Streaming novice

It's all here on the forum, Stuart.  You seem to be ready to jump in. Go for it.

There is no "right" answer to flac vs. wav except to say that perhaps the majority of us chose flac, and let our servers transcode it to wav so that wav is delivered to the streamer player. Me -- I chose flac, and my server transcodes to wav.

Hi Stuart,  you seem to be pointing nicely in the right direction,  so well done on the information look up.  As for links,  I not sure its needed looking at what you've summarised so far.      

NAS's around these parts are mostly Synology or Qnap,  a few others such as Netgear & WD are worth looking at.   DLNA/UPnP media software comes with all the NAS's,  Synology's own & it will take Minimserver (3rd party)  but nothing else.  Qnap with Asset seems the most popular, but will take Minimserver.  

dBpoweramp is 100% ............  WAV or FLAC is your choice,  WAV is probably the best SQ (opinions vary) & many around the forum transcode FLAC to WAV to get the better SQ.   FLAC can be compressed & it does not affect SQ but takes less storage space as a result.    The only thing to watch out for is with Synology's UPnP Media Server it does a bad job transcoding, so if you do choose Synology & FLAC,  then you need Minimserver.

Try to plan for an ethernet wired network as wireless & EoP have limitations & other issues.      

Bottom line is streaming is easy, its digitally stored files played as music on a streamer;    yes it can be made complicated - & to the uninitiated reading some of the posts around the forum it will for sure seem to be the case - but if you avoid the technobabble & some the nerdish goat trails peeps go wandering off down (including me) use the right supporting software & methods, it is easy & a pleasure to get to learn it.

Post again as & when you have more questions ........... 

I am in the same position - NDX on it's way - I have had some great info so far and am now trying to work out which NAS to buy

I have narrowed it down to possibly Synology DS415 +8Tb (4 x 2Tb) or QNAP HS-251 (2Gb RAM) 8Tb Seagate silent fanless - a little cheaper

I am wary of fanless as I have heard of heat issues so some help with choice would be great !?

I have also been advised to buy a switch !? - but which one - always had Cisco at work and according to engineers - good switches

I have seen a Cisco SF-100D unmanaged ? - £38 - is this what I need

Struggling with this piece of the puzzle

I have about 3-500 CDs so I think 8Tb should be fine - just which products to buy

I have downloaded dbPoweramp and on initial trials it seems very easy to work

Al

A switch????!!

I was just trying to get my head around the media server stuff and transcoding flac to wav. - I will do some further research. 

On another point we are about to embark on some major extension works - hence the Muso for the kitchen. I will be in the privileged position of having the lounge as a dedicated listening room wih TV's in kitchen and Snug only. 

I will keep the xs separates plus ndac in the lounge for now and may consider ndx supernait2 as alternatives in the future. 

I plan to get ethernet cabling installed from router to kitchen and snug for hard wiring Muso etc. Not sure where the best place is for the router and Nas but will have options to position them as necessary. 

Might as well get a separate mains spur as well.

Regards

Stuart 

Do get a switch. The little Netgear GS105 is the one to go for, or the bigger GS108 if you need more sockets. Connect the router to the switch, and connect the nas and streamer to the switch, not the router. This isolates the system from other network traffic. 

You don't really need a 4bay basis with 8TB. I have over 2,500 albums and they take up well under 2TB. I have 2 3TB drives in raid, so one can be replaced if it conks out. You also need a backup, which you can go with a portable USB drive plugged into the nas. For drives, use WD reds - they are the best, are quiet and use less power than others. 

al9315 posted:

I am in the same position - NDX on it's way - I have had some great info so far and am now trying to work out which NAS to buy

I have narrowed it down to possibly Synology DS415 +8Tb (4 x 2Tb) or QNAP HS-251 (2Gb RAM) 8Tb Seagate silent fanless - a little cheaper

I am wary of fanless as I have heard of heat issues so some help with choice would be great !?

I have also been advised to buy a switch !? - but which one - always had Cisco at work and according to engineers - good switches

I have seen a Cisco SF-100D unmanaged ? - £38 - is this what I need

Struggling with this piece of the puzzle

I have about 3-500 CDs so I think 8Tb should be fine - just which products to buy

I have downloaded dbPoweramp and on initial trials it seems very easy to work

Al

I have the 8 input version the SF100D-08 8 Port Desktop 10/100 switch which seems to be working fine.  The Netgear GS105 or 108 are also great from what I've heard on the forum.  Lots of info on the forum re: switches. 

I have the brand new Synology 716+ with 2 6 TB drives, raid O.  I have about 7 TB of free HD, which means I shouldn't run out of space anytime soon.

Run all you music through dbPoweramp Perfect Tune first to get all the best album art and verify the it's an accurate rip. I also ran everything through a small program called Song Kong, which will update the tagging in bulk form. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

But writing its name in really big letters is no guarantee of quality....

 

Hi

The information is pouring in !

I now understand the switch bit - "managed" or "unmanaged" ?

Thanks 

Al

Thanks for the advice. Will take a look at switches etc and report back when I'm up and running. �� 

Unmanaged. 

stuart posted:

A switch????!!  .........................    I plan to get ethernet cabling installed from router to kitchen and snug for hard wiring Muso etc. Not sure where the best place is for the router and Nas but will have options to position them as necessary. ..............  Thanks for the advice. Will take a look at switches etc and report back when I'm up and running. 

Stuart,  if it helps,  this is my basic network schematic,  think of the switch as the network hub,  you just need to add an extra branch for the Muso.   The heavy data streams are from NAS to Muso & Naim ND?,   thats why ethernet is best.    However the switch to router branch is light traffic, www, internet & iRadio & your iOS/Android app communications;  this can be done (ideally) with ethernet, but it is OK to use a wireless extender link for that if it helps with your router positioning.  

Thanks Mike that's really helpful and clarifies a few things that I wasn't clear on. 

Regards 

Hopefully last question !? - then I will have to pull the plug

I am thinking (3-500CDs) that the Synology DS716 + 2 x 3Tb WD Red  - should do the job?

I find the number of models/makes confusing - looked on Synology website - this seems like a quick device !?

Someone does point out - no HDMI output?! - I only intend it to supply NDX

Is this a reasonable buy ?

Thanks so much for help

Al

If you are just streaming music, it's more than you need. I have a Synology and it's very good, but if I were replacing it I'd get a QNAP, simply to get the option to run Asset. My Synology is three years old and I'm thinking of the QNAP 251+, which costs about £250.

2G or 8G RAM ?

2 is more than enough. My current nas has 0.5 and still manages. 

al9315 posted:

2G or 8G RAM ?

512 mb is sufficient.  2GB is more than you'll need for the life of the nas to stream music.  A DS216 is absolutely sufficient as a home music server.

Thanks very much !

The higher speed NAS drives like the 716+ is not really needed or music listing.  I choose it because it will do the best at transcoding hd/4k video faster, offers standard 2 gb or ram & has expansion options- additional synology nas can plug into the the 716+ once I run out of space. Not all models can do this. It was only about $100-150 more than the baseline model so it is worth it to me.  I also plan on using my NAS to transcode 4K video in the future, at least don't want to be limited in the future. 

+1 for BlownAway and the advice to look slightly ahead of what you know you want to do now (store and serve audio files) to imagine what you might be into after things become familiar (video streaming, transcoding; file serving; backups; VPN access to your home network while away; fooling around on a small UNIX computer via command line; setting up video cameras and a web server so you can see when the coffee is ready...). 

There's a nice comparison video on YouTube that talks about the pros and cons of all five or six models in the 2016 Synology lineup.

The flagship is the 716+ (which can accept an external 5-bay expansion, hence 7 bays total). It has the fastest cpu (Intel Celeron, needed if you want to use plex as a server), the most ram, hardware video transcoding, a second Ethernet port for link aggregation (not likely useful in your home network) and can do a zillion of the things you're likely to ever wish to try all at the same time without batting an eyelash. It's not exactly a monster among modern machines, but it is likely better than anything you bought four or five years ago and is a "real" computer running a customized operating system that works really well as a NAS and pretty fine as a central home server too.

The 216+ is a bit less money, about $200Cdn (£100 I guess) and gives up mainly the two things you're unlikely to use: the expansion unit and the link aggregation. Slightly slower cpu (still Intel), different USB ports, 1GB instead of 2GB...but this is still a very powerful box. 

The 216 (no "+"), 216play, are also both good - bigger savings, still useful for home - but you give up Intel, ram, or hardware video transcoding. Same OS, so that's a huge plus. At this point, you are picking a high end home unit rather than a low(ish) end small business unit. The main sacrifice for folks who like to play with the software, however, is that there is no Asset runtime that will work here on the ARM processors...but people have reported success getting the Intel version to run on the two "+" boxes listed above. In your case, not likely interesting right out of the gate, but who knows - your inner Linux sysop / guru might surface and need feeding, haha. 

Short answer: they are all really good, but a few dollars extra at the beginning can buy flexibility (and maybe longevity, but take that with a grain of salt) for down the road and work out cheaper than putting the "not quite what I wanted" unit into "second place / expensive backup solution". 

Irony alert: my last post in this "getting started" theme was all about not fretting and just jumping in the water. I'm changing my tune slightly because some of the posts in this particular thread are addressing more complex technical questions that, for me at least, are best considered from a system capability perspective rather than in an isolated feature-by-feature sense. 

Best wishes and enjoy whatever you buy. It really is easier to do than to read about!

Regards alan