Do i need a NAS?

[colinB]

At the moment im listening to music through my ps3, cds that ive ripped onto my hardrive and the sound quality is very good. Listening to spotify and my laptop files are another matter. Im using Jamcast app to throw music from my network to the ps3 and external dac but i keep getting drop outs and for some reason Jamcast wont let me steam spotify even though the trial version did.
Out of frustration im buying a squeesebox touch , something ive dithered over for ages but i dont know if i need a NAS device or not for best results.
Can anyone explain to me if and why i need to use one? Im clueless when it comes to this.

[colinB]

Just bought a touch. Now i guessing getting a NAS i can rip cds to a better file size than the 30kbps on my sony hardrive??

[Stratmangler]

Do you have an existing static machine on the network to run as a server?

I'm struggling to make sense of this

Just bought a touch. Now i guessing getting a NAS i can rip cds to a better file size than the 30kbps on my sony hardrive??

[colinB]

Do you mean my laptop.

[Stratmangler]

No, I mean a desktop.

[colinB]

No , i was looking at a nd hand mac mini

[Stratmangler]

The Touch can operate in a number of environments.

It can work as a standalone player, with an attached HDD.
It's OK like this, and it suits many people.
Indeed, the Touch can serve a number of players.
The negatives are that you cannot access the player with a computer via an internet browser (something I use often), and the player does not downsample material that exceeds 24/192.
The Touch might also be a little bit slow to respond.

It is possible to control the Touch from a superior NAS that can run the server application.
Downsides are that it is still a bit slow to respond.
Some NAS units have minor issues running LMS (Logtech Media Server), and cannot access the higher resolution streams of BBC iPlayer.
Downsampling from 24/192 to 24/96 might still be a problem.

You can also run server on a computer - there are software versions for both PC and Mac - the upshot of which is that all things run well.
Negative is that the machine needs to be powered up unless it can send itself to sleep when idle, and wake with a network broadcast command.
I have a Win7 low power PC doing server duties, and it works very well indeed.

Of the 3 scenarios I can personally vouch for the third - however, you may well find that you're happy with either of the other two scenarios.

[colinB]

Thanks chris thats clearer know. I will use the touch to stream spotify and later get a mac mini.

[Stratmangler]

Thanks chris thats clearer know. I will use the touch to stream spotify and later get a mac mini.

Woah there!!!
Spotify is flaky over mysqueezebox.com, which is what you'd have to use if you use the player as standalone.

A NAS generally will not have the processing capability.

You will probably need to access Spotify over a proper computer based server, so you'll need to hang on until get your Mac Mini; either that or you run server on your laptop.