What does it take to manage 8TB of music?

[SPOautos]

I'm not sure the best direction to take but here is my ultimate goal...... I need to store around 6tb - 8TB of music, need to play it through my Yamaha wxc-50 which can connect to a network attached drive (such as a standard 1TB portable USB drive plugged into my router), also can connect via dlna. I believe with a portable drive the wxc-50 actually decodes/renders the music (dont know correct terminology, with dlna I believe the nas or computer has to decode/render the music and it just flows through the wxc-50.

I feel like its SO much music that it may need to be on something like a nas with good quality organization and management capabilities

I also want to stream it to my phone and would like the ability to do that anywhere, not just at home.

I will probably be looking for used stuff, maybe build it as I dont have much to spend. Any ideas what would be the best direction?

 

[restorer-john]

I'm not sure the best direction to take but here is my ultimate goal...... I need to store around 6tb - 8TB of music, need to play it through my Yamaha wxc-50 which can connect to a network attached drive (such as a standard 1TB portable USB drive plugged into my router), also can connect via dlna. I believe with a portable drive the wxc-50 actually decodes/renders the music (dont know correct terminology, with dlna I believe the nas or computer has to decode/render the music and it just flows through the wxc-50.

I feel like its SO much music that it may need to be on something like a nas with good quality organization and management capabilities

I also want to stream it to my phone and would like the ability to do that anywhere, not just at home.

I will probably be looking for used stuff, maybe build it as I dont have much to spend. Any ideas what would be the best direction?

Go with a decent multi-bay NAS. They have the redundancy/backup with multiple bays/drives so you don't have problems down the track. They keep track of drive condition and warn you if you need to replace a drive and have the sheer firepower to serve whatever you want wherever you may be. They also take any sort of drive from low cost to data-centre reliability all in a big, fan cooled device built for purpose to run 24/7.

A USB attached drive to a router is kids' stuff IMO. Even a small single Bay NAS sitting on the wired LAN is better- throughput is in high MB, not low MB.

The downsides of a NAS:
Constant power usage, even with drives parked and powered down. Much greater than a USB drive on a router.
Fans can get noisy, especially twin fanned units. Get one that ramps the fan speed up and down.
They need cleaning out once a year (dust) like a PC.

The downsides of allowing WAN access to your music:
Security- it's a whole into your network and you don't want the NAS in the equivalent of the DMZ either.

 

[Jimbob54]

I'm not sure the best direction to take but here is my ultimate goal...... I need to store around 6tb - 8TB of music, need to play it through my Yamaha wxc-50 which can connect to a network attached drive (such as a standard 1TB portable USB drive plugged into my router), also can connect via dlna. I believe with a portable drive the wxc-50 actually decodes/renders the music (dont know correct terminology, with dlna I believe the nas or computer has to decode/render the music and it just flows through the wxc-50.

I feel like its SO much music that it may need to be on something like a nas with good quality organization and management capabilities

I also want to stream it to my phone and would like the ability to do that anywhere, not just at home.

I will probably be looking for used stuff, maybe build it as I dont have much to spend. Any ideas what would be the best direction?

I hate to say it but your life would be massively improved by forgetting locally stored music and getting lossless streaming. The cost of an 8-10TB NAS would pay for months of streaming fees, plus you get access to any new music.

I had the epiphany about 2 years ago. Do a trial tidal/ qobuz , see how you get on. Both should go lossless via airplay to the Yamaha.

EDIT- points raised below all valid- I'm just suggesting you trial streaming for a month or so before committing to local infrastructure / storage. Nothing ventured , nothing gained. For me it was brilliant- as I was struggling with the local storage options and buying FLAC files for new music- going forwards with streaming for new music was a no brainer. As it turned out, combining Tidal with Roon and keeping the few files I had not on Tidal and integrating streaming and local was the ideal solution,

 

[Sal1950]

I hate to say it but your life would be massively improved by forgetting locally stored music and getting lossless streaming.

What happens when you internet is down, no music
Also no multich music, useless for me.

 

[maverickronin]

I hate to say it but your life would be massively improved by forgetting locally stored music and getting lossless streaming. The cost of an 8-10TB NAS would pay for months of streaming fees, plus you get access to any new music.

That does assume all your music is available streaming...

 

[Jimbob54]

That does assume all your music is available streaming...

True- but if you use Roon or other library software that can integrate streaming and local, you can find the (in my case few) albums that arent there and keep local. But the very high percentage of most libraries that are there can go mobile and ditch lots of hardware .

 

[Jimbob54]

What happens when you internet is down, no music
Also no multich music, useless for me.

First (in my experience ) is rare- but depends on your region I suppose.

Second- fair point (but I believe they are starting to experiment)

 

[mansr]

What happens when you internet is down, no music

And what happens when the streaming service pulls your favourite album or goes bankrupt?

 

[Jimbob54]

And what happens when the streaming service pulls your favourite album or goes bankrupt?

For me, not such an issue- have kept files on local storage and use Roon so wouldnt even notice the deleted album. If Tidal goes under , I switch to Qobuz. If both go under, I'm in a bind, admittedly.

 

[mansr]

For me, not such an issue- have kept files on local storage

Then why did you suggest "forgetting locally stored music and getting lossless streaming"?

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

For one thing, try to back-up those 8 TB of music... The best way is , IMO, to back-up your collection in a cloud service, it will cost you but ...
You still need to have a NAS that provides redundancy. These days HDD are cheap , RAID 1 is the minimum. RAID 1 NAS are not that expensive they hover around $300 with no HDD. Budget around $700~800 for a NAS with 8 TB in RAID 1. Have a look at this article.

Now managing that much music is not a given. I like ROON a lot. Western Classical Music continues to present a challenge for ROON, decent job, nothing as stellar as the job it can do with other type of music.
Then there is streaming, ROON will help you merge your own 8 TB collection with streaming services. It integrates TIDAL well, I have TIDAL and it is a pleasure to use with ROON, it also make of your library a mixture (if you want ) of your files and TIDAL much larger depository, transparently. It also integrates with QOBUZ, although I don't have any experience with that integration since I don't have QOBUZ.
Truism alert: Like all things in life Streaming has its pros and cons .. The pros outweigh the cons by several tons
Streaming + ROON + your library gives you the best of both worlds. Your own collection plus the sea of music available on the streaming services. one of these were to go belly-up, then you would revert to your own collection, ROON would still manage it, and well.

 

[maverickronin]

True- but if you use Roon or other library software that can integrate streaming and local, you can find the (in my case few) albums that arent there and keep local. But the very high percentage of most libraries that are there can go mobile and ditch lots of hardware .

I can't stand Roon. The interface way too flashy. They're not alone in that nowadays though...

And what happens when the streaming service pulls your favourite album or goes bankrupt?

Which is why it's best to actually own your media.

---

As for the OP, a NAS is a good option for storing the music, but I don't know any off the shelf options for all the other stuff your asking for.

Personally, I run everything from a single PC with an internal RAID. Skipping the NAS is good for security and playing everything from the PC gives you the post options for playback software/DSP/etc.

Streaming music from your home NAS to your phone over the internet won't be doable unless you're already well versed in networking. For mobile use I'd recommend just transcoding all your music to LAME V0 and storing it on your phone instead.

 

[Jimbob54]

Then why did you suggest "forgetting locally stored music and getting lossless streaming"?

I meant for new stuff and anything not available on streaming. But agree, post already edited

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Second- fair point (but I believe they are starting to experiment)

I find that lame. Some of us already have large collections of multichannel recordings and remain skeptical that the streaming services will ever get caught up.

 

[Jimbob54]

I find that lame. Some of us already have large collections of multichannel recordings and remain skeptical that the streaming services will ever get caught up.

If Spotify's reluctance to even go lossless is any measure, you might well be right.

 

[Jimbob54]

If Spotify's reluctance to even go lossless is any measure, you might well be right.

Actually @Kal Rubinson - I was (incorrectly) thinking of this https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002767377-360-Reality-Audio which on reading appears both odd and unneccesary .

 

[Vincent Kars]

with dlna I believe the nas or computer has to decode/render the music and it just flows through the wxc-50

No, the renderer (your yamaha) does de decoding (converting to PCM) and the DAC part.
It is possible when e.q. a renderer report it is only capable of MP3, the server wel decode to MP3 first.

need to be on something like a nas with good quality organization and management capabilities

No, that is not the task of a NAS.
Most of the time we use our media player to manage our collection.

not just at home.

Can be done but be careful. It means opening a port on your router.
Software like UPnP/DLNA has a couple of vulnerabilities https://callstranger.com/

 

[Racheski]

What about storing it all on SATA III SSDs connected to your current PC, using AWS to back up your data, and then using open-source software to organize the music? Disclaimer, I have never tried a solution like this.

 

[garbulky]

@Jimbob54 is right. For the most part it's a whole lot less complicated to go lossless streaming. If you are okay with complicated, then getting the whole thing setup right may be worth it for you.

 

[Martin]

I use a Synology DS918+ to store my 1.5TB of music. It has four 4TB drives in a RAID array giving me 8TB of storage. You’d probably want 6 or 8TB drives to give you 12 or 16GB of storage. Count on spending $640 to $880 for drives alone. Add another $550 for the NAS. I went from a high end PC to a NUC and a NAS for about the same price. Synology has VPN software on it that allows to to connect from anywhere in the world. With a strong password VPNs are very safe. Good luck.

Martin