Brennan B2 2TB Metallic HiFi - Hard Disk CD Ripper, Storage and Player with Sonos, Bluetooth, Spotify, YouTube, Internet Radio, Stereo Power Amplifier, NAS, Wav, Lossless (FLAC) and MP3.

COVID gave me the excuse to buy more gear and tune up the audio system. After building a new pull out platform for my turntable I moved on to the CD's. I wanted to consolidate over 400 CD's and be able to sort them. I have a Sony 200 CD storage player as well a high end single disc player but there are times I wanted to listen to a specific song instead of single disc or genre as they are stored in the Sony. Once I ripped the CD's sleeping in the Sony, the CD's left behind by my kids and those I found in drawers, racks, folders, and the trunk of the car, quarantined life was bearable. Only 4 were not identified by the system and I used Shazam to properly identify the album and songs when there was no jewel case. Playlists were awkward to set up but like everything else there is a learning curve. Now one year later, the unit is still working perfectly and managed on our iPhones. We have access to streaming radio presets in addition to playlists I set up for Christmas, Classical, Blues, Folk, Jazz, Show tunes, Chill, Hip Hop, Opera, Alternative, and my Classic (kids called it Jurassic) Rock. Picking out a single song or album seems faster in my laptop but the sound quality is excellent compared to the turntable, and the CD players. System works as advertised., worth the expense.

Would recommend product..good CD storage solution SAYS owner of upwards of 3000 CDs ..sound quality great..user interface easy to comprehend...cons why do I have to scroll entire alphabet to select artist or CD title annoying not often but enough to take notice having to make selections 2 or three times to get interface to respond this difficulty has repeated itself on laptop, tablet and smart phone...I have 5g bandwidth but over all I am very pleased a bit pricey but what price do you put on convienace my next yard sale I will be offering 3 JVC 200 CD CHANGERS easy reciever connect..guest are blown away..Satisfied guy looking for simplicity

Had to get rid of the Can-am cd holder to free up space in the home office. Downloaded over 1000 cds on the Brennan. Had a few hiccups along the way but nothing major. The web cd management system works fine and it couldn't be any easier to find a cd now....good job Martin!

Great idea and cool little unit - in theory, but not in practice! No alternative but to return my unit two days after it arrived. PROS: the unit is tiny and "cute" - very simple: an old fashioned slot for inserting CDs, a screen that letters roll across (if you're lucky), a small knob that turns or pushes, depending on the function you're trying to access, 4 miniscule push buttons: Back; Next; Eject; and Play/Stop. CONS: Everything else, sadly. Lots of reviewers ding the low-tech power cable/wall wart design as adding right channel noise, but I never got that far before the thing gave up the ghost. On the rear plate, there are: a Power On/Off switch (apparently a newer addition - earlier models were on perpetual standby mode it seems); an HDMI port (said to be there to allow you to listen to playback via TV - who listens to FLAC files on their television set?); an unmarked hole (said to be for future improvements of some kind); two inputs for Ethernet cable (one is shield shaped and the other is simply an extended slot - never seen Ethernet cable terminations that would fit these holes); a Micro USB slot; the 24V DC input; a USB A slot (this is where you're supposed to stick your nonworking WiFi dongle, supplied but not working properly); 4 red and black L/R speaker connections (Brennan offers super cheap speakers that get meh reviews); a USB C slot (for a Bluetooth dongle, supplied though I almost missed it in the packaging); a Line Out + SPDIF hole; and an AUX in hole. The whole unit is the size of a very large Sony Walkman. A further word on the SPDIF hole, which shines bright red indicating a Toslink connection. This port is clearly the port designed for most (non TV) playback. And yet for so important a port, it is strangely (for me) built to accomodate EITHER a headphone/line out, OR a Toslink cable - each of these have to be terminated at that end in a mini jack plug. Since I never got to playback, I have no idea whether this mixed-use Toslink connection is any good - if the unit had worked, this is where I would have connected to unit to my Marantz DAC. Set up went pretty well at first, following the Quick Start Guide, though the time zone setting was lost every time I turned the power off, and back to UK time. When a CD is inserted, you theoretically have the option of playing it or ripping it to the generous 2TB hard drive. Ripping itself was never a problem, though there was no good way to play the ripped CD file back again, so impossible for me to say whether the ripping feature actually works, or how well it does. When you link the unit to your WiFi and enter the ID, you can open a screen on your PC (or Mac I guess) which gives you some information about the current CD, and earlier ripped CDs which is potentially helpful (if the thing worked otherwise). I tried a few rips, and the unit correctly identified the CD by comparing it with online CD library entries; usually it was unable to locate any artwork, however. Then I made the Big Mistake - I updated the software. After that recommended step was taken in the recommended fashion, the unit simply lost its mind, and never recovered. I could no longer access Settings at all, and so, as the unit would report that it was, then wasn't, then was, then wasn't connected to WiFi, I could only look on powerless to do anything about this. No Settings.As the unit (which really runs hot) started to heat up after a few more CD rips, strange half letters starting scrolling across the screen mysteriously. The cure-all for the many glitches in the software, the Quick Start Guide tells us, is simply to turn the power off, then on again. Sometimes this worked - for a few minutes. Then back to the weird symptoms. Even removing the power cable and reinserting didn't fix the problems for very long. I finally gave up when, after the unit had been powered off all night, I tried again this morning to rip a CD. No Settings access. The PC screen showed no signs of recognizing any CD or anything else had been inserted into the unit's slot. No clue as to what CD I was ripping, let alone any successful hunt for the artwork. After a few failed attempts to revive the thing from its software-update insanity, I sadly gave up and returned the unit. Maybe you'll be luckier. It does seem that Brennan has a good number of "refurbished" units available at a discount on its website, so maybe these are from other buyers who made the fatal mistake of trying to update the software. A real shame, and I hate to have lost the time it took to worthlessly rip (I think) a score or two of CDs. Ugh.

I like this component. It sits unobtrusively on my desk at work, filling my otherwise boring days as a bureaucrat with sweet tunes. The controls may not initially be intuitive, but once you figure it out it isn't hard to manipulate. The internal database isn't always spot-on, but you can modify incorrect album and song names. It sounds really good, too.