Question 1

can i record lps from an older turntable on it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can "record" from a turntable.  From Brennan website:     How to record music on B2
The basic steps are
Connect your turntable/cassette player etc to the B2 Aux In
Select Aux on the B2
Press REC to start recording
Press Stop to stop recording
Repeat from 3 as necessary
Select HDD
Transfer the recordings to the hard disk with Settings->Get Recordings
You will find the music in an album called “Recordings”
Rename the Recording so it won’t be overwritten
I recommend you make a few short trial recordings to get an idea for the process before setting about transferring your entire vinyl collection. And make frequent backups. Recording and renaming is quite labour intensive so its worth taking extra care not to lose your work.

Here is a little more detail and explanation

1) There are a few ways you might connect the music source to the B2 Aux In.

A low end cassette player might have a headphone output so you will need a 3.5mm stereo jack to 3.5mm stereo jack lead. You should adjust the volume on the cassette play as loud as it will go without distorting when you play through the B2.
An amplified turntable may typically have a lead with twin phono plugs - you will need a twin phono to 3.5mm stereo jack adaptor to connect it to B2
A portable radio may have a headphone output so you will need a 3.5mm stereo jack to 3.5mm stereo jack lead.
An unamplified turntable with raw cartridge output needs a phono preamplifier. You can buy these as stand alone gadgets but - assuming you already listen to your turntable - you will have an amplifier with a phono input. So you can either feed the line out of the amplifier to the B2 - usually a twin phono to 3,5mm stereo jack lead. Or you can connect the headphone output of the amplifier to the B2. The 3.5mm stereo jack to 3.5mm stereo jack lead will be needed but you may also need a ¼ inch to 3.5mm adaptor if your amplifier has a traditional ¼ inch headphone jack.
2) Select Aux on the B2 remote control. This will reboot the B2 in a mode that allows the Raspberry Pi to make recordings - but it disconnects the hard disk and internet. You should now hear your music source playing through the B2 speakers. Though nothing is being recorded yet. Now is a good time to play with your connections and volume levels. You may notice that if you touch the tip of one of the connectors on the lead feeding into the B2 that you get a crackle or hum - this is good and it's often a quick way to check that side of the system is working.

3) Start your music playing and press REC on the remote control. The B2 LED will flash and the display will show the current recording length and the name of the track. Each recording doesn’t have to correspond to a track. It could be the side of an album or cassette or it could be a radio program. You could even turn the vinyl album over quickly and record the other side on the same track. The recording is an uncompressed WAV file and it is stored temporarily on the SD card.

4) Press stop to stop recording.

5) Repeat from 3 - each recording will be given a new name like track 1, track 2.

6) Once you have made all the recordings that you want in one “album” - select HDD on the remote. This will reboot the B2 so that you can transfer the recordings to hard disk and listen to them.

7) Transfer the recordings from SD card to HDD with Settings->Get Recordings.

8) You can now listen to your recordings - search for “Recordings” and press play.

9) Recordings from Aux In are stored as tracks in an album called “Recordings” and artist “Unknown”

Question 2

Can this be used with sonos? I have multiple Sonos amps. One for each zone. How would each Sonos unit see the device?

Accepted Answer

Yes, this can be used with a SONOS system.  I'm doing that now.  The Brennan B2 connects to the SONOS network via WiFi.

These may help:  
https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/brennan-b2-6764522
https://www.brennan.co.uk/itemcontent.php/content/Sonos

I don't use my SONOS with multiple amps -- but I'm guessing that you will only be able to use the Brennan B2 in one zone at a time.  Good luck!  I think you'll love the Brennan -- I sure do.

Question 3

Can I export music to my iPod or phone?

Accepted Answer

You cannot export music directly from the B2 to the iPod/iPhone as the iPod/iPhone require the iTunes interface. You can copy music from the B2 to your computer and then to the iPod/iPhone via iTunes. The B2 defaults to FLAC compression so you may need to check compatibility with iTunes/iPod/iPhone.

Question 4

Are the usb ports on the back of the device for external hard drive use?  is there a size limit of the drive that can be attached?  16tb?

Accepted Answer

The ports can be used for connecting USB WiFi and Bluetooth dongles, USB Hubs, USB HDD and memory sticks. The B2 uses FAT32 formatting which can support up to 2TB devices. You can play music on the connected USB device directly from the B2 without having to load it to the internal HDD.

Color	black
MP3 player	Yes
Headphone Jack	3.5mm Jack
Supported Audio Format	MP3
Connectivity Technology	Bluetooth
Number Of Discs	1

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

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