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To NAS or not to NAS
I am in the process of trying to work out a solution to an audio steaming problem.
Currently I am using a PC running windows 7 on which over a TB of music in mainly Flac and Ape files are stored, some at 24-96 but most at 16-48. I use my Logitech Squeezebox devices (Duets and Touch) to stream this around the house. Unfortunately, I am splitting from my partner (alas these things happen) and taking my PC with me. I am leaving behind a SB duet and a copy of all the music.
My ex is a Mac person and usually just uses her MacBook Air, but has a newish iMac she can get out of the cupboard. It only has a total of 1 TB of storage so running the music from it is not an option plus Macs can’t play many music file formats including Flac and Ape and some others I use. So we need an alternative way to stream music. We are both networking novices.
From what I understand I have 2 clear options. The first and cheapest is to run an external HD connected to my Asus RT68U wireless router and run Logitech Media server on the Macs. It is an excellent wireless router but I have heard streaming from external HDs is not ideal. The second option is streaming the music from a NAS connected to one of the LAN ports on the router and running LMS on the NAS. Since ReadyNAS is known to work with SB this seems to best choice of NAS.
I know this a ReadyNAS forum so I’m expecting that people here will say the latter option is the way to go, but I thought I’d run the first option by just in case it is really all we need. (That is, we don’t need any of the other functionalities of the NAS such as back up etc. Just a way to stream lots of lossless music via SB devices). If NAS is markedly better at doing just this one thing, streaming the music, then the next question is which one? I am thinking the 102 (2 bay model) should be sufficient.
Can anyone offer any advice, including whether I have missed or overlooked something obvious. It really has to be a very simple set up as my ex is computer illiterate and, I will semi-literate, am a NAS neophyte and hopeless with Macs? Running the NAS directly connected to router would, I hope, completely by-pass the Mac.
chopinhauer wrote:
As for the NAS, still an option is all else doesn't work.
Ours is now essential. Our media, documents and backups are all consolidated onto the NAS (which is backed up to other NAS and to the cloud). Those files are available remotely when I travel on my laptop, my android phone and my iPad. I just replaced our aging family desktop PC with a small form-factor desktop that uses a modest SSD. We simply don't need a lot of storage in the PCs because everything is on the NAS.
So it could be worth the learning curve - but maybe it would be best to start in your new setup. Also, since Apple provides a relatively closed ecosystem it is a bit easier to fit the NAS into a PC environment.
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102 is entry level. slow cpu and inadequate ram
for good sound get a 212 or 312 plus 7200rpm hard drives for nas
cpu8088 wrote:
102 is entry level. slow cpu and inadequate ram
for good sound get a 212 or 312 plus 7200rpm hard drives for nas
To be sure the RN212 is a much more powerful NAS, but its more than what is needed for simple audio streaming. If you don't need server transcoding an RN102 is certainly enough. Audio streaming with flac requires about 1 mbit per second, and the RN102 does well over 400 mbits per second. There is no need for 7200 rpm for this application either. Price-wise an RN102 with two 3 TB WD30EFRX drives (raid-1) would run about $450. An RN212 with two 3 TB Wed Pro drives (7200 rpm) would cost about $675.
I think the bigger concern here is that the ex is computer illiterate. ReadyNAS do require some care and feeding, and someone who is not comfortable administering a Mac or PC is likely to run into trouble with any NAS. You probably shouldn't be the IT person for your ex (you don't use the NAS yourself, plus you are going your separate ways).
I'm not real keen on putting the music on an external drive connected to the router. Performance with the ASUS is probably good enough, but USB drives connected to routers generally don't spin down when not in use.
I'd first look at upgrading the disk drive of the "newish mac in the cupboard", and run LMS on that mac with no external disk.
streaming audio is not simple. u may go to many computer audiophile forum and see that there are many views about what hardware and software to use to achieve good sound
just like going from point a to point b u may drive a hyundai or toyota and it is incomparable from a fast ferrari or comfort of a bentley rolls royce
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