Q&A - Can B2 do this?
How noisy is the CD?
That's hard to answer - when playing its like a quiet computer fan - not whisper quiet but you wouldn't hear it above the music unless you went in close. Noisier when ripping but not loud.
Does B2 support DNLA?
Yes - you need to run 'Get DLNA' from the Advanced menu and then select 'DLNA On' from the Maintenance menu.
Is B2 loud enough for a small hall 20m x 10m?
Possibly - I listened to my B2 from three rooms away - about 12 meters - and it is pleasantly loud. I think if you were doing an aerobic class I'd say not loud enough. Test the B2 first and check that it is happy playing at your desired loudness for as long as you need it. B2 has a thermal cutout so I dont want it cutting out mid waltz. If it ever does cut out just press stop and play again after it has had a chance to cool down - usually ten seconds would be enough.
Vinyl FLAC size
Music is roughly 10M bytes per minute uncompressed or 6M bytes per minute as FLAC.
If a vinyl album is say 25 minutes on a side that comes to 158M byte per side.
Active speakers - does B2 Volume control work?
Yes - connect B2 Line Out to your active speakers and the B2 volume control will adjust the volume.
2TB Album Capacity
A 2TB B2 can store 4400 albums losslessly (FLAC).
You can store more if compressed to MP3 - there is currently a software limit of 10,000 albums and 160,000 tracks.
Artists & Composer on Classical CDs
The simple organisation of music into Artist and Album breaks down for Classical music where Composer, Orchestra, Conductor, Soloist etc are all important. However the database has been created by CD owners like yourself so you will tend to find that all the most relevant information gets recorded - though it may not be consistent. In my music collection Dvorak appears as an ARTIST for the album Requiem and Mass in D. But he also appears in the ALBUM name Dvorak Requiem Op89 - for which the ARTIST includes the Soloists the LSO and Istvan Kertesz (the conductor I imagine).
You can search for any name - it doesn't matter if its in the Artist or Album or Track. You can also rename - so if I wanted to add Dvorak at the start or the Artist name I could.
Total Harmonic Distortion - DAC
B2 uses a Texas Instruments TPA3110 power amp and a Burr Brown PCM2902C DAC - you can go to the TI website for real detail on the specifications of these devices. Its been a while since I measured the distortion on the B2. The power amp has a THD around 0.1% until it starts to clip at high volume - around about 12 watts per channel.
Does B2 have a Vinyl Crackle Filter
Sorry no - you may be better off using free specialist software like Audacity
Does B2 play ALAC
Yes - the B2 will play WAV, FLAC, MP3, AAC and ALAC.
Does B2 have a traditional AM/FM/DAB Radio?
B2 does not have a traditional radio receiver in part because I live in a part of the country with a poor signal so Internet radio fixes that. If you need real radio you could feed the line out or headphone output of a traditional radio receiver into the B2 Aux In.
Any plans for MP4?
No plans to support video but this is something that could come from the Raspberry Pi community.
Does B2 play 24 Bit?
Yes I played 192/24 HiRes FLAC files from Linn and from hdtracks.co.uk on the B2.
Update May 2022. Sonos speakers cannot play 24 bit FLAC files so this will only work on the B2 wired speakers.
Can I record from Internet Radio?
Yes this feature was added in October 2021 - do a Web Upgrade - Settings menu.
Audio Books - how does B2 handle them?
The main problem with books is that you don't really want them coming up in random play. If you own multi CD audio books - I suggest you create a playlist containing "books" and then create another "music" initially containing all recordings. Then subtract the books playlist from the music playlist. If you then switch to Guest mode with the music playlist selected - the audio books will then be hidden until you exit Guest mode.
Can B2 store and play DVDs?
Its certainly possible - I played DVDs on B2 but I had to use a different (Raspbmc) SD card. Its not something that I will add to B2 - but check the forum.
Does B2 have Bass & Treble
Yes
Does B2 use ID3 Tag information?
B2 doesn't use tags but does create them - mainly so that Sonos will display track information. Support for tags is likely to increase throughout 2018.
Will B2 work on 12V Car Battery?
Yes - I just tested my B2 at 12V and it works ok. The display is not as bright and the power amplifier will not be able to deliver its full power but the core B2 electronics runs at 5V with a switcher so 12V is as good as 24V.
Can I save a single Album or Track to USB
Yes just put what you want to transfer into a playlist and then select
Playlists->Export Playlist
Automatic Music Recognition - like Shazam?
Sorry not available - post your idea on the forum. If enough owners want something we will look into it.
Control 4 Home Automation?
Sorry no support for this - though you can control B2 from the same tablet that you control your home automation - so its on the same device.
SACD support?
Sorry no - it doesn't come up often enough.
Random within Artist?
Not directly supported - but put the Artist in a playlist and play that with random enabled.
Slow Internet - 150kb
Should be OK for looking up album & track data and it wont affect the Web User Interface - because thats down to your Wifi speed - probably many megabits. You might have problems with internet radio though.
Gapless?
B2 will play continuous pieces of music - EXACTLY as the original CD will play - so no gaps - just turn off segue.
SD v SSD
There is a perception that SSDs are high performance and that SD cards can be slow and can limit perfomance. The SSD thing really comes from PCs where the operating system needs to load thousands of files amounting to several Gigabytes before the PC wakes up. A SSD beats a hard disk at this. The SD thing comes from cameras - SLR and Video - because the burst rate of an SLR and the data rate of a 4K camera both exceed the data rate of cheaper SD cards. B2 doesn't simply doesn't need these data rates so SSD makes no sense on performance grounds - if SD has enough space thats the smart choice. I know some customers have swapped the HDD for an SSD on the grounds that it won't wear out and will consume less power. At the moment thats a pretty expensive decision, Less so with time I would imagine
Export FLAC as MP3?
Not yet - its on the wishlist. But many "mp3 players" and car radios play FLAC now.
24 Bit external USB DAC
B2 will not drive an external USB DAC. If your DAC has optical you can use B2s optical output - you will get the benefit of your DAC's signal to noise ratio - though to be clear the B2 optical output only sends 16 bit samples.