Dedicated NAS for audio streaming?

NASes are like small computers if you spend 100 quid on one you will get a bunch of crap and it won't do what you need.

A decent nas starts at a minimum of £300 then you need to add four harddrives. I use 1.5tb ones to give a storage of 4.5tb with the ability of one drive failure.

You then need to ensure your netowrk is robust, For this you want a good router and avoid wireless where ever possible.

In short to do what you want, spend a few quid then you will never have issues. My NAS is used for two computer's time machine backups every hour, whilst streaming music and HD video and used for accessing and copying work. Nothing skips or jumps. But then nothing is via wireless.

Some good NAS drives around - friends swear by QNAP and Thecus - the guys at Computer Audio love the Thecus N7700 Pro NAS (about £600).

The newHFX PowerNAS looks lovely but at £800+ a bit expensive but set up for HD though - difficult to get hold of here.

I prefer a dedicated media server rather than a NAS but QNAP / Thecus have very good reputations 

Tog

The problem is not one of throughput so much as processor speed, get the full spec of the NAS, smallnetbuilder is usually good at providing this info. You want processor speed and ram size specs just like a computer. Although to be fair it won't be as powerful as modern computers you can at least check between them.

Thanks all for response.

Still not clear to me -- shall I go for one NAS or dedicate a small audio NAS to audio streaming for multiple rooms and the other NAS for video/photo/docs.

Actually we have a Netgear dealer in Dubai so, honestly, this is the simplest option for me.

I was thinking to buy a ReadyNAS® Pro 4, 12TB Unified Storage System, RNDP4430 which is around 3 K$ in Dubai. This is a 4-slot RAID with 3 GB drives. It supports RAID 5 and also proprietary xRAID (run-time upgrade -- not sure I will ever need it).

At the same time I can split the funds and buy a dedicated 2-slot NAS for audio and scalable NAS for the rest of my needs.

Possibly this could be two different NAS because audio NAS should also feature a good quality  uPnP server.  I'm not sure which one ReadyNAS is running.

BTW if there is a good reason I can easily reject Netgear and go for any other brand and order it from supplier and wait for delivery -- no problem.

Hi AMA

It might help to know that the UPnP server on the ReadyNAS is really quite a basic affair. It will not recognise WAV files and therefore will not stream them, there is no option to transcode in fact there are no user settings other than ON/OFF. The server is a Netgear version of MiniDLNA

The option to install Twonky on the device, as I understand does not resolve the issues. On the plus side there is a version of Plex that can be installed and many suggest that the Pro is the best version (most powerful) for running this, other say it’s the only version that is fully capable of running it. As far as I know, although I have not spent any time seriously looking at it, Plex is for video/films; not music.

Peter

Thanks Peter.

Actually I bought a KDS and ReadyNAS was recommended by Linn for use with their streamers but at that time the KDS control software was very basic and not critical to uPnP features. 

As I gathered from your post Ready NAS is OK as RAID but does not feature the best uPnP.

What if I go for ReadyNAS and disable it's uPnP and run a dedicated PC with the Asset uPnP or any other advanced uPnP servers? Is that a good option?

What are the Pros and Cons on bare NAS + separate PC/uPnP?

Hi AMA

I would say it has a basic UPnP server, but must emphasise that I am not as technical as many here. I have used computers etc for many years and have always managed to achieve what I have needed to, but that’s as far as it goes.

I think as a NAS it is excellent, ours is an NVX model and it does everything we require, other than for the server. The server does work. If you are happy to stream a format that it can handle (not WAV) it works perhaps as well as any; you just don’t have options to change anything should you wish or need.

I should mention again that we do not use wireless so have no experience of how well that works, though several others here seem to get on ok.

I am currently experimenting with J River MC and Foobar loaded on a PC and use remote desktop from a netbook to connect and select music.  This works very well, especially JRMC. Foobar feels a little disjointed in that the UPnP server is an add-in so none of the standard buttons will control the stream, luckily this can be resolved as the entire interface can be constructed to suit your needs.

For us, I think this may be the best solution. I like the idea of a dedicated box for music; it could include a CD drive with the ripping software, OS and a choice of server on a SSD, and an enterprise quality HDD for the music files. Run headless it should run cool, reasonably quiet and would be easily upgradeable, both in terms of hardware and software. This to me seems a better, more adaptable solution to a NAS; our NAS would hold a copy of the music files.

That’s my thoughts; others of course may have other/better ideas.

Regards

Peter

Hello Tog

I have been following your and now Guys enthusiasm for the VB for…....well some time now.

I’m not too sure if it is right for us though as I like to use dbpoweramp to rip and tag our files and I think overall J River MC is proving to be the easiest player to use although somewhat bloated for our needs. Foobar is quite good but a little flaky when using the UPnP streaming add-in imo.

So that said, I think it has to be a windows machine although I think a Linux based system would be very desirable, if only it would run the software. Oh and it won’t do WAV.

In many ways I am beginning to think that an HDX might be the way to go, we defiantly want another streamer so are hoping that we can sort some answers at the forthcoming show.

Peter   

VB can be configured to rip to wav and to store wav. Whilst it won't stream wav files you can attach it as a player given a suitably good audio card.

I agree a linux based server is a better option - smaller overheads / more stable etc but if you love dbpoweramp you are stuck with windows (ugh) - VB Player is very good and using Mpod or Mpad control of a VB attached to a dac is very easy.

Tog

Tog………..I like Windows – unlike that fruity lot.

If wireless was an option it would be a completely different ballgame – but its not, so I have to find an alternative that others in the family can/want to cope with. I am also looking for at least two streams, so that suggest to me UPnP will be needed. I like the look of the VB and would be happy to give on space if it would work for us.

Regards

Peter

I was simply referring to your comment on using Mpod & Mpad, which would be great if it were possible.

I haven’t got a spare machine at the moment that I can install VB on, which would be the answer, as it would not take long to see if it worked for us.

Peter

Do also consider fitness for purpose–filesystem vs processor type / OS build vs seek time, especially important when you compare file size of ripped CD tracks versus large video files, for example.

A backup NAS need not be a speed demon, provided that its relative slowness doesn't interfere with operation of the devices it is backing up. (Do also consider rsync as an alternative to Time Machine.)

I'm not a big video freak these days, but I'd definitely separate the video streaming from the audio streaming (ESPECIALLY if the audio NAS is providing UPnP services), and set up a third (large) NAS for backup duties in the wee hours.

Thanks David. I decided to go for a dedicated audio NAS (Ready NAS, 4 slot, 8 TB) and hook it along with a KDS on the dedicated "audio" switch. I shall possibly plug a dedicated laptop with Asset uPnP in the "audio" switch (I can always remove it if it doesn't give worthwhile features over the built-in uPnP).

The "audio" switch will further go into a home network (based over the Linksys router). I hope 4 TB in mirror mode will give me enough capacity for many years ahead (providing my existing audio library is around 1 TB only).

BTW what we all miss today is a very brief and contained list of distinctive features for the most popular storages like Netgear, Synology, QNAP, Thecus etc. Would be great to look into the table with features/prices in the context of audio streaming and get a clear picture of what you exactly need. 

Thanks, Simon! I shall possibly try both scenarios.