which nas

[admin_exported]

hi,

i am looking to purchase nas to stream music via aiport express to hifi. if its possible

any recommendations? are there any brands in particular i would have to consider?

im open to suggestions as i havent played with nas before.

thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Not 100% sure what exactly you are looking to acheive papa, if it's just using a NAS drive (instead of say an external USB/Firewire drive) to hold your Itunes library no problems. Assuming you set up your NAS drive to use say RAID 5 there are data security advantages over a standalone USB drive but the downside is significantly increased cost. NAS drive as part of a Sonos (or similar) system makes a lot of sense. Turn off your PC away you go, in fact thats the set up I use in the UK. I have a WD 4TB Sharespace which configured with RAID 5 gives me about 2.8TB of usable storage but with the capability to survive a disk failure. Ultimately I intend ripping all my AV material onto it not just the audio CD's it contains at the moment. But having recently become a Napster convert I'm now wondering what the long term future is for local data storage. Don't you just love technology.

But presumably to use an Airport Express you need Itunes (or someting like Foobar plus AirFoil) running so I can't see much of an advantage to using a NAS drive other than the security aspect which can probably be acheived a good deal cheaper by making multiple copies of your music library and storing them on different drives.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the explaination 2oldnslow. you are right there when it comes to cost. nas was an idea late in the evening after few

i prefer always to ask questions first before commiting myself to purchase. this way it gives time to think about and have argument with myself

 

[Anonymous]

my pleasure and truth to tell some of my (as it turned out) expensive disasters have come after the late in the evening sessions you mention just ask my wife

 

[John Duncan]

It's not possible without having a computer on, AFAIK. No NAS I'm aware of runs iTunes properly for Airport Express to recognise it. How much music have you got? Apple TV might be an alternative (since it has 160gig internal storage, but can be hacked to attach a hard drive to its USB slot).

 

[Anonymous]

i am half way through with transfering music, so far around 220gb lossless. john any chance you could provide me with a link to modification of apple tv you mentioned

thank you very much

 

[Anonymous]

Papasmurf - I'm considering NAS in the same context as yourself and, despite the earlier replies, I think there are advantages.

My plan is move my music from desktop PC onto a NAS, primarily for ease of sharing, the quiet operation and low-power consumption compared to a PC. The problem with keeping multiple copies of your music, as suggested earlier, is keeping them up-to-date! [...as an aside, of course you should always back-up your valuable collection; using automated backup software to copy to a physically separate drive is a safe/convenient way to do this, safer than RAID and more convenient than manually copying it to here and there]

What I'm concerned about though is the possibility of pauses in the music whilst streaming. Can anyone comment? The NAS will be connected to wireless router, control will be from a media player + Airfoil running on a (wireless) netbook, feeding to an airport express (on onward, digitally, to an AV amp with better DACs than the airport express).

TIA

Andy

 

[John Duncan]

papasmurf:
i am half way through with transfering music, so far around 220gb lossless. john any chance you could provide me with a link to modification of apple tv you mentioned

thank you very much

Sorry, missed this...

ATVFlash

Note that you can sync some content and stream th rest if you run out of room. If you did use it, you have to format the drive first and *then* sync.

 

[John Duncan]

Andy916:
Papasmurf - I'm considering NAS in the same context as yourself and, despite the earlier replies, I think there are advantages.

My plan is move my music from desktop PC onto a NAS, primarily for ease of sharing, the quiet operation and low-power consumption compared to a PC. The problem with keeping multiple copies of your music, as suggested earlier, is keeping them up-to-date! [...as an aside, of course you should always back-up your valuable collection; using automated backup software to copy to a physically separate drive is a safe/convenient way to do this, safer than RAID and more convenient than manually copying it to here and there]

What I'm concerned about though is the possibility of pauses in the music whilst streaming. Can anyone comment? The NAS will be connected to wireless router, control will be from a media player + Airfoil running on a (wireless) netbook, feeding to an airport express (on onward, digitally, to an AV amp with better DACs than the airport express).

TIA

Andy

Depends entirely on the quality of your wireless network - in theory a 'g' network is absolutely plenty, but in practice it will depend on how robust your network is. I;ve definitely had issues with airport express, which was why I went to Apple TV (though have since gone back to AE for various reasons)

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:

Depends entirely on the quality of your wireless network - in theory a 'g' network is absolutely plenty, but in practice it will depend on how robust your network is. I;ve definitely had issues with airport express, which was why I went to Apple TV (though have since gone back to AE for various reasons)

Thanks John,

That makes sense, as the netbook will have to receive Spotify or high-bitrate MP3 over the network and also transmit on the same network to the AE. At moment I have an ageing 'g' router but will switch to a new 'n' one if needed. I'll get an AE and try the free-trial Airfoil on my laptop to see how it works. Undecided on which netbook at moment; the current 10" ones are great little machines with long battery life, but dual-core Atom processors are just around the corner so it may be worth waiting (either for the new machines or for bargains on the current ones!)

Andy