Add new music library
We have a Brennan B2 unit (described as ‘a CD ripper, hard disk jukebox and complete audio system’) and have tried many many, times over several years (no exaggeration!) to play music stored on the Brennan hard drive through a Sonos One speaker in a different room - but with both connected to the same router by wifi. It has proved unbelievably frustrating and we have tried every solution suggested by either the Brennan or Sonos communities. We even sought speciality advice from Richer Sounds. Sonos does – most of the time – recognise Brennan as a music library and sometimes is successful in playing a track from the Sonos app. But, with maddening regularity, Sonos fails to play that track. The only source of music I can access on the Sonos system with reasonable reliability is Sonos radio stations and some others (e.g. BBC Sounds). Another workaround is to use the Brennan app and direct it to play specific tracks on the Sonos speaker. This also works sometimes – but not always. I am aware of the significance of DLNA and NAS and have ensured the settings are as recommended. And, yes, I’ve rebooted the system and checked passwords umpteen times ...
At one point, I wondered whether the problem was that the wifi signal was not strong enough, so we bought a Sonos Boost and a Sonos Connect. However, that has made no difference. To be honest, I have now given up.
The specific reason for this enquiry is because I want to access my music files in a new room, which currently has no speakers. If the Brennan:Sonos link worked reliably, I would simply buy another Sonos speaker and connect it into the same system. However, it doesn’t work reliably - so I don’t want to make additional purchases which will only work erratically. I would be better off cutting my losses and buying a cheap internet radio, which would be adequate to access BBC Sounds, but without any potential to play music from my stored files.
I am wondering whether there is any other way of playing the music library, currently stored on the Brennan hard drive, though a new Sonos speaker - and with a reasonable degree of reliability. Presumably it would involve copying the Brennan hard drive onto another storage unit and connecting that into the new Sonos speaker. But how? Through a hard wire (ethernet, perhaps)? However, I wouldn’t know where to start with this.
I would very much welcome advice from someone more knowledgeable than me!
Many thanks