NAS, Hard Drive or something else entirely ?

[Made in 1968]

Stan:
Been there done it with music files.. was short lived with me.. However i did end up using my old Dell Studio Hybird with is technically a tower but uses Laptop parts..

[StanleyB]

What I like about using a laptop is that I can use full power for editing etc., and switch to power saving mode during music playback so that the fan doesn't come on. I can get away with several hours of use on battery power only that way. And combined with the SSD storage the laptop is dead quiet.

[Mr.Ian]

after a day messing around with various versions of linux and and old low spec mini pc I dont think this is the way to go. It just too difficult to get it to it all to work.

The easiest way would be to have the server and music files on my main pc and just leave it running for longer, but there are times when I think lets listen to some music and the PC is powered down.

So I am now thinking that a single drive NAS is the cleanest solution. Rip the music to my main pc and then back up the music to the nas. (I use cloud and external drive back up for more important files) Always on and low power use. £90 for a new NAS and say £50 for a small drive.

A higher spec laptop with a large drive running w10 might make initial set up easier but its no cheaper than a single bay nas and the laptop is going to be more difficult to site that a small nas. Shape is wrong etc

[dave2010]

If you are using a desktop or tower PC then the power consumption will be high. That's why I use a laptop. Plus it is possible to switch on and off many laptops remotely via the network if you know how, and if your laptop supports remote operatioon.

I hadn’t thought that using a NAS such as the Synology units would be a good option. Even a 2 bay unit costs over £100, plus the cost of putting in drives - so maybe £300 minimum.

However, if the installation turned out to be simple, and reliability high, then maybe this could work. Looking at the claimed spec for some Synology units, the power consumption is 50kW per year. That works out at around £10 at 20p per unit - though some providers may charge more, some rather less. I have used desktops to run the LMS server in the past, but I think they run at 25W minimum if switched on even in standby. That would be 0.6kW per day for always on operation - say 12p/day. That’d be around £50 per year in electricity costs. The differential saving could be £40 per year using the NAS, so would have to run reliably for perhaps 8 years to outstrip just using a desktop as a server. As I recall, if desktops start to do serious work, the power consumption might go up by a factor of 4 - say to 100 W, or 2.4 kW per day, equivalent to 48p per day at the rates suggested - approximately £180 per year, so the differential saving using a NAS could be £120 per year, giving rise to a minimum break even period of about 3 years.

Laptops use considerably less power, while some machines which can function like desktops (e.g. Mac Mini) also have power consumption similar to laptops.

I have tried NAS storage before, though not from Synology. I have had hardware failures, and setting systems and networks up can be unduly complicated.

If there’s a real need for highly reliable networks and storage solutions, with associated infrastructure, then running a NAS to provide a music server as well as other core functions could be a way to go. Otherwise these methods are perhaps overkill - and in a domestic environment it might actually be easier to just listen to music via CDs or SACD players.

[Made in 1968]

Hi Dave
Yep Physical discs are a much easier option but for people continue buy new music they are pretty much forced down the files/Streaming route because i truly believe CD's are pretty much history, i notice less & less in shops that stocked a lot more at one point..

[mightymonoped]

Just thought I might throw this additional option as it’s one that works well for me at home...

*usual provisos apply as far as backups of data is concerned, all disks can fail.

In this configuration, the only device consuming power when not listening to music, is the home router.

My BT Homehub supports USB device connections so in this setup I use a 1TB Solid State Drive connected via USB using an unpowered drive chassis (available for about a fiver).

The drive contents are updated by connecting via laptop (Macbook) using SMB.

The contents are seen as a music library by Volumio running on an RPi 3.

Using this configuration, I only use the laptop to either update or backup the contents when required.

The music is accessible via the RPi when it is on and I have a choice of streaming FLAC files or Tidal HiFi at will.




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[dave2010]

Hi Dave
Yep Physical discs are a much easier option but for people continue buy new music they are pretty much forced down the files/Streaming route because i truly believe CD's are pretty much history, i notice less & less in shops that stocked a lot more at one point..

I agree that's an issue. It isn't such a problem for me at present, as I have many CDs and SACDs, and can still source new ones.

For CDs it's possible that some streaming sites (or in some cases download sites) can provide equivalent or even better quality, and then if there is no need to have physical media users don't need to buy them.

For surround sound offerings this is harder, and currently I think only SACD and Blu-Ray provide surround sound audio. If there are streaming or download sites for surround sound, I'd expect them to be much more expensive, and also difficult to handle because of the amount of data needed to transfer. Maybe there are some surround sound sites - but I don't know of them.

[dave2010]

Just thought I might throw this additional option as it’s one that works well for me at home...

*usual provisos apply as far as backups of data is concerned, all disks can fail.

In this configuration, the only device consuming power when not listening to music, is the home router.

My BT Homehub supports USB device connections so in this setup I use a 1TB Solid State Drive connected via USB using an unpowered drive chassis (available for about a fiver).

The drive contents are updated by connecting via laptop (Macbook) using SMB.

The contents are seen as a music library by Volumio running on an RPi 3.

Using this configuration, I only use the laptop to either update or backup the contents when required.

The music is accessible via the RPi when it is on and I have a choice of streaming FLAC files or Tidal HiFi at will.

That's really quite interesting. I have heard of routers supporting storage devices before - I wasn't sure of the Homehubs though. It'll take a little investigation though, to check this out. I don't know about volumio.

[Ashmore]

Yes I thought this was a pretty elegant solution too. Are the files on the SSD just stored 'as normal' without there being any other software on it like LMS? And you can point volumio to the folder and it picks them up? Does Volumio tell the SSD to 'spin up' (I know it doesn't actually spin up) when needed or do you just switch it on manually when you want to listen?

[struth]

I leave a pc(small laptop) on all time although screen is off mostly. its connected to my system, but connectable from my laptop next to me i use.
Has a large hdd attached and music streams both ways.