine down?

You mention airport express to send music to the airplay unit, I don't have an airport express currently but stream itunes from my Mac, iPad and iPhone with airport express to the airplay unit - is this the same thing?

Are you suggesting I get a superdrive and use this dedicated to the CD's?

 

[andyfincham]

I have Apple TV as well and my cinema receiver is Airplay, DNLA etc

The network uses the latest BT Hub, is Airport express duplicating the hub?

 

[andyfincham]

So gentlemen

As I understand it, rip the CD's to iTunes on my Apple hard drive or buy a Superdrive deictaed to the purpose?

Buy an Airport express and then stream wirelessly to anywhere in the house?

 

[busb]

So gentlemen

As I understand it, rip the CD's to iTunes on my Apple hard drive or buy a Superdrive deictaed to the purpose?

Buy an Airport express and then stream wirelessly to anywhere in the house?

If your MAC does not have a CD reader already, you will need a USB external drive - Apple's external one will read & write to CDRs or writable DVDs. I dn't know if the Airport Express requires a Wi Fi router or not.

Edit: have just reread your original post - you don't need an external drive.

 

[andyfincham]

Right Ive strated ripping my CD's to my Apple

one last question, I can currently stream music to my receiver via Apple TV and the Mac and iPad

am also able to stream to the B&W A5 from the Mac, iPad and iPhone

Why do I need the Airport Express please?

 

[matt49]

Why do I need the Airport Express please?

I think you don't. The Apple TV should be all you need.

Have you got a good back-up routine in place? I know you'll be keeping the CDs, but it's wise to back up your ripped music to another disk. After all, you don't want to have to re-rip all those CDs if your Mac goes belly up.

I use USB hard disk for everyday back-up. I also back up to a disk at another (geographical) location every two weeks or so. In case of fire.

Matt

 

[ifor]

Have you got a good back-up routine in place? I know you'll be keeping the CDs, but it's wise to back up your ripped music to another disk. After all, you don't want to have to re-rip all those CDs if your Mac goes belly up.

I use USB hard disk for everyday back-up. I also back up to a disk at another (geographical) location every two weeks or so. In case of fire.

Matt

I back up to a Drobo with Apple's Time Machine and via Crashplan (free for personal use) to a hard disk attached to my brother's computer 100 miles away so my music, and more importantly photographs, is protected against earthquake and fire. The Drobo is not cheap, but gives great protection against a disk failure.

 

[andyfincham]

I have an Apple Time Machine that backs up automatically

 

[andyfincham]

oh and its all backed up to Cloud with BT

 

[matt49]

I have an Apple Time Machine that backs up automatically

Do you mean a Time Capsule, i.e. a separate hard disk? Time Machine is just software, I believe.

I'd still keep a second back-up disk at a remote location (e.g. at work or at a friend's house). I don't trust "cloud" back-up services: when you dig down into the terms and conditions, I think you'll find that the service provider's obligations in the case of data loss are pretty minimal (unless of course you're a big corporation with an expensive BT contract).

 

[Viking]

Hi there. I bought a Brennan nearly 3 years ago now and am very pleased with the machine. The Brennan was made for people who have a lot of CD's and want some way of storing and playing the music without always having to turn on and log on (waiting forever) to a computer. Some of us use computers enough of the day and are quite glad to see the back of them at the end of the day. People who mention using Mac's and other computers are missing the entire point of this. I myself use a mac during the day with itunes etc and it's nowhere near as good or user friendly as the Brennan. It's much more than just a hard disk (as a computer is) and comes with a built in 60watt per channel amplifier. It's very portable so you can take it away with you and plug it into another set of speakers, or listen via headphones. I've coppied most of my CD's at 320kbs and I feel this is about as good the original CD quality. DON'T GET RID OF YOUR CD'S! In case you want to record them at different rates or just make other coppies. Put them in a big plastic box and forget about them somewhere in storage. You can record LP's as well which is great as well. Make sure though if you do get a Brennan, also get a backup hard disk. I bought a Buffalo Ministation 320GB and it syncs beautifully with the Brennan. Just plug it in and it's all coppied automatically so it can be done over night.

However, if you want even better sound you can connect the Brennan to another amp. You can do this two ways. 1 by connecting the Brennan's aux out to the aux in on your amp. This will run both amps at once and the sound is great. 2 (version I use) is to plug into the Brennans headphone socket ( I use a Qed reference J2P 3.5mm to RCA cable) to the aux on the amp. This way it shuts off the Brennan'sbuilt in amp, leaving your other amp free to control sound, but with this way you can use the Brennan remote control to turn up or down the volume as well as all the other functions on the Brennan. I've got my Brennan hooked up to a Nad C356BEE amp and a pair of B&W 683 speakers and am very pleased with the sound. Best bit of Hi Fi kit I bought in years!

Hope this helps.

 

[cse]

Best bit of Hi Fi kit I bought in years!

Hope this helps.

Great review. I also am thinking of buying the Brennan as I hate the thought of using a compututer in my music listening room.

 

[gowiththeflow]

Great review. I also am thinking of buying the Brennan as I hate the thought of using a compututer in my music listening room.

Don't.

There are far better options.....and you don't need a computer in your listening room.