Which NAS should I choose?

preston8452

preston8452

preston8452

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Arizona
Hi guys,

It's just sorta a general wondering, so recently I've been thinking about purchasing a NAS for audio storage and stuff, I used to just simply store music with USB, but I read some articles about NAS, it seems to me that most audiophiles possess one to cooperate with their Hi-Fi gear at home, so maybe it does help further improve the sound quality(?

As you all may know, there are several brands of NAS out there, which one is the best fit for me as a NAS newbie haha? Synology and QNAP are quite popular I suppose, but what about others, what's the difference?

If you can also kindly share what's your system(like what device you use to connect to NAS) with me, that'd certainly be a great reference to me then.

Best,
 
I have 2 Synology NAS, and I love them, but I can't comment on other brands as I have only used Synology. I use them for movies (Plex) and photos mainly, but also live backup my OneDrive to them automatically. I think the selling point for Synology is the ongoing investment in their software and the app store. you can do so much with these Synology devices with a little time invested in the software.

I would recommend Synology on my experience, the complaint with Synology is that you generally pay a slight premium for their hardware over rivals, but they do seem to invest this premium back into the software, and this is where for me the Synology works, after all, you interface with the software, not the hardware, and it is the software that makes them work (assuming you buy the right device for your needs). I run Plex on one NAS, and have the second as a live backup for the first NAS, mirrored for download only, and kept at a separate location. Once setup up, it is literally use and forget!

I can't comment specifically on audio connections, and audio quality, but provided you have a good home network, you can run any quality of file you wish from the device, I run 4k Atmos movies no issues to my TVs and Apple TV.

I can connect to the NAS via any device I own, from anywhere, and I do, My iPhone out and about for access to passports etc, my PC at home or my iPad. Pretty seamless once it is all setup. It is like having a personal cloud, but you control it. Do remember though, a NAS is not a backup, unless of course you have a backup of the NAS...

I do also run a separate legacy Seagate Cloud Drive, and periodically I copy all the new files from my backup NAS to this, so I have a further backup stored on a separate 'system', just in case, and because I had this drive anyway.
 
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Very pleased with our Synology DS220j NAS. It’s no enterprise workhorse but we’re never going to need any more performance than it offers at home.

Had a Seagate NAS before which gave up the ghost and was never hugely reliable.
 
I've had my Synology DS214 since release, 2013/2014, running the whole time. Has a pair of 3tb WD Reds in it. Never skipped a beat, despite several international moves! Software is great.

It operates as a wireless print server for my old Canon laser printer. Takes snapshots of my OneDrive account....general other file storage.
 
In terms of disks if don't mind second hand, can get some WD red ones from cexx on the cheap. Still get 24 months warranty then can have a nice raid 5 with plenty of storage. Would also go with Synology if you definitely need the networking side of things, otherwise if just want to plug it locally then look into DAS.
 
preston8452 said:
I used to just simply store music with USB, but I read some articles about NAS, it seems to me that most audiophiles possess one to cooperate with their Hi-Fi gear at home, so maybe it does help further improve the sound quality(?
Click to expand...

A NAS does nothing to improve the sound quality, it's purely for flexibility by having your music in a central place able to be accessed via multiple different devices around your home (and indeed outside your home is also possible).

Generally you would rip/purchase FLAC or similar high quality audio files and then share them around either via DLNA at the most basic, which most TVs, Recievers, games consoles etc support, or use a more fully featured client/server solution like Plex or Emby, which allows album artwork, metadata, as well as transcoding to different bitrates etc depending on the device/connection.
 
I use a raspberry pi 4 with libreelec using UPnP/Dlna as a make shift "Nas". It was previously a media centre so just reused it once it was replaced with a shield. Didn't feel the need to go through the hassle of putting plex on it as upnp through kodi works fine. Can access the multiple hard drives connected from anywhere in the house and on mobile devices. I do plan to have a synology nas at some point but the pi is doing everything I want it to do.
 
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I own a Qnap TVS682 Nas. Erm, hardware wise Qnaps are monsters. Their OS is somewhat clunky, functional but it can be a headache to use. Most folks put Unraid on it, or another NAS OS whose name eludes me at this time.

Edit: TrueNAS was the other os.
 
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