The Amazing Brennan B2

My new toy, a two Terabyte Brennan B2 digital music player arrived this week:

It’s a fascinating piece of kit. Slightly bigger than half a dozen CD cases, it will hold 4400 albums using lossless compression. It exposes a web interface so I can control the player from any browser – laptop, iPad or phone. The amplifier delivers 35 Watts into my bookshelf speakers but it also has a fibre optic digital interface to connect to a real hi-fi set-up.

First impression: already excellent but with huge potential for more. Sound quality – even through the built in amp and my cheapo Gale speakers –  is very acceptable (I didn’t buy the Brennan speaker offering). The menu system is basic but it does the job. Control of playback through the web-site gives you a manageable interface to a cupboard full of CDs.

Still too early to say what it can’t do – for example, I haven’t been able to find all the functions of the built in menu in the web interface – but it does currently have some limitations; or should I say potential for improvement. For example, the built in amplifier has no tone controls to compensate for the characteristics of the room or speakers. Solution: that separate high end power amplifier. It’s also quite slow at ripping and seems not to be able to play CDs while ripping them. That isn’t really a problem as one can quite easily rip on a computer and then transfer the data to the Brennan on a USB drive.

It’s also clear that some of the acknowledged limitations can be addressed in future (downloadable) software releases. My own personal wish list would include improved navigation in the web interface and the ability to stream music over the local area network – with an appropriate piece of hardware to connect traditional amplifiers to WiFi. I’d also like to see what materialises when Martin Brennan delivers his improved support for ripping vinyl.  

In summary, though, this is the device we’ve all been looking for to provide hifi quality storage and management for the CD collection; already great, as is, and still a lot more potential.

Take a look at http://www.brennan.co.uk/