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    The Computer Audiophile

    By The Computer Audiophile •

    Music Storage, New Music, Remote Access, and a Cool Streamer Project

    Hey hey hey CA, this week I had plans to publish a completely different article, but sometimes Spacely Sprockets throws a wrench into Cogswell Cogs business plan. In other words, Schiit happens. 

     

    Anyway, I have a pressing storage issue that requires some input from the CA Community. I found some new music, of which I can't get enough. I'm working on a remote access article to help people trying to access Roon remotely. And, I have a cool streamer project I'd like to start, but want some input from the Community on as well. 

     

     


    Music Storage

     

     

    Let's start with the music storage issue. As discussed in the forum a little while back, Amazon is discontinuing it's $60 per year unlimited Amazon Cloud Drive storage plan. My current "contract" expired August 25th. This is a real pain for me because I have 14.8 terabytes stored on a Synology NAS, that is automatically backed up to Amazon Cloud Drive. When I add new music to my NAS, it is copied to Amazon without me having to touch anything or kick off a process. I guess when something is too good to be true, it is too good to be true. 

     

    Amazon's new storage plans range from $11.99 for 100GB to $1799.70 for 30TB of space. Given my need for 14.8TB, I'd need to spend $1199.80 per year for the 20TB plan. I'm just not willing to rent disk space for that much money.

     

    I've started researching new solutions but haven't found a 1 to 1 replacement of Amazon Cloud Drive. A couple features that I really like about Amazon Cloud Drive are 1) My Synology NAS has built in support for auto-backup directly to the drive, and 2) The interface and ease of sharing content stored on Amazon Cloud Drive (A good friend lost all his music and I admit to allowing him to download a limited amount of my content to replace the exact content he already purchased).

     

    Searching for a replacement, I checked a couple well known companies, but found the pricing way too high and the fine print annoying. For example, Dropbox claims unlimited storage for its Advanced level plan at $20 per month per user. That would be $240 per year for my nearly 15TB of storage. However, reading the fine print, one will find there's a three user minimum. This elevates the price to $720 per year.

     

    Google also says its G Suite customers can upgrade to a business plan for unlimited storage. The fine print says, if there are four or fewer users, 1Tb is the maximum amount of storage per user. Five users at $10 per month is $50 /month or $600 /year. If this is truly unlimited, it's cheaper than Dropbox, but still 10x the cost of Amazon Cloud Drive. Strangely, when I look at the cost of just adding more storage to my Google account, the cost is $200 per month for 20TB. There's something amiss here. I can get unlimited storage for $600 /year or 20TB for $2,400 /year.

     

    Backblaze is another cloud storage company I am investigating for my music backup. The cost of its B2 Cloud plan is $0.005 per GB per month. This would be $75 /month or $900 /year for my 15TB of backed up NAS. 

     

    Perhaps the Amazon Cloud Drive solution (unlimited for $60 per year) was a unicorn that will never be seen again. I need a solution to my issue, but haven't found one that excites me for a reasonable price. 

     

    I'd love of the CA Community to let me know what they are using or to offer suggestions. I'll continue investigating and write up an article about the final selection (hopefully soon).

     

     

     

    amazon-pricing.png my-amazon.png

     

     

     

     

     

     

    New Music

     


    BSR_EP_CoverArt_hi.jpgOn August 10, 2017 I read the latest blog from Bob Lefsetz, raving about the band Greta Van Fleet. I don't usually check out Bob's music recommendations, but this one was different. He said the band sounded like Led Zeppelin. 

     


    "It’s a Led Zeppelin rip-off.

     

    But didn’t Led Zeppelin rip off Willie Dixon and the rest of the bluesmeisters?

     

    If you lived through that era, you will instantly hear mid-period Zeppelin, complete with Robert Plant screams. Then you remember that was 45 years ago! About the same distance, if not longer, that Zeppelin was removed from the classic delta blues artists.

     

    It starts off as homage. Then you take off from there. Think about all the covers on the initial Beatle albums!"

     

     


    After reading Bob's entire blog, I immediately opened Tidal and gave Greta Van Fleet a listen. Then another listen, and another. The band sounds very much like Led Zeppelin, one of my all time favorites. I couldn't stop listening to GVF. I'm glad I actually read Bob's blog before hearing about this band. I could have easily written them off as a Zeppelin imitation band. However, Bob is correct in that Zeppelin copied all the blues masters and that was 45 years ago. All artists are influenced by previous generations of music. This band is no different. 

     

    GFV is an American band from Michigan, formed in 2012. The band hasn't released much in this time, but it's January , 2017 EP titled Black Smoke Rising is what should have everybody listening / talking. I've cranked it up on my main system, my headphone system, and my car system. It's great rock and roll that deserves to be cranked up. 

     

    I highly recommend reading Bob's blog first, then giving the band a listen. it will set your frame of mind and get you excited for a little rock and roll.


    Bob Lefsetz - Greta Van Fleet

     

    Greta Van Fleet - Black Smoke Rising - YouTube | Spotify | Tidal

     

     


     

     


    Remote Access

     


    I've been working off and on trying to gain access to Roon while I'm out of the house. Until Roon on the go is released, we will have to find such a temporary solution.  I know it's possible to do this, but I  want to find an elegant solution that I can recommend to everyone and everyone can either buy or setup without too much trouble.

     

    Launching Roon remote from a mobile device without a WiFi connection, won't work. Roon presents an error message about requiring WiFi. Thus, VPN alone won't due the trick. Whatever device is used, will have to be on a WiFi network. Once this is established, a VPN seems like the next logical step.

     

    There are countless VPN solutions that enable one to access a home network (where the Roon core resides). I've used a couple of them and have been testing several others. So far the PiVPN based on a Raspberry Pi is really nice, but it's another device to put on the network and for which a firewall rule is needed. I'm testing out two different wired routers that have built-in VPN, enabling people to configure this VPN and connect remotely without the need for more devices. I believe both the PiVPN and a router based solution will be good options. 

     

    Feel free to offer recommendations, while I continue my testing. I'll publish an article fairly soon, once I am satisfied with the results. 

     

     

     

     

    Cool Streamer Project

     


    The other day I found a cool RCA Victor AM radio in my basement. This thing has several tubes and even built-in presets for local radio stations. It's built like a tank inside and made of cool wood on the outside. Good luck buying something new like this today. 

     

    My idea is to turn this into a desktop all-in-one streamer, like the Naim Mu-so or Klipsch The Three. I'm not sure what it will take, but I'm starting the investigation today. I'm guessing a Raspberry Pi could be used with something from HiFi Berry, but I have no clue about the other pieces such as if I can still use the tubes, amplifier, and speaker. This project isn't that big, but it's out of my comfort zone as soon as I get beyond the digital streaming part.

     

    I'd love all the input I can get from the CA Community on this project. 

     

    P.S. If this one goes well, I have an old Bendix console radio / record player that I'd love to turn into a great stereo.

     

     

     

    IMG_20170816_112519.jpg IMG_20170816_112613.jpg IMG_20170816_112622.jpg IMG_20170816_112646.jpg

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    agladstone
    Just now, The Computer Audiophile said:

    I have 1 Gbps upload / download with no data cap or any restrictions :~)

    I'm jealous!! 

    I just finally got 500mbps down , but Comcast is still keeping the 11 Mbps up for this plan :( 

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    foodfiend

    @The Computer Audiophile I am still very much interested in the archiving of a single set of lossless music files, which all of us have partial access to (depending on our ownership of music) for the sole purpose of remote back-up. It would really be cool if that service could then populate a new HDD and send it to the member (at additional charge to cover costs of the HDD and transport), should that member's primary back-up fails.

     

    I still think that it would be a worthwhile project to explore, although there may be some teething issues with metadata and file formats. However, I definitely would still prefer transcoding a bunch of music files, to re-ripping the said files from CD (this would be needed if they are in different file format - FLAC->AIFF, for example).

     

    Am I the only one? Or can we really get something like this going? If we are serious, then we should really try to get a show of hands as to how many are willing to jump on to share the costs of setting this up.

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    foodfiend
    6 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

    I have 1 Gbps upload / download with no data cap or any restrictions :~)

    I also have 1 Gbps, but I only see such crazy speeds for local traffic. That was why I signed with Amazon Cloud, because they operate a data centre in country.

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    agladstone
    4 minutes ago, foodfiend said:

    @The Computer Audiophile I am still very much interested in the archiving of a single set of lossless music files, which all of us have partial access to (depending on our ownership of music) for the sole purpose of remote back-up. It would really be cool if that service could then populate a new HDD and send it to the member (at additional charge to cover costs of the HDD and transport), should that member's primary back-up fails.

     

    I still think that it would be a worthwhile project to explore, although there may be some teething issues with metadata and file formats. However, I definitely would still prefer transcoding a bunch of music files, to re-ripping the said files from CD (this would be needed if they are in different file format - FLAC->AIFF, for example).

     

    Am I the only one? Or can we really get something like this going? If we are serious, then we should really try to get a show of hands as to how many are willing to jump on to share the costs of setting this up.

    Maybe we could sign up for an unlimited data corporate enterprise server account and then all split the monthly costs? That would also allow for personal folders for each member of the group with password protection, etc so not to worry about your very good idea, which would be much more difficult to manage and implement?? 

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    foodfiend
    2 minutes ago, agladstone said:

    Maybe we could sign up for an unlimited data corporate enterprise server account and then all split the monthly costs? That would also allow for personal folders for each member of the group with password protection, etc so not to worry about your very good idea, which would be much more difficult to manage and implement?? 

    Part of the rationale is to cut the storage requirements (and associated costs) by cutting out all the duplicated data.

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    The Computer Audiophile
    23 minutes ago, foodfiend said:

    I also have 1 Gbps, but I only see such crazy speeds for local traffic. That was why I signed with Amazon Cloud, because they operate a data centre in country.

    My bandwidth speed tests consistently show ~925 Mbps up and down. I can usually transport data as fast as the other allows. 

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    foodfiend
    4 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

    My bandwidth speed tests consistently show ~925 Mbps up and down. I can usually transport data as fast as the other allows. 

    Good for you. I just did a random speed test with a server in LA, my down speed is 10% of my local down speed, and my up speed is about 3% of local up speed. Pathetic!

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    agladstone
    40 minutes ago, foodfiend said:

    Part of the rationale is to cut the storage requirements (and associated costs) by cutting out all the duplicated data.

    I understand! Basically you're suggesting an audiophile version of what itunes Launched years ago, except minus the 320mps downgrade of all your music :) 

    its a great idea, but how to Manage such a task? 

    Roon could do this! But how could we?? 

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    rickca
    29 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

    My bandwidth speed tests consistently show ~925 Mbps up and down. I can usually transport data as fast as the other allows. 

    See?  This is why we need MQA.

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    foodfiend
    21 minutes ago, agladstone said:

    I understand! Basically you're suggesting an audiophile version of what itunes Launched years ago, except minus the 320mps downgrade of all your music :) 

    its a great idea, but how to Manage such a task? 

    Roon could do this! But how could we?? 

    I am not proposing that the two of us do it. It is something of a business project, depending on what potential uptake will be like.

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    AudioDoctor

    Chris, I don't store anything in the cloud, I have an identical NAS offsite that my NAS here backs up to.  It's a hell of a lot Cheaper than Amazon, or Google, or whoever and they can't go raise the prices on me whenever they want.  There is the upfront cost though, and disks along the way, but that's what I do.

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    mlknez

    Check out opendrive.  They are $99/year unlimited with 2 users and no throttling.  They also have a bunch of access methods that work well.

     

    https://www.opendrive.com/

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    agladstone
    5 minutes ago, mlknez said:

    Check out opendrive.  They are $99/year unlimited with 2 users and no throttling.  They also have a bunch of access methods that work well.

     

    https://www.opendrive.com/

    Thanks for the information. 

    Its odd, they offer a custom plan option, if I select 10TB of total storage and 1TB of daily usage allowed the price is $840 per yr or 85/ mo   

    However their unlimited plan is only 9.99 / mo or 99.00/ yr. 

    I wonder if this means what they call "unlimited", really has some un-written limits?  Otherwise, why would a custom plan with 1TB upload and download per day and 10TB of total allowed storage cost 8 times more than what they call the "unlimited" plan?? 

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    ednaz

    BTW, I mis-typed on my earlier post - I'm on CrashPlan and not Carbon Copy. When I did my earlier search that lead to CrashPlan, they were the ONLY source that was economically attractive for my library at the time, which was 2.5TB.  Now, at $120 per year, without the need for migration to another service, I'll probably stick with them on the small business plan, but use that year to figure out an alternative solution.

     

    Their backup software was fantastic. You could back up to a friend's computer... so a few of us on here could have set up a mutual backup service. In their new plan, that capability is gone. It's their cloud or nothing.

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    ednaz
    On 8/23/2017 at 9:37 PM, joelha said:

    If you do that, Chris, please ask them why they throttle their upload speeds unannounced.

     

    Unless I learn something new about their service, I feel I wasted my money.

     

    The throttling took place after about 4TB's were uploaded.

     

    Joel

    They were throttled the whole time when I uploaded. Took me a couple months to get to "safe". Even now, if I buy 10 HD albums, it'll be a couple days before they're reported safe.  Honestly, it's about dial up speeds.

     

    Their software also does this "deep analysis" thing, in the service of de-duplication, that can run for four or five days at my 3.5TB data level. During "deep analysis" nothing new gets backed up, and each time you add a significant amount of "new" then "deep analysis" starts over again. Punishing.

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    ednaz
    On 8/24/2017 at 3:08 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

    I just got off the phone with Code 42 / CrashPlan. The person I spoke with said they absolutely don't throttle anyone's upload/download speed at any time. 

     

    I'm going to contact the more technical team at Code 42 to try to get some answers about speeding up backup and NAS install and Windows shares etc...

    I made that call too.  They probably don't run a throttle routine. They just allocate pitifully small bandwidth to each stream. Seriously, 10 new HD Tracks albums, and it's several days before they show all of them now backed up, and that's with six hours each night of activity. They also have this "deep analysis" routine that puts everything on hold for days while it counts down "% completed".  A few times I've seen it restart the entire process several times, effectively locking my backup down until it's done.

     

    Really would be interesting to have a ZFS based "buddy system" for backups.  Each buy a box populated with disks, point to each other's backups, and off you go.  Would probably need to do some matching of buddies by library size.

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    foodfiend

    @ednaz, @The Computer Audiophile Perhaps we can try to ask these companies what is the size of their data pipe, although I doubt they would be forthcoming with the data. Having many clients share a single pipe would result in a marked slowdown in transfer speeds, without resorting to throttling. This would still be frustrating for us with lots of data to back-up.

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    mlknez
    On ‎8‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 5:23 PM, agladstone said:

    Thanks for the information. 

    Its odd, they offer a custom plan option, if I select 10TB of total storage and 1TB of daily usage allowed the price is $840 per yr or 85/ mo   

    However their unlimited plan is only 9.99 / mo or 99.00/ yr. 

    I wonder if this means what they call "unlimited", really has some un-written limits?  Otherwise, why would a custom plan with 1TB upload and download per day and 10TB of total allowed storage cost 8 times more than what they call the "unlimited" plan?? 

    Could it be that they have traffic prioritization and those with the custom accounts get bandwidth priority?

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    foodfiend

    @agladstone Why don't you ask them directly? I suspect that the unlimited plan is based on units of computers, whereas the customer plans are based on storage?

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    mlknez
    On ‎8‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 5:23 PM, agladstone said:

    Thanks for the information. 

    Its odd, they offer a custom plan option, if I select 10TB of total storage and 1TB of daily usage allowed the price is $840 per yr or 85/ mo   

    However their unlimited plan is only 9.99 / mo or 99.00/ yr. 

    I wonder if this means what they call "unlimited", really has some un-written limits?  Otherwise, why would a custom plan with 1TB upload and download per day and 10TB of total allowed storage cost 8 times more than what they call the "unlimited" plan?? 

     

    I spoke with support and they said that they custom and unlimited plans are essentially the same but the custom plan lets you add more users cheaper where the standard unlimited is $10/month for each additional user over 2.

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    The Computer Audiophile

    This is a good one. CrashPlan sent me a Backup Status report email saying 12.3TB have been backed up. This could't be further from the truth. Here is the email and the actual report from the app on my computer. Not even one TB has been backup up. 

    Screen Shot 2017-08-31 at 1.49.32 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2017-08-31 at 1.50.14 PM.png

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    agladstone

    I was reading over BackBlaze website and they have a new program called BackBlaze Fireball. 

    They will send you a server in the mail with 40TB's of drive space, you can copy your data to the server, and then you mail the server back to them and they will copy it over to their servers for you!! Unfortunately, they currently charge $550 for the service, but if they charged say $200 or so, I would do it in a second!! (With my current upload speeds to 12mbps, it will take 6+ months or longer to backup my 16TB's of music I think, so worth a couple hundred for piece of mind and speed!, at $550, I'm not so sure). 

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    Kal Rubinson
    33 minutes ago, agladstone said:

    I was reading over BackBlaze website and they have a new program called BackBlaze Fireball. 

    How long will they store it for $550?

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