Need help from the hive mind - streaming and network storage
Discussion
This topic has been plaguing me for a couple of years. I find it difficult to reconcile it as I know an awful lot about hi-fi etc but am hopeless with the computing/software aspect.
I feel I’ve long reached the stage where I need to establish a central storage system to facilitate playback in various rooms and to afford me the flexibility to enjoy my existing music collection. However, as I’m coming in at the ground floor, I want to make sure that the direction I take is clearly planned so I don’t waste time/money/energy by doing something half-arsed.
Here is a breakdown of my current systems:
Hi-Fi room - dedicated to my Naim/Linn hi-fi system for vinyl & cd replay with a PC that does iTunes, iPod storage duties and current CD rips to iPod using CDExx.
Cinema room - dedicated to home cinema it has provision of Blu-ray, Humax, PS4 and iPod sources, all fed through an Arcam AVR600.
Living room - Naim Mu-so used as a stand-alone listening device as well as a sound bar for the tv.
Dining room - old school Denon and Technics amp and CD player for background music whilst entertaining.
Garage - mixture of separates for CD replay and a PC for playback via iTunes/iPod when required.
Each of these locations have access to the existing router connection via wired and wireless options.
What I anticipate I need (depending on how wide of the mark I am) is the following:
I feel I’ve long reached the stage where I need to establish a central storage system to facilitate playback in various rooms and to afford me the flexibility to enjoy my existing music collection. However, as I’m coming in at the ground floor, I want to make sure that the direction I take is clearly planned so I don’t waste time/money/energy by doing something half-arsed.
Here is a breakdown of my current systems:
Hi-Fi room - dedicated to my Naim/Linn hi-fi system for vinyl & cd replay with a PC that does iTunes, iPod storage duties and current CD rips to iPod using CDExx.
Cinema room - dedicated to home cinema it has provision of Blu-ray, Humax, PS4 and iPod sources, all fed through an Arcam AVR600.
Living room - Naim Mu-so used as a stand-alone listening device as well as a sound bar for the tv.
Dining room - old school Denon and Technics amp and CD player for background music whilst entertaining.
Garage - mixture of separates for CD replay and a PC for playback via iTunes/iPod when required.
Each of these locations have access to the existing router connection via wired and wireless options.
What I anticipate I need (depending on how wide of the mark I am) is the following:
- A central storage option that can be independently accessed from each of these locations and controlled locally, via an app or whatever is required. I do have two Harmony hubs (one in the cinema room and one in the living room) which could possibly be used?
- Software to rip existing CDs at as high a quality a possible and have a data naming convention that is consistent as I notice CDDB data can vary wildly.
- Whatever additional hardware to connect to those systems that don’t have a PC element to them.
- Anything else I may have missed or not considered.
Edited by Frances The Mute on Monday 18th February 01:08
Do it right, do it once - ripping a large collection is a pain, re-doing it is close to hell!!
What I did after reading many forum posts over the years - learning from your mistakes is good but better to learn from others’ mistakes...
Use DBpoweramp for ripping to FLAC, accurate tagging and online sumcheck to validate the rip. Free for a limited time then around £14 for the full lifetime licence.
For storage and access I use a Synology 214+ NAS with 2tb WD red drives - over 3000 albums ripped in lossless flac with a small number in hi-res. Still around 20% free space.
The NAS is wired to a SkyQ router making it available around the house via WiFi. I use wired Ethernet from router to my CA streamer for the main system. It’s still more robust than WiFi especially streaming SACD rips in DFF format.
Back it all up. Then back it up all again. I use Synologys version of Raid 1 and back this up to a portable 3tb usb drive. I also have a copy of the data on a 2tb drive installed in an old PC.
You can’t be too safe and can’t rely on raid to save your data.
There are many apps for tablets and phone in both iOS and android which allow access to all the files on the NAS. It’s smooth, reliable and fairly simple to set up with many functions automated.
I installed minimserver on the NAS (a free cataloguing app and runs really quickly using apps on an iPad to stream albums and playlists to my CA streamer).
From the start it took a while to rip everything and there were times when I thought about just giving up but glad I persevered with it. Well worth the slight hassle.
Shout up if you have any issues and good luck.
What I did after reading many forum posts over the years - learning from your mistakes is good but better to learn from others’ mistakes...
Use DBpoweramp for ripping to FLAC, accurate tagging and online sumcheck to validate the rip. Free for a limited time then around £14 for the full lifetime licence.
For storage and access I use a Synology 214+ NAS with 2tb WD red drives - over 3000 albums ripped in lossless flac with a small number in hi-res. Still around 20% free space.
The NAS is wired to a SkyQ router making it available around the house via WiFi. I use wired Ethernet from router to my CA streamer for the main system. It’s still more robust than WiFi especially streaming SACD rips in DFF format.
Back it all up. Then back it up all again. I use Synologys version of Raid 1 and back this up to a portable 3tb usb drive. I also have a copy of the data on a 2tb drive installed in an old PC.
You can’t be too safe and can’t rely on raid to save your data.
There are many apps for tablets and phone in both iOS and android which allow access to all the files on the NAS. It’s smooth, reliable and fairly simple to set up with many functions automated.
I installed minimserver on the NAS (a free cataloguing app and runs really quickly using apps on an iPad to stream albums and playlists to my CA streamer).
From the start it took a while to rip everything and there were times when I thought about just giving up but glad I persevered with it. Well worth the slight hassle.
Shout up if you have any issues and good luck.
Similar set up and experience here.
Everything ripped to FLAC and stored on a Synology unit, and backed up to Amazon. Am thinking about migrating that to Synology's own cloud backup this year. Distribution all via Sonos.
Things to think about:
- Get a four disk NAS, with large capacity drives. Mirror the drives and have a hot stand-by and a spare. Don't mess about with different RAID setups to save 10% of space/cost. It's just not worth it. You want to install once and leave it.
- The ripping is straightforward. The tagging will be an utter PITA. Decide up front the storage file format you want because you can set that as default in your ripping software. I use music / artist - album / track number track title
- To rip, put every CD you have in piles next to every machine you have with a drive. Every time you walk past, bang in another one to rip. You'll clear it all in a couple of weeks or less. Use DB Poweramp or EAC.
- When you have finished, clear a Saturday, copy everything to your fastest machine, load up MP3Tag (bung the guy $5), load every album at once, and look for all the missing tags and discrepancies as a bulk exercise.
- Copy everything to your NAS drive.
- Turn up to 11. Enjoy.
Everything ripped to FLAC and stored on a Synology unit, and backed up to Amazon. Am thinking about migrating that to Synology's own cloud backup this year. Distribution all via Sonos.
Things to think about:
- Get a four disk NAS, with large capacity drives. Mirror the drives and have a hot stand-by and a spare. Don't mess about with different RAID setups to save 10% of space/cost. It's just not worth it. You want to install once and leave it.
- The ripping is straightforward. The tagging will be an utter PITA. Decide up front the storage file format you want because you can set that as default in your ripping software. I use music / artist - album / track number track title
- To rip, put every CD you have in piles next to every machine you have with a drive. Every time you walk past, bang in another one to rip. You'll clear it all in a couple of weeks or less. Use DB Poweramp or EAC.
- When you have finished, clear a Saturday, copy everything to your fastest machine, load up MP3Tag (bung the guy $5), load every album at once, and look for all the missing tags and discrepancies as a bulk exercise.
- Copy everything to your NAS drive.
- Turn up to 11. Enjoy.
too be honest, personally I have not bothered to rip any of my CD’s...I have just invested in a Tidal Hi-if subscription and roon.
In regards to streaming, roon could well be your solution. It will be able to access your ripped cd’s and music subscription (though only through tidal) and output through multiple roon ready ‘end points’, such as your mu-so. You will need to establish a ‘core’ on your network, effectively a PC running the software and controlling the output.
My solution is a quietpc i7 based pc (which has no moving parts so is silent) running a headless install of roon (ie no monitor). This is controlled by roon on tablets and phone based apps. The core is always on. Currently, I run 2 end points, a sonos 1 in the kitchen and a naim atom in the extension.
If I wanted to add an end point to my main system in the living room, I would get a naim ND5 xs separate.
The Beauty of roon that it will control devices across manufacturers which are ‘roon ready’ but also the way it presents your music collection to you is simply outstanding.
It has genuinely transformed the way I listen and interact with music.
In regards to streaming, roon could well be your solution. It will be able to access your ripped cd’s and music subscription (though only through tidal) and output through multiple roon ready ‘end points’, such as your mu-so. You will need to establish a ‘core’ on your network, effectively a PC running the software and controlling the output.
My solution is a quietpc i7 based pc (which has no moving parts so is silent) running a headless install of roon (ie no monitor). This is controlled by roon on tablets and phone based apps. The core is always on. Currently, I run 2 end points, a sonos 1 in the kitchen and a naim atom in the extension.
If I wanted to add an end point to my main system in the living room, I would get a naim ND5 xs separate.
The Beauty of roon that it will control devices across manufacturers which are ‘roon ready’ but also the way it presents your music collection to you is simply outstanding.
It has genuinely transformed the way I listen and interact with music.
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