Music system to store and play all much loved CDs

morganlefay

Please don't shout at me: I'm an old lady and not at all techie. But my OH and I have a huge library of much-loved CDs which we haven't been able to listen to since we moved 3 years ago as there's no room in our new house for the tower that used to house the CD player, turntable and a tape machine. We seek some sort of system that we can download all our CD onto, and play them from - not huge though. I have looked at the Brennan machine and that seems to be the sort of thing we need, but I don't know anything about these machines and have no idea if that's a good system to buy. Can anyone suggest anything or tell me if the Brennan would be a good idea ? (We dont want it piped all over the house, but would listen to it in just the one room) Thank you kind people.

buglawton

This lovely (British) gadget would be the answer:
Brennan B2
http://www.brennan.co.uk/

Cornucopia

That seems like overkill for the OP's requirements.

Something like this might be better VFM.

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5740176

bsod

If you have a tv/stb with a usb(mp3) port, cheapest answer is to rip them to mp3 on a pc using windows media player, then copy them to a usb flash drive and plug it into the tv etc, or buy a mini hifi with usb for playback.

https://www.lifewire.com/copy-music-from-cds-windows-media-player-2740880

Once they are in mp3 format you can use them almost anywhere - tv's, dvd players, phones, mp3 players, car etc. Some devices also support flac playback, ie the same quality as the brennan supports

buglawton

A £50 boombox isn't going to encourage anyone to enjoy their treasured CD collection. Nor is a £10 MP3 player.

The Brennan the OP already knows about would work nicely with a traditional stereo so long as it has a spare aux input, simply plug in with the right lead.

The point about the Brennan is, you just feed in the CDs one at a time, each gets recorded and becomes easily available via the buttons or a remote control. 100s of CDs recorded invisibly inside it, no software or computers to fiddle with.

bsod

media player does the same, the time spent feeding the cd's in is the same - insert cd, auto rip, auto eject, repeat, £500 cheaper. Most pvr's do the mp3/flac playback as well as record tv, third of the price. dvd player, 20th of the price.

the collection isn't being enjoyed now, a £15 mp3 player in the pocket or a similarly priced bit of flash memory is a very cheap way of changing that.

Cornucopia

buglawton wrote: »

A £50 boombox isn't going to encourage anyone to enjoy their treasured CD collection. Nor is a £10 MP3 player.

The Brennan the OP already knows about would work nicely with a traditional stereo so long as it has a spare aux input, simply plug in with the right lead.

The point about the Brennan is, you just feed in the CDs one at a time, each gets recorded and becomes easily available via the buttons or a remote control. 100s of CDs recorded invisibly inside it, no software or computers to fiddle with.

The Brennan doesn't do what the OP wants - it doesn't play CDs or the stored versions of them. The OP doesn't have the space for their Hifi, so would need to buy something else to add to the Brennan to use it.

As sometimes happens on forums, the OP has hit on a combination of tricky requirements.

The key question in resolving it is whether the OP is confident in using a PC to rip the CDs, or can easily get someone to do it for them.

If the answer is no, then they will be looking at something like the Brennan (though there are various options).

If the answer is yes, then there are lots of potentially cheap/good solutions that will do what's required at a fraction of the price.

I suggested the Beat Box as an easy way in - it will play CDs out of the box. It will also play MP3 CDs which can be created from ripped CDs on a PC that will act as a backup for the originals and also have the capability to store a number of original CDs on one MP3 CD. The machine also has an Aux input, which could ultimately allow for conversion away from physical media.

The Brennan is the expensive answer to a question that (technically speaking) does not exist. It is a ripping machine for people who don't know how to rip.

knightstyle

Something like our son uses in his digs, Roberts MP43 Sound 43, Good radio, plays CDs and if you can put your CDs onto an iPod it will play them as well.

EssexExile

The Brennan or the Cocktail Audio X10 do what you want, just a tiny box & you'll need some speakers, which you probably already have. A friend has the Brennan & it worked well, not for very long though. The later Brennan & the Cocktail can play internet radio & lots of other wondrous things too.

DigForVictory

Have a chat with the nice folk at Richer Sounds?
They know their stuff & will sort you the best tool for the job - which may be a Brennan, or something startlingly different. Just it will sound *excellent* - as they've not sold me a pup yet.
(Enthusiastic customer, no affiliation.)

Cornucopia

EssexExile wrote: »

... you'll need some speakers, which you probably already have...

Speakers and an amplifier, or mains-powered amplified speakers.