Budget Hard Drive to use with a Superuniti

Just so you know that plugging a usb hard drive directly into the SU is unlikely to work. The front USB socket is intended for usb sticks only - the largest low cost ones are128GB which may cope if you store your music as flac and compress to the max. To use a normal hard drive you would need to either attach it to a computer and then attach the computer directly to the SU or stream it via upnp. Any hard drive would do if you have a good backup storage system in place.

Hi John - 

For the budget hard drive, it sort of depends on what you have in mind and what you already have on hand. There is also a small choice in how you want to connect things  

To get started, you could try an external USB drive (there are lots to choose from, pick a brand you recognize, like Seagate, and a size you can afford, like 1 TB; or even a big USB stick as a first baby step) and copy over a few CDs (ripped to FLAC on your computer using, say, EAC if on Windows or XLD if on Mac). 

Choice 1: use the USB input on the front panel of your SU and try the app to navigate around, play and enjoy. 

Choice 2: if your home router has any USB inputs (most modern ones do) and you can enable UPNP on the router, move the USB device there, and use the UPNP input feature on your SU; this is the very simplest intranet streaming thing you can try. Use the app to navigate, select, play, and enjoy. 

Once you are comfortable with this, you can spend a bit more for a home NAS, many will be recommended but all cost more than an equivalent quality USB drive since they are really stand alone computers in their own right, most with more advanced UPNP (and other) services built in. You can then convert your USB drive for use as a backup, so no wasted investment of precious funds. Or buy a different small computer (there are lots, and a huge price range starting with the amazing and inexpensive Raspberry Pi) and duplicate the functions in a slightly more advanced and sophisticated environment. This part depends more on your level of interest and enjoyment playing with the computer and network side of the equation.

That's how I'd start if I wanted fast, easy, and cheap... ymmv, but have fun no matter which road you travel. 

Regards alan

Hi, thank you for your replies so far, to be clear I am looking for a look cost NAS drive not a wired or USB solution.

Cheers John

WD MyCloud 4TB can be found for $200 and is excellent for what you need.

In my experience the My Cloud is dreadful. Get yourself a Qnap or Synology with a couple of 2TB WD Red drives and you are away. £350 to £400 will do it. 

John Gorodecky posted:

Hi, thank you for your replies so far, to be clear I am looking for a low cost NAS drive not a wired or USB solution. 

If you mean wireless,  thats not a great idea & I'm not sure such an animal exists other than computer type & cloud. As Alan33 says,  not many solutions out there other than USB or wired.  I would choose USB as a interim way,  then plan for a proper NAS - QNAP or Synology - & to wire it to your wireless hub;  eventually fully wired to your SU,  then you can start collecting high res audio (24-bit).

Hi John -

I agree with those who recommend Synology as a NAS solution: any current generation one will do the job and the web interface and automatic updates are easy to use to administer things. I've never used QNap but every review puts these brands in the same league, as far as performance and features are concerned.

If you want to get started with the least expensive thing, a single bay unit with a modest processor and minimal ram will function fine for UPNP.  Everything up from there is convenience, flexibility, or speed - just like any computer. The entry level DS115j is about $140cdn and a Western Digital 1TB drive is about $70; the top notch (for home) DS716+II is about $650 cdn and a pair of WD 4TB drives is about $400... so thinking in the range from $250 to $1000 gives you the spectrum.  

As a starting point, though, putting a simple portable USB drive on your router will give NAS-like service, as far as UPNP functionality is concerned. Just for grins...

Regards alan

As far as NAS is concerned: QNAP or Synology with 2TB drives, connected via LAN cable to your Superuniti.

Phono-stage: that really depends on a turntable - if it's meant to be a budget exercise I'd recommend that you get the same make phono stage as your turntable.

However.... there is nothing budget about a Superuniti, so why this insistance on 'budget' sources?

Another thumbs up for Synology.....I initially started with a budget NAS....false economy as you end up with missing albums/tracks etc. Synology is seamless and agree with using WD Red drives too

Mike-B posted:

John Gorodecky posted:

Hi, thank you for your replies so far, to be clear I am looking for a low cost NAS drive not a wired or USB solution. 

If you mean wireless,  thats not a great idea & I'm not sure such an animal exists other than computer type & cloud. As Alan33 says,  not many solutions out there other than USB or wired.  I would choose USB as a interim way,  then plan for a proper NAS - QNAP or Synology - & to wire it to your wireless hub;  eventually fully wired to your SU,  then you can start collecting high res audio (24-bit).

As Mike says, a wired connection is really what you need. When I had a Superuniti I really liked everything about it, with one big exception, which is that its WiFi performance sucks.

I would agree with the suggestions so far that a QNAP or Synology NAS is a safe bet, but I would also add Netgear to the list - a few forum members have reported good results with Netgear, and my Naim dealer uses them exclusively.

If, for whatever reason, you can't stretch to a decent NAS, you could consider putting a UPnP server on your computer and storing your music either on its internal hard drive, or an external one attached to it. Not as good as a decent NAS, but probably better than a very cheap one. 

I currently use a QNAP in one system and a Synology in the other. Both work well, the QNAP running Assett server and the Synology running Minim Server.

I also have a couple of WD cheap NAS drives which run some generic UpnP server. They are fine for back-up purposes (which I use them for) but have been known to be problematic when trying to use them as a main source in a Naim system.

I'd have thought that spending a reasonable amount on a good NAS drive in the context of the brilliant SuperUniti, which you already own, would be money well spent. By all means try a Western Digital "MyCloud" but be prepared to demote it to back-up purposes if it fails to deliver as your main NAS.
1TB or 2TB would appear to be more than adequate for storing 500 CD's, particularly if you rip them at lossless (uncompressed) FLAC - preferably using DBPoweramp to rip them.

A simple answer is a Synology DS216j + 2Tb WD Red HDD - total about €200 - €220.

The 2 drive enclosure is very little more cost than the single drive enclosure and will allow for expansion in the future (if ever needed).  2Tb is enough as 500 CDs are only about 350Gb, giving plenty of room before a second HDD is needed (unless you start rapidly accumulating HiRes downloads).  WD Red NAS drives have a very good reliability record - much better than all 'desktop' drives (but you'll still need a backup).  When set to low noise fan mode the Synology DS216j is very quiet, in fact the noise from the HDD is usually louder than the fan.

Rip to WAVE files using EAC or DBPoweramp and you won't need to use (or pay for) a 3rd party UPnP server (Synology Media Server works very well with WAVE files).