NAS Drives

Posted by: stammerman on 24 August 2009

Hi!

This might be a stupid question but here goes!

I'm thinking of buying a NAS Drive and I'm wondering how this works with Server programs such as Foobar/Allegro/Tversity, etc. If my music is stored on the NAS drive, how do I use Foobar? If I create say a Foobar playlist can this be played directly via the NAS drive or do I also need my PC running Foobar? If I do, then for me I might as well keep everything on my PC but if I can keep my PC switched off and still have the flexibility to run Foobar then this is worthwhile.

Also, any tips when buying a NAS drive? Anything to avoid?

Cheers,

Martin
Posted on: 01 September 2009 by stammerman
Anyone have any thoughts on this?................Martin
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by Exiled Highlander
Martin

I think you may have some basic misunderstandings here. Your PC needs to be running to use Foobar. NAS has many other benefits (resiliency, redundancy etc) over your PC's built-in drives.

Jim
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by Alfa4life
quote:
Originally posted by stammerman:
Hi!

This might be a stupid question but here goes!

I'm thinking of buying a NAS Drive and I'm wondering how this works with Server programs such as Foobar/Allegro/Tversity, etc. If my music is stored on the NAS drive, how do I use Foobar? If I create say a Foobar playlist can this be played directly via the NAS drive or do I also need my PC running Foobar? If I do, then for me I might as well keep everything on my PC but if I can keep my PC switched off and still have the flexibility to run Foobar then this is worthwhile.

Also, any tips when buying a NAS drive? Anything to avoid?

Cheers,

Martin


Martin

You do not need any software on PC or MAC and the computer does not need to be running as most nas boxes have upnp server's on them.

I have a Netgear readynas duo that is connected to an airport extreme (ethernet cable). The ripped files (flac in my case) are just copied onto the nas box which then streams them wirelessly to my Naimuniti.
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by garyi
Stammer. Check the specs of available NAS drives, some will be able to do things themselves, such as act as an itunes sever.

However for the most part the benefit of a nas is you can hide it away somewhere but use it like a traditonal sort of drive. It will appear on your computer and you copy to and off it in the usual way, You could for instance store your music on it and your computer accesses it to play that music.

I for instance have a music folder on my Drobo (NAS) which was created with itunes on my mac mini.

Allegro can then run on the mini to tap into the music (for isntance)
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by stammerman
Thanks for all the feedback - I'll start checking the technical specifications of NAS drives.
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by Klout10
In the HDX review published in the October 2008 edition of Hi-Fi Choice, Paul Stephenson said:

"We’ll be publishing our suggestions as to suitable NAS drives when our tests are complete."

Any news about this topic yet?

Regards,
Michel
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by pcstockton
stammer,

maybe i am missing something but it seems you dont need a NAS. Maybe a small RAID array will give you everything you require.

If using Foobar with drives in the same room, why not simply use standard drives? I dont think (but not positive) you can run Foobar on the NAS to preclude using an intermediary PC.

If not accessing the drive from multiple computers I cant see a reason for a NAS. Am I wrong here?

-patrick
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by Alfa4life
quote:
Originally posted by pcstockton:

If not accessing the drive from multiple computers I cant see a reason for a NAS. Am I wrong here?

-patrick


The advantage for me is being able to have the drive in a different room, not having to have a MAC or PC running to stream from it, being able to access it with multiple computers, RAID and being able to have it shutdown in the night / restart in the morning.
Posted on: 02 September 2009 by pcstockton
Alfa,

Right,.... read my post... I said "IF NOT running multiple machines.

It seemed that the OP was doing everything from one room with one computer.

-p
Posted on: 03 September 2009 by David Dever
quote:
Originally posted by Klout10:
In the HDX review published in the October 2008 edition of Hi-Fi Choice, Paul Stephenson said:

"We’ll be publishing our suggestions as to suitable NAS drives when our tests are complete."


A utility will be provided (?) which assesses the typical load asserted upon a NAS device by a streaming product such as the HDX. Public or otherwise, the utility is quite incisive as regards the identification of performance issues which might affect streaming of, say, six UPnP or StreamNet streams from the device, through the server, to the renderer / player–especially when you consider the increased demands of hi-res playback.
Posted on: 03 September 2009 by gary1 (US)
quote:
Originally posted by David Dever:
quote:
Originally posted by Klout10:
In the HDX review published in the October 2008 edition of Hi-Fi Choice, Paul Stephenson said:

"We’ll be publishing our suggestions as to suitable NAS drives when our tests are complete."


A utility will be provided (?) which assesses the typical load asserted upon a NAS device by a streaming product such as the HDX. Public or otherwise, the utility is quite incisive as regards the identification of performance issues which might affect streaming of, say, six UPnP or StreamNet streams from the device, through the server, to the renderer / player–especially when you consider the increased demands of hi-res playback.


OK, so what does this mean? Dave, I know you were using the DNS-323 and I believe that I saw on another post that you are currently using the Ready NAS duo.

If not distributing audio to various sources, but only a single one do you find a difference in playback between the two? There is a substantial price difference to equip the two.
Posted on: 04 September 2009 by David Dever
Naim will issue, as I understand it, a list of qualified drives or devices at the time of the new software's launch. I am testing some as part of this qualification process, but cannot offer any hard, fast recommendations outside the final qualification results.
Posted on: 25 September 2009 by stammerman
Well I've done the deed and purchased a Netgear ReadyNas Duo and the initial impressions are very good. One thing that you immediately notice is that navigating tracks on the Uniti is I would say 2 - 3 times faster. The PC I have which had Foobar running and is fairly new with two fast processors and 4GB memory but the NasDuo beats it hands down as far as response times are concerned.

One thing though I'm struggling with is that the iTunes Playlists are not seen in the Uniti. Is there a simple fix for this this or do I need to manually duplicate my playlists?

Cheers,

Martin
Posted on: 25 September 2009 by garyi
I don;t see any reason why an itunes playlist would show on a uniti. UPNP will show music folders. Playlists are the responsibility of the programme accessing them music folders.

Your best bet is some sort of control point, on mac this is plugplayer on ipod or songbook for mac (which is awesome to the max)
Posted on: 03 October 2009 by Hans Vereecken
quote:
Originally posted by David Dever:
Naim will issue, as I understand it, a list of qualified drives or devices at the time of the new software's launch. I am testing some as part of this qualification process, but cannot offer any hard, fast recommendations outside the final qualification results.


My HDX is currently fed by very simple LACIE NAS. Will the new HDX software need a UPnP server, like Twonky or so?
Posted on: 03 October 2009 by gary1 (US)
quote:
Originally posted by Hans Vereecken:
quote:
Originally posted by David Dever:
Naim will issue, as I understand it, a list of qualified drives or devices at the time of the new software's launch. I am testing some as part of this qualification process, but cannot offer any hard, fast recommendations outside the final qualification results.


My HDX is currently fed by very simple LACIE NAS. Will the new HDX software need a UPnP server, like Twonky or so?


It doesn't need one now, so I can't see why they would make it more complicated. Alook at the Linn DS Forum shows that Twonky has been a source of countless issues.