A NAS is fine if you have a collection of your own to rip to it. I have an inexpensive Synology NAS with a single 4TB disk in it. It works beautifully and sends its data directly to an SOtM digital bridge. The sound is great. I access it from an office computer to rip and manipulate files and it is accessed by my sound system in another part of the house. My routine is to subscribe to a service like Amazon or Qobuz for a month at a time for some new musical ideas, and listen to my own collection for months in between.
Which NAS should I choose?
Hi guys,
It's just sorta a general wondering, so recently I've been thinking about purchasing a NAS for audio storage and stuff, I used to just simply store music with USB, but I read some articles about NAS, it seems to me that most audiophiles possess one to cooperate with their Hi-Fi gear at home, so maybe it does help further improve the sound quality(?
As you all may know, there are several brands of NAS out there, which one is the best fit for me as a NAS newbie haha? Synology and QNAP are quite popular I suppose, but what about others, what's the difference?
If you can also kindly share what's your system(like what device you use to connect to NAS) with me, that'd certainly be a great reference to me then.
Best,
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I've been using a Synology DS415+ for 7yrs and love it. I use WD Red drives in a RAID5 configuration because Synology's newer/flexible RAID format wasn't an option then. This gives me redundancy that allows me to replace a damaged drive and replace/rebuild in a couple of clicks for little cost. All drives go bad eventually so this is a good protection, but it DOESN'T replace a separate backup! I have about 4-5TB of music which is ~40% of my capacity. That's about 4K albums, probably 1/4 in large hi-rez, and about 1K full concert soundboard recordings. I can't imagine ever needing more storage even though I have plenty of stuff not available on any streaming services. Now that drives are cheaper, if starting out, I'd go with large size just to be safe, but with the newer RAID option, you can mix sizes between drives. If you have the luxury of putting your NAS wherever your router is (i.e. outside the listening room) mechanical drive noise isn't an issue. SSDs cost WAY more, but if in the listening it's worth considering. I use the common method of an ethernet switch between router and NAS, and wire ethernet to listening room to an OpticalRendu. See my system page for details, sbank's Austin City Within Limits Cheers, Spencer |
Use a Synology DS920+ with 48 TB of storage in Raid 5. Seagate exos x16 drives.Use for music, photos, and movies. Works great. It used to support Logitech Media Server, but no longer. Can still run it, but need to do so unsupported. I run my LMS server a d Plex server on my desktop and just point at the NAS. With a Raspberry Pi, makes a great streaming system. Just a reminder that NAS is not a backup. Have a USB drive connected to my router that everything backs up to every night. |
As to NAS, the two firms that spend money on R&D and software development are Synology and Qnap. That’s why you’ve heard mostly about them. By reputation, Synology is easier to use and configure, while Qnap provides more hardware power for the money. That is somewhat overcome by Synology’s better optimizations. I have a Synology DS414 that is still going strong, 8 years later (though I've replaced the disks). You can read more at the SmallNetBuilder Forums. As to spending many multiples of the price for boutique audiophile products, I have seen the reviews but remain dubious. In 55 yrs of audiophilia, I’ve seen positive reviews of a lot of stuff that we laugh at today. |
I agree, and disagree with the above. If you want a NAS just for music, there are better ways get that done. If, however, you use the NAS for further server applications then it can make more sense. Overall, I’m very happy with my NAS, but straight up, it’s a pretty constant job to keep it well maintained. Plus, they are pretty noisy. YMMV |
I have had NAS for ten of fifteen years. My career was in IT… Director of IT for the last three decades. I wouldn’t bother. The age of local storage is nearly over. Streaming is what works now and into the future. I have 14tb of NAS now. I stream all audio. Streaming now equals or betters local, and equals vinyl. So going forward, stream. I wouldn’t waste any time or money on local anymore. |