Recommend a NAS to use with a digital streaming bridge

[Ki Choi]

I have had the Auralic Aries since Christmas but got side tracked with turntable stuff and just getting ready to fire it up. According to the manual it will take a hard drive directly or NAS. I figure I should get a 16TB NAS while I am at it.
Any thoughts?

[allenh]

I've used 2 different NAS's, WD and Synology. Synology wins hands down in features, OS, and support. And so many different configurations to choose from.

[GaryB]

I've set up two different NAS boxes at two different locations - one with a QNAP box and one with a Synology box. Both work great.
---Gary

[Tunes]

Ki,
Highly recommend synology. Many people recommended it when i was looking for a nas.

[Bruce B]

Synology all the way. I'm up to 72TB now!!

[Alex Siufy]

I have a QNAP, and I like it. Fairly solid. I had a Drobo before, and it was practically a toy compared to the QNAP...

[Ki Choi]

Thanks for your recommendations. It seems Synology will be my next NAS. I found

http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Network-Attached-DS1815/dp/B00P3RPMEO/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

then I need extra RAM modules and the hard drives...

OTOH, 72TB? Come on Dr. Bruce. There can't be that many digital music files in this world.

[Alrainbow]

SYNOLOGY , use ss drives they sound much better . and if you want real storage and sound by two . one 2 BAY for ss drives 1 tb each side . and then one 4 bay its what I do . I transfer what I want to play for a week or two .

[Dave Clark]

What ever you do, using a really good power supply on the NAS as well as any attempt to address noise in the chain is worth the trouble.

[Ki Choi]

Ok, Got me a Synology 1815+ 8 bay NAS and stuffed it with 2ea. 8GB modules to have 16GB RAM total along with 2ea 6TB WD Red hard disks for 12TB space to start with (when I grow up and be like Dr. Bruce, I will get more drives. ).

It all powered up properly and I can see the drives on my home network.

Now the question is how can I structure the folders so that there's some order and I won't have to fish for music aimlessly.

How do you have your NAS file folders structured - by genres, by artists, by titles, or by digital format PCM and sub folders with 44.1/16 through 384/24, DSD64fs - 128fs, etc.?

I will be using ab Auralic Aries as a bridge + DAC in one setup and a dedicated laptop running the JRiver + DAC on another setup both access same NAS.

After I get everything working smoothly, I will consider adding a SSD and linear power supply for improved performance next.

[Dave Clark]

Let the playback handle organization.

[Alex Siufy]

Ki,

I believe JRiver will catalogue everything and keep your folders organized. You can also use it to edit metadata, add artwork, etc. The Aries will just scan the JRiver folder and use that.

So, basically, just create a "Music" folder and point JRiver to it. Then add your music to JRiver, and it should keep everything neat and organized there.

Alternatives for this task would be iTunes and Roon.

[Alrainbow]

Jriver can do it all. But and a big but go through settings and make sure it does move you stuff around or even worse deplete duplicates or change format. It all can happen if you do not read each setting. What I would so is one drive and play with it. To see how it goes.
For me I only use SS drives to playback music from inside my server a much simpler task. On my external nas drives I keep all of it on raid 1 mirror and keep each single 4 TB worth my rips Ina safe away fro all else
I do have one drive with 2 SA drives on it but internal sounds better. Just my view

[allenh]

Ok, Got me a Synology 1815+ 8 bay NAS and stuffed it with 2ea. 8GB modules to have 16GB RAM total along with 2ea 6TB WD Red hard disks for 12TB space to start with (when I grow up and be like Dr. Bruce, I will get more drives. ).

It all powered up properly and I can see the drives on my home network.

Now the question is how can I structure the folders so that there's some order and I won't have to fish for music aimlessly.

How do you have your NAS file folders structured - by genres, by artists, by titles, or by digital format PCM and sub folders with 44.1/16 through 384/24, DSD64fs - 128fs, etc.?

I will be using ab Auralic Aries as a bridge + DAC in one setup and a dedicated laptop running the JRiver + DAC on another setup both access same NAS.

After I get everything working smoothly, I will consider adding a SSD and linear power supply for improved performance next.

Just saw this Ki. If talking about physical organization, I organize by Album Artist (the main composer would be the Album Artist for classical), and then like Dave Clark mentioned, infuse your files with as much meta data and let the software let you search by those tags.

Congrats on the 1815+, that's the one I have my eye on. Did you download the minimserver so you can stream DSD files?

[Ki Choi]

I don't know about the miniserver download. Can you elaborate? Thanks!

[allenh]

It's a UPNP server that recognizes and can serve dsf files to UPnP renderers. I see now you are using Auralic. Not sure if Auralic uses UPnP, so point may be moot.

[Alrainbow]

Heads up
buy the green it's cheaper and yes has slower seek time but they last longer Google it. Not kidding. J river is the best at organizing but try it as instead first don't spend days loading up drives and find its gone sideways lol

[Ki Choi]

Heads up
buy the green it's cheaper and yes has slower seek time but they last longer Google it. Not kidding. J river is the best at organizing but try it as instead first don't spend days loading up drives and find its gone sideways lol

I was about to order more red to fill up the slot. Thanks for the Green drive tip. i'll need to get four more drives I believe to keep up with Bruce B. So far I have four drives loaded and in the process of trying it out with Aries and J River.