• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

NAS for Music Servers

Marc v E

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Messages
1,106
Likes
1,606
Location
The Netherlands (Holland)
Currently using 2 separate Raspberry Pi 4's in different rooms - Volumio as the application. I rip to 3 hard drives via dbpoweramp - a drive for each Pi plus a backup. Since Volumio supports NAS I am looking at implementing that for convenience for ripping new CD's.
Currently looking at the below solution.



SSD's chosen for no mechanical noise. Looking for "tales from the dark side" implementations of NAS's. Somehow, no matter how easy these things are made out to be, never seems to be that "easy".
Go for Synology and western digital red edition regular drives. No need for expensive ssd's

And make sure you put it outside the listening room.

Lessons learned:
1 Synology is a very good buy. I have the ds418play.
2 Don't think of a NAS as your backup, at least not your single one.
3 Format in a language supported by your laptops/pcs. Then when you do a backup it is easily manageble by your regular pc too. I chose a 2 tb ssd as a backup that I keep at my parents place in case of fire. It's updated every few months. You could also keep a backup in the cloud. A 4 euro a month subscription to Amazon prime gives you a few TBs iirc.
4 Don't buy the cheapest. No need to buy the most expensive either. For music pretty much any NAS will do. Most important is the software that manages the NAS. Had Synology recommended by many and no regrets at all. Would heartily recommend it.
5 I went for 4 drives with 2 spares iirc. Was recommended by a longtime NAS user.
6 I use RAID 10 . Then it makes sense to use cheapish drives. In fact RAID means Redundant Array of Inexpensive/ Independant Disks. RAID 5 is good too if you don't mind that only 1 disk may fail
To be honest when I built it I thought it would be my only backup so I chose the safest option. But since I learned that a backup is required anyway I would choose raid 5 now.
 
Last edited:

GXAlan

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
Messages
3,866
Likes
5,953
Synology is very reliable but it’s really only good when you have a garage or closet where you can keep it. It is noisy and you need the fans for reliability. I use 10GbE and the network switch has a fan that is so intolerable that it probably will deter rodents and burglars to find another home.
 

Marc v E

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Messages
1,106
Likes
1,606
Location
The Netherlands (Holland)
Synology is very reliable but it’s really only good when you have a garage or closet where you can keep it. It is noisy and you need the fans for reliability. I use 10GbE and the network switch has a fan that is so intolerable that it probably will deter rodents and burglars to find another home.
I have a very different experience. I never hear it even when I open the cupboard. Then again, I keep it far away from the listening room. And I only use it for music streaming and foto/video backup. Nothing that makes it sweat, so no need to turn the fan up, I guess.

As this is a science based site: the noise level is 20.5 dB(A). https://www.modders-inc.com/synology-diskstation-ds418play-nas-review/
 
Last edited:

symphara

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
632
Likes
592
I have an inexpensive Synology (214i?) 2-disc solution for 2TB RAID using WD Red HDDs.

It works wonderfully and has done so for quite a few years at this stage. One of the discs failed at some point, I replaced it and it rebuilt the RAID as it should have. It’s very easy to configure and practically zero administration/headache. I will buy again from them.

Yes you do get a bit of fan noise and HDD noise but since this is a NAS you can (and I did) just place it out of the space used for critical music listening.
 

CrustyToad

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Messages
115
Likes
196
I have a synology 416 NAS that has been running reliably for years. Had to replace one of the WD Red drives due to bad sectors but it all happened effortlessly. Very useful fory backup of files and as a music and video server. My only gripe is that the underlying hardware is quite slow and not so powerful..

Nonetheless If I would do it again now I would use unraid.net and a custom setup in terms of hardware. For sure you get a better bang for your buck and a more tailored experience that you can upgrade as you go along. Or use some old hardware you might have lying around. For sure this needs more tinkering so you need to be up to the task.

But I expect that it can also be a "set it and forget it" experience
 

CapMan

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 18, 2022
Messages
1,003
Likes
1,708
Location
London
Had a Synology DS411 as a network drive which worked well , but now just use the Roon Rock with internal storage and a backup on a couple of USB drives. I’m not buying many CDs or downloads these days so no great inconvenience to keep things aligned.

The Rock also acts as a network shared drive for the Sonos music library in the rest of the house.
 

CapMan

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 18, 2022
Messages
1,003
Likes
1,708
Location
London
Had a Synology DS411 as a network drive which worked well , but now just use ta Roon Rock with internal storage and a backup on a couple of USB drives. I’m not buying many CDs or downloads these days so no great inconvenience.

The Rock also acts as a network shared drive for the Sonos music library in the rest of the house.
 

GXAlan

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
Messages
3,866
Likes
5,953
I have a very different experience. I never hear it even when I open the cupboard. Then again, I keep it far away from the listening room. And I only use it for music streaming and foto/video backup. Nothing that makes it sweat, so no need to turn the fan up, I guess.

As this is a science based site: the noise level is 20.5 dB(A). https://www.modders-inc.com/synology-diskstation-ds418play-nas-review/

That’s a great point. People like Synology since the software and user interface is pretty similar from the low to high end. But there is a whole range of Synology products.

I am running an ds1821+


The 6 bay version hits 58.2 db(A) with the fans at speed. Add HDD noise and it gets pretty noticeable. That number is 1 meter using a Bruel & Kjaer 2250-L G4 sound analyzer equipped with a Type 4955a microphone.

I have TrendNet TEG-S708 which says 52.2dB(A) for its fans. No distance provided but it’s reflective of typical use cases in enclosed racks. It sounds much worse because it’s high pitched fan noise.

The smaller desktop ones are quieter for sure.
 

Raitsa

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2020
Messages
89
Likes
214
Location
Finland
I have a Synology NAS DS218+ with 4GB RAM and 2x 4TB HDD.
Gets software updates steadily which is always a plus.
Very happy with it.
Located in a storage/tech room where I never see or hear it.

Had it shipped from from https://store.ctn-systeme.de/ which is a great place to buy from, good website to compare, low prices and EU wide shipping.
They have a wide range of different turn key NAS packages available too.
 

nsfgp

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2020
Messages
200
Likes
185
Looks like you have a single drive music library now. May want to keep it simple for now if it meets your need. I have only played with Volumio for a couple week so not an expert. I recall there a DNLA server feature you can run and share the local drive out?? If that works then only one Pi4 needs an attached drive and it should work like a NAS for the other Pi, etc.??
You still need to keep up with you backup routine and back up your library regularly to a 2nd drive. Going to a full scale multidrive NAS also requires a backup plan/routine so needs to be considered as well.
Personally I can also recommend you try running piCorePlayer and see if you like it. I tried Volumio/Moode before settled on pCp and never looked back.
Run LMS/Squeezelite on one Pi with local drive. 2nd Pi runs only Squeezelite. Material Skin UI frond end control from any PC/Android device/Browser. Any other PC can run Squeezelite-X off the same LMS too. You may like the pCp/LMS/Material Skin eco system very much.
 

Digby

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 12, 2021
Messages
1,632
Likes
1,555
Appreciate the suggestion, however, I have had the cheap drives fail used with the Pi's before. I would get drives rated for 24/7 duty in a NAS. Ironically the 2 TB drives I linked were the same price as the last 1TB SSD I purchased a few years ago. I remember paying $600 for a Maxtor 250 MB drive to use in a 286 system I built with DOS 6 .......
You pay your money, you take your choice. For me, unless I had the need for the throughput of an SSD, I'd risk the hdds and just have backups in duplicate (1 live drive, 2 backups) + offline and cloud storage for anything you CANNOT lose. 3.5" drives are noisy, even the supposedly quiet ones, 2.5" are far less so (particularly vibration noise), there is a big difference.

Unless you are doing heavy writing to the drives most of the time, then I personally would be happy with normal (non 24/7 rated) drives.
 

Berwhale

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
3,933
Likes
4,922
Location
UK
NASes can be made more quiet, I wrote a post about it here...

 

Berwhale

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
3,933
Likes
4,922
Location
UK
Appreciate the suggestion, however, I have had the cheap drives fail used with the Pi's before. I would get drives rated for 24/7 duty in a NAS. Ironically the 2 TB drives I linked were the same price as the last 1TB SSD I purchased a few years ago. I remember paying $600 for a Maxtor 250 MB drive to use in a 286 system I built with DOS 6 .......

'24/7' is more applicable to a mechanical HDD, when considering SSDs, you want to look at TBW (TeraBytes Written) and DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day)..

 

PatentLawyer

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
398
Likes
690
Location
Deep in the Soundstage
I really don't understand this. A Nas is a locally shared storage. Ethernet speeds on my cheapish network is about 100 mb per second.
If Ethernet speed is fast enough for your application, then a NAS would work fine. For me, it is not, and that is aggravated by the fact that my NAS is doing double duty for a non-music application.

I have a Thunderbolt connected external SSD box on another computer and it‘s way faster and more responsive than the NAS. I wish I had gone that route on this computer……
 

Kal Rubinson

Master Contributor
Industry Insider
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
5,270
Likes
9,770
Location
NYC
Because ethernet is really slow, so file management is a bear. And I can just as easily share a local volume on my network.
Really? I do not know what you mean about "file management," which should be local to the storage but I can stream 6 channels of 32/352.4 or DSD256 from my NAS (over the LAN) to my streamer and play it (with all local buffering bypassed) supply without interruption. In fact, I can also do more-demanding video, so the ethernet does not seem to be slow enough to be an issue.
 

PatentLawyer

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
398
Likes
690
Location
Deep in the Soundstage
Really? I do not know what you mean about "file management," which should be local to the storage but I can stream 6 channels of 32/352.4 or DSD256 from my NAS (over the LAN) to my streamer and play it (with all local buffering bypassed) supply without interruption. In fact, I can also do more-demanding video, so the ethernet does not seem to be slow enough to be an issue.
Moving files to / from the NAS is slow, which I do frequently. And the files are big. I also use the my NAS for another application, which aggravates my speed concerns.
 

Prana Ferox

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Feb 6, 2020
Messages
914
Likes
1,888
Location
NoVA, USA
I run a little DIY FreeNAS server. It's been running almost non-stop for 10 years without hassle. I lost a really huge music collection before that, obscure bootlegs of live shows and vinyl I'll never be able to replace, and decided that was never going to happen again. I've been building the replacement for years and eventually need to get that going.

The quietest server is the one that's in another room. I have a little homelab now with a bunch of boxes but except for my gaming desktop that has to be nearby, none of them are audible. Right now I'm trying to figure out where to put the VM that's going to run LMS to serve to my various Pi's.

I'm with Kal, if 'Ethernet is slow' for audio things, and you're using even remotely modern equipment, something is wrong with your setup. I converted my network backend to 10g fiber simply because it was easier to hide non-destructively under my apartment carpet, but most devices are still 1gb Ethernet, and there's no difference in responsiveness between local and network access. Wi-fi can be another matter in a crowded environment, I had to get a serious-business commercial AP to win the wattage wars with my neighbors and get consistently good speeds.
 

Marc v E

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Messages
1,106
Likes
1,606
Location
The Netherlands (Holland)
If Ethernet speed is fast enough for your application, then a NAS would work fine. For me, it is not, and that is aggravated by the fact that my NAS is doing double duty for a non-music application.

I have a Thunderbolt connected external SSD box on another computer and it‘s way faster and more responsive than the NAS. I wish I had gone that route on this computer……
I think I'm now beginning to understand what you say. Your requirement to move massive files is making you say above statement; something that would not be necessary in a system with only music streaming or even bluray streaming.

Ethernet speed = 100 mbps to max 1000 mbps
Thunderbolt 2000 to 4000 mbps.
Read/Write speed of regular hard drive 220 mbps
Read/Write speed of ssd 2500 mbps

Music streaming: 150 mb per hour= 150/3600= 0.042 mbps
Streaming 1080p 1.5 gb per hour= 0.3 mbps
Streaming 4k: 7.2 gb per hour= 2 mbps

So you see, music and video streaming requirements of bandwith and read/write speed are much lower than you require for moving massive files. That's why for music and video ethernet is plenty and a regular harddisk the right choice imo.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom