Squeezebox Touch & NAS Drive Help Please!!!!

Gareth82

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Hi everyone, i was thinking of getting a SB Touch and using it with a NAS Drive but upon doing abit of online research on the Squeezebox Forums i found that most of the people on there recommend to use the SB touch with a PC running the SB server.

This option would be a big no for me as i would have to then buy a tower PC as well as the Touch and a external hard drive and this wouldn't be cost effective for me.

Are there any Touch and NAS Drive users on here that could give me a helping hand with if there are any dropouts or reliability problems with using the touch with a NAS and could anyone recommend a reliable NAS to use with the Touch?

Thanks, and any help or tips would be great.
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the reply. That has put my mind at ease as everyone i spoke to from the SB forum uses a PC for the SB server and not a NAS drive so it's good to hear from someone who is running a SB Touch with a NAS drive with no problems.

I have got a netbook to help set it all up once i get the SB and a NAS drive and i am glad that i can stick to the NAS setup rather than mess around with a seperate PC server.

Did you get many problems when you set up and installed the server and SB Touch?

thanks
 

Mr. Iceman

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Hi Gareth82,

I am using Buffalo Linkstation Duo in Raid-1 config with my Squeezebox Touch. Until recently, SB server was only able to run on a very limited number of NAS devices but the list now (only since earlier this year) includes many brands so do some research first before you decide which one to go for. There is plenty info available on the web. I just thought Buffalo was the best choice for me though I am sure others will do more or less similar job.

I have no issues with reliability at all. NAS is permanently connected to my router, as it should be, and SB Touch works well wired as well as wireless in other rooms. Installing SB Server on the NAS did take some effort and imo is not that straight forward and you need a PC for that. Mind you, I only consider myself half computer-literate :) . However, it is highly possible that these days a Buffalo NAS will come preloaded with the firmware which includes SB server. Sorry I can't tell you which version as I am out of the country now.

I got the NAS before the latest firmware with SB Server became available. As intended, I copied all my uncompressed songs onto it and fed it through Marantz M-CR603 which is a DLNA server in its own right. I bought the Squeezebox at about the same time SB server firmware came out (April/May ?), to use it in my bedroom with a pair of Focal CMS-40 active speakers.

Once I had SB server installed on the NAS and after adding music libraries to the Touch, it runs smoothly and does what it says on the tin, with no issues or dropouts whatsoever. Wireless reception is exemplary for such small and unassuming unit.
 

Mr. Iceman

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Not problems as such but...

I bought the NAS to use it with M-CR603. For that, I had to install Buffalo Navigator on my PC to configure the NAS. All straight forward so far and I did not have SB server installed on the PC as there was no need for it, for what I intended.

When SB server for Buffalo became available, I thought I had to install SB server on my PC so I did (I still don't know whether I had to or not), then updated NAS' firmware with SB server for Buffalo NAS included. As far as I remember, I followed Buffalo's instructions for SB server firmware update to the letter which seemed to work.

Now this will sound daft, but for quite some time I thought the name 'server' relates only to a piece of hardware, which is obviously not the case here, as SB server is a software. This did confuse me a little in the process though.

As I said, I am still unsure whether installing SB server on the PC is a must. I was under impression that I have to, but this is something your web search or a more insightful forum member can set straight.
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the reply. I think i shall do abit more research on the points you made. I am sure that i saw somewhere that you can get NAS drives with SB Server pre installed on them so if that is the case one of these may be a better option as they should be abit more straight forwad and easier to set up.

Out of interest, was the Marantz easy to set up for use with a NAS?
 
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Anonymous

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I've just ordered a Buffalo LinkStation Live 2TB from dabs, from what I read it looks like the SB Server software is incorporated into the Buffalo NAS firmware from v1.41 onwards, so I'm hoping it will be plug and play with the SB Touch (also just ordered:) ) Fingers crossed..

Oh, and if using the SB server on the NAS, you wont need the server software installed on your PC. That is only needed if you want the SB Touch to play files that are stored on your PC (or if you are playing files off the NAS which is loaded as a drive on your PC, which kinda defeats the point of having a NAS for playing music files).
 

Mr. Iceman

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Thanks for that Dr. Lodge, looks like I was faffing around for nothing, getting SB server onto my PC!

Firmware 1.41 sounds about right from memory.

About M-CR603: this is probably my best hifi purchase ever (and I started in 1978). I've had it since March and what little issues existed since its launch, Marantz always seemed keen to sort out promptly by issuing a firmware update. I highly recommend it, as do many other forum users in related threads.
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the info Dr Lodge. Nas and SB Touch is definately the way i want to go, let me know how you get on once your NAS and SB Touch arrive. I should be ordering mine over the next few weeks so it would be handy to know how the initial set up of the NAS and Touch go for you and if you incounter any problems. I too am hoping it is just plug and play. Thanks
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for your help Mr Iceman. The Marantz does look like a really good piece of kit. I was thinking of maybe picking up one and seeing how good it really is. I think it would be ideal for my bedroom and i would be very interested how it sounds and performs compared to my main Arcam set up (knowing my wife she would probably try and persued me to replace my Arcam with the Marantz as it's smaller etc...).
 

spockfish

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I would highly recommend not running the SB server on the PC. Just run it on the NAS. For example the Synology, which supports SB extremly well and provides the software themselves. Simple installation (2 clicks) and of you go.

Once you had the convenience of running SB server on a NAS you never go back.

Oh yeah. Besides good support for SB Synology itself is a very good product. Extremely reliable, very good support, great functionality.

Regards
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the info spockfish. I was thinking of either getting a Synology or Netgear NAS and think the Synology looks the best. Which Synology NAS are you running with the SB Touch?

Out of interest, i was thinking of maybe getting a DAC in the future to use with the SB Touch, i was thinking of either a Arcam rDac or the Rega Dac that you have. Which DAC Would you recommend and did you get much improvment with the Rega Dac?

Thanks
 

pba_target

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Gareth,

I've got a Synology 410J (similar to the 210J but with 4 bays) running squeezebox server and a touch running my hifi. It's not a bad setup, though it could be a little bit faster. The issue is as much the size of my music collection (140gig!) as anything else. The speed issue is easily managed (playlists rather than folder navigation is definitely the way ahead!). The synology is far better than any of the other NAS's I've tried, so take it as a strong recommendation with only a very mild caveat. I haven't tried squeezeserver on a pc, but I assume it would be a wee bit faster.
 

spockfish

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I've got the old 209+. Comparable with their current 211. 2 disks is minimal, because you can at least use RAID1 (data mirroring). That means that one of the two drive may fail without any data loss.

About the DAC's my experience is this: the DAC inside the Squeezebox isn't that bad. So using a relatively cheap DAC like the DacMagic didn't do anything. However, the Rega DAC is in a different league. It increased my SQ considerably, and it has a kind of 'analogue' sound. It made me discover my collection all over again! This was of course with FLAC files.

Regards,
 

iemslie

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No problems running SBS on my QNAP at all, in fact in my experience running on Win7 has been far more troublesome.

Most of the big name NAS manufactures will support SBS however I'm not certain whether these are all officially supported by Logitech or whether the SBS update releases are re-compiled by by the user community (e.g. Synology and QNAP use SSODS based applications which are great) to work on each NAS.

From the Squeezebox website Netgear and Windows Home Server are the only official NAS releases. Perhaps this matters, perhaps not - I'd interested in anyone thoughts on this.

Regardless, you'll not go far wrong with any of the major brands, Synology, QNAP, Netgear, etc, will all perform very well. Alternatively a Windows Home Server could be knocked up quite cheaply using an old PC if you have one kicking around.
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the replies.

@pba_target: Thanks for the tip on using playlists to help avoid any problems over the NAS. I was told on the SB Touch Forum that if i went for a NAS to get one with a good ram as it can run slow, i think maybe that could be why they recommend using as PC as a server if you can. I have got quiet alot of music backed up on my Seagte hard drive (about 300GB) do you think that the more music you have on the NAS server the slower it would go?

@spokfish: Using RAID1 on a NAS drive is quiet handy, although i have already backed up all of my music on my Seagate external hard drive so it doesn't matter too much if the NAS i buy doesn't support that. With regards of the Rega Dac, i have heard nothing but great things about it, and although i would like to keep with the Arcam branding, i'm not sure if the rDac would be better than the SB Touch's built in Dac so i think i may be best to save up and get the Rega. Also, would you recommend to connect the SB Touch to a Dac via Coax or Optical?

Thanks
 

spockfish

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I've got more than 500 GB of music on my Synology, and it certainly isn't running slow. So don't worry about performance, for music streaming it is by far capable enough.

With respect to connecting a external DAC to the Squeezebox I did some investigation and the general opinion is that for the Squeezebox it is the best to use the coax digital out.
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the reply spockfish. It's good to know that having a big music collection on the NAS won't cause any problems and thanks for the tip with using the Coax when connecting it to a Dac. You help and info has been grately appreciated. Thanks
 
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Anonymous

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Hello

I've been running a Squeezebox Duet and a Boom on a Readynas duo for two years. No problems at all. squeezebox server or whatever it is called is available in a version specifically for the Readynas. On the rare occasion that I need to use the laptop to get up the nas front page it is a little slow but I can live with that.

Just discovered an iphone app from Logitech that allows me to control both squeezeboxes from the iphone with a lovely interface
 

Mr. Iceman

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DAC in SB Touch is good but not great. I have Beresford Caiman DAC at hand which gives audible increase in performance but this imo defeats the object of having a one-box solution such as the brilliant SB Touch undoubtedly is. I prefer Touch's coax output into Caiman.

For me, SB Touch + Focal CMS40 provides much needed minimalist and diminutive choice by size and (relatively) price, but certainly not in the sound that this fabulous little system makes.
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the relies.

@Jimmy Riddle: Thanks for the info about the iPhone app, i didn't know there was one of these available and was going to get the duet controller to use with the SB Touch but now i don't need to worry and i'll just use the iPhone app instead. I will definately use a NAS, just not sure what make and model yet, i'll decide that when i order it and pick which one provides the best value for money.

@Mr.Iceman: I know what you mean about keeping the box count down but lukerly i have got enough room to have a DAC as well so will be looking to get one at a later date, just haven't decided which oneto go for yet.
 

smuggs

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hi gareth82 , i have a squeezebox duet and a dac-magic and that mades a big difference but the touch is said to have a dac 10 times better than my duet so i think you may be ok on that front at least try it before letting people talk you into spending £500on the rega dac. I bought a £400 accer laptop and it stays on 24/7 under my stairs and i have a £50 1tb external harddrive on it to have my flac rips and the server has never let my down yet in 4 months of having the squeezebox. i then have a long hdmi to my tv so all my photos,iplayer ect can easy be player via the laptop straight to tv. i have bought for £6.99 ipeng for the iphone and it is very good not as cool as the controler for the duet but it offers 2 remotes.

my laptop costs about 28-30p a day to run so im guessing a nas would be alot cheaper and more important less fan noise if you have to have close to you. i would go touch and pc tower imo so much more flexable with a tower and use tv as a monitor. you can have vlc player all the bbc,itv,ch4 ondemand programs via internet. without having to have a media streamer as well.
 

Gareth82

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Thanks for the reply smuggs. I would rather have a NAS drive because it takes up less space and is quieter, however if i could get a cheap second hand laptop and external hard drive for the same price or less than a NAS then i may consider going down that route.

Out of interest, how do you go about controlling the laptop to use with your tv when it is hidden away and out of sight.

Also, is your laptop connected to your router wirelessly or is it hard wired to the router?
 
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The iPhone app gives the same interface as the Duet controller. Really really good, but just make sure you have all the firmware for NAS and SB up to date (even if the item is new).
 
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Anonymous

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Quick update from me as was on holiday last week...got my SB Touch and Buffalo 2TB LinkStation Live NAS drive, unfortunately the NAS drive doesn't come with the SB Server as standard but have found some instuctions to install it. Will need a few days to play around to see if I can get it working.
 

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