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It has a remote control.
good CD choice
- Thread starter stry8458
- Start date
Fernandodelae
Active member
Yes It does include remote. As for CD text.. you´d probably need to fork out several hundred dollars more for a device that includes that. If you find something that does for US $150 please let me know.
castalla
Major Contributor
Can't find any with cd-text
Fernandodelae
Active member
Helix
Play CDs directly to Sonos loudspeakers Optical and 3.5mm outputs. Rip CDs to SD card - a 256G card will hold 320 CDs. Play music from SD card to Sonos or the wired outputs. Display Album Art, Artist, Album and Track names. Apps for iPhone and Android for remote control. 12 month warranty 30 day...
brennan.co.uk
castalla
Major Contributor
I think it's a raspi in a big box....Helix
Play CDs directly to Sonos loudspeakers Optical and 3.5mm outputs. Rip CDs to SD card - a 256G card will hold 320 CDs. Play music from SD card to Sonos or the wired outputs. Display Album Art, Artist, Album and Track names. Apps for iPhone and Android for remote control. 12 month warranty 30 day...
Actually, it’s not. It’s a customised system on a chip design. You wanted CD Text. The Helix delivers that. No remote though. Just an appI think it's a raspi in a big box....
castalla
Major Contributor
Interesting - how does it 'see' Sonos speakers? Upnp?Actually, it’s not. It’s a customised system on a chip design. You wanted CD Text. The Helix delivers that. No remote though. Just an app
Suntoucher
Member
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- Nov 16, 2023
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- 23
It not only has a remote control but also festures a little display for basic info
Last edited:
US $1.300 for a cd player??? That's pretty insane..
Not a CD player. It’s a CD transport which requires an external DAC. And it’s worth every penny.
slartibartfast
Major Contributor
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- Apr 18, 2024
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I would prefer to just rip my CDs
castalla
Major Contributor
I find that I actually listen to tracks & occasionally a full cd, whereas with rips and streaming I end up skipping to next track or another artist - the music equivalent of doom scrolling.I would prefer to just rip my CDs
slartibartfast
Major Contributor
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- Apr 18, 2024
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That isn't compulsory though
. My old Marantz CD player had something called FTS (Favourite Track Selection) which allowed you to select which tracks to play every time the disc was inserted in the player. I only ever used it once for a Robert Johnson CD containing multiple versions of some tracks. Now you could just rip the track versions you preferred or make a playlist 
castalla
Major Contributor
The Lyrion CDplayer plugin is a sort of half-way house. You can just play the whole cd from start to finish, or you can create a playlist of selected tracks... excellent. The only thing missing is there's no artwork lookup from Musicbrainz. One of my favourite LMS plugins.That isn't compulsory though
AFAIK it uses the Sonos public API to identify the Sonos assets on the local network. This allows the Brennan software to present a choise of audio targets to the user.
If the CD playback works like the other Brennans then the Helix sends audio in short discrete chunks to the chosen Sonos. This is how is was described for a previous Brennan device (B2)
1. The B2 first creates a folder named '.CD' in the 'music' folder. Essentially, the process is creating a 'pseudo album' in the music collection in real time.
2. The B2 reads the CD tracks and, except for the first and second music blocks of the first CD track, it breaks the CD tracks into 20 second chunks.
3. These chunks are written into the '.CD' folder in 'wav' format. The first block is a 5 second chunk and the second is a 10 second chunk to ensure a fast Sonos playback start up.
4. The 'wav' chunks are then transmitted sequentially in real time to the Sonos in the normal way and the Sonos plays them as if they were normal 'wav' tracks.
KNVPStudios
Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2024
- Messages
- 79
Brennan Helix does CD lookup and has nice LCD display. Has optical and analog out and has an App for control. Also rips CDs to WAV format in real time to a micro SD. $249 USD
castalla
Major Contributor
Looks interesting - any colour you like as long as it's black
castalla
Major Contributor
I still think LMS cd-player plugin (using a basic usb cd player, or onboard cd tray on laptop) is the best option. Full control on tablet/screen via Material skin (including playlists, cd-text & metadata). The plugin is a hidden gem within LMS 
Fernandodelae
Active member
seems like a good device, however it has features I don't really need and TBH $249 + shipping is way more than I'm willing to pay for a Cd player. So overall the SMSL option seems to be the best choice so far.
