Synology NAS recommendations

[pvanosta]

My experience also - and why I have used RAID for many years ....with an offsite backup.

 

I currently am using 14TB for domestic use, audio and film. I am able to expand the space available by moving to larger discs, that are coming down in price over time.

 

I am happy with the Synology. I would advise you to do some digging if you want to use it for Roon, need to ensure it is one with an Intel CPU of a minimum spec.

 

M

I too use raid for that reason (the ability to swap out a failed drive without losing your data). With regards to Roon, I have to comment that with the possible exceptions of the newst boxes like the 916 with the 8GB RAM upgrade, none of the Synology boxes have the horsepower to run ROON, especially when playing high-rez audio files. And I am an otherwise happy Synology user (but with a 1513+ which falls in the 'not enough power' category).

[MrUnderhill]

.....but with a 1513+ which falls in the 'not enough power' category.

 

As does my 1812+, disappointingly. That said as a Quboz user I won't join up until that hole is plugged. LMS is doing very nicely for me with my mR.

 

M

[davide256]

Have you tried it?

 

-Peach Audio Balanced Isolation Power Supply, Uptone LPS-1, Sonore Microrendu, Geek Pulse S Infinity, McIntosh MA2275, Paradigm 30th Anniversary Tributes, SVS SB13 Ultra

-Cambridge 752BD Oppomod PSU, Halcro MC50, Sonos ZP90 (Cullen Mod), Cyenne Audio CY-3100 DAC , Denon AVR4520, Aaron ATS-5, Aaron CC-250, Epos Epic 5, Cambridge Audio Azur 551R V2

 

I've tried it using an HDPlex PS, its a very minor improvement with WD Red HD and no improvement with SSD drives. Spend your money on optical ethernet connection to the NAS and you will be far better off.

 

Always look at the NAS CPU not for processing power so much as for app support and development. Don't buy "yesterdays" processor where SW and app updates will be minimal in the future.

[feelingears]

I've tried it using an HDPlex PS, its a very minor improvement with WD Red HD and no improvement with SSD drives. Spend your money on optical ethernet connection to the NAS and you will be far better off.

Always look at the NAS CPU not for processing power so much as for app support and development. Don't buy "yesterdays" processor where SW and app updates will be minimal in the future.

 

In my experience, it consistently appears that a spinning platter introduces something that affects sound quality in negative ways. I've heard this in my NAS, my iPods, etc. Going to solid-state memory seems to help (e.g., SSD). Interesting that you didn't find an improvement with the HDPlex, as I've other audio friends who have heard an improvement with power upgrades. (Power has been my almost consistently worthwhile improvement.)

 

And FWIW, a network engineer on the Naim forums has experimented and measured some NASes and is of the opinion that the simpler the NAS is, the better its packet delivery timing (or something) is resulting in better sound. He thinks that the more you ask the NAS to do in the background/in parallel with plain communicating with the network, the more sound can be affected, so he recommends the simplest NAS possible if sonic attributes are paramount. FWIW. The Sonore products seem to be built on this philosophy, but people have many different needs in their audio and computer systems.

 

Good luck.

[boneman]

I'm seeking to purchase my first NAS; likely a 2 bay Synology.

I'd appreciate any specific model recommendations.

And, are there any specific features to consider? For instance, the ability to upgrade RAM OR the existence of 2 ethernet ports? What's the advantage of the second port?

THANK YOU.

 

I bought a 4 bay DS412 back in June 2014 along with 4x4TB WD Red HDDs. Purpose was and is to house my music collection. Since that time I ripped by 2,400 lps at 192/24 completing that towards the end of 2015. I'm retired and have the time as it took 285, ten hour man days to complete. Since that time, I have continued to slowing add the classical LPs, another 2,000 in total and CDs, the latter at their native resolution.

 

I play all this through a Windows home network using JRiver Media. My wife is on OS, and uses an OS version of JRM.

 

My needs were 8TB or a bit less of RAID 5 (I ended up using the Synology Hybrid RAID 5) capacity, hence the 4x4TB. Also, to be able to access the NAS wirelessly. Also, I like equipment that does not require a lot of tweaking. Set and forget.

 

The NAS is connected to the router via CAT 5.

 

In short, I rip music to the NAS and I play music from the NAS.

 

So far, no issues and I have populated 3.7TB of the 7.2TB effective capacity. I had one of the initial 4 HDDs fail and the software gave me a warning of the failure and which drive. I shut down the NAS, replaced the drive and the process for the array to recover took a number of hours but once completed, functioned without issue. I update the firmware as frequently as notified including data scrubbing the disks and I find the product fits my needs. Probably no the cheapest solution but one that I find quite reliable. One thing, I do have it hooked up to a UPS as I have read that power failures/intermittent can cause issues with NAS setups.

[austinpop]

I bought a 4 bay DS412 back in June 2014 along with 4x4TB WD Red HDDs. Purpose was and is to house my music collection. Since that time I ripped by 2,400 lps at 192/24 completing that towards the end of 2015. I'm retired and have the time as it took 285, ten hour man days to complete. Since that time, I have continued to slowing add the classical LPs, another 2,000 in total and CDs, the latter at their native resolution.

 

I play all this through a Windows home network using JRiver Media. My wife is on OS, and uses an OS version of JRM.

 

My needs were 8TB or a bit less of RAID 5 (I ended up using the Synology Hybrid RAID 5) capacity, hence the 4x4TB. Also, to be able to access the NAS wirelessly. Also, I like equipment that does not require a lot of tweaking. Set and forget.

 

The NAS is connected to the router via CAT 5.

 

In short, I rip music to the NAS and I play music from the NAS.

 

So far, no issues and I have populated 3.7TB of the 7.2TB effective capacity. I had one of the initial 4 HDDs fail and the software gave me a warning of the failure and which drive. I shut down the NAS, replaced the drive and the process for the array to recover took a number of hours but once completed, functioned without issue. I update the firmware as frequently as notified including data scrubbing the disks and I find the product fits my needs. Probably no the cheapest solution but one that I find quite reliable. One thing, I do have it hooked up to a UPS as I have read that power failures/intermittent can cause issues with NAS setups.

 

Very cool.

 

But if you have 4x4TB in RAID-5, isn't your total capacity a bit under 12TB. Unless you're using SHR-2? See https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator

[davide256]

In my experience, it consistently appears that a spinning platter introduces something that affects sound quality in negative ways. I've heard this in my NAS, my iPods, etc. Going to solid-state memory seems to help (e.g., SSD). Interesting that you didn't find an improvement with the HDPlex, as I've other audio friends who have heard an improvement with power upgrades. (Power has been my almost consistently worthwhile improvement.)

 

And FWIW, a network engineer on the Naim forums has experimented and measured some NASes and is of the opinion that the simpler the NAS is, the better its packet delivery timing (or something) is resulting in better sound. He thinks that the more you ask the NAS to do in the background/in parallel with plain communicating with the network, the more sound can be affected, so he recommends the simplest NAS possible if sonic attributes are paramount. FWIW. The Sonore products seem to be built on this philosophy, but people have many different needs in their audio and computer systems.

 

Good luck.

 

1) My experience with better power is that it matters most in the analog domain and least in the digital computing domain. Anything electrically connected to a device that performs analog audio function can be degraded by a connected devices power. Hence why I highly endorse optical ethernet connections to insure electrical isolation for NAS and streamer/renderer. The cost of $150 per optical connection for 2 FMC's, optic cable and 2 short run CAT6 connectors should eliminate any reason to need a better power supply for your digital domain only NAS. Because the streamer/renderer connects to a DAC, a better PS provides added improvement on top of the streamer optical ethernet connection.

 

2) IP packets don't have timing, that's all handled outside the network, inside the server/streamer. I personally think of what happens between request to read data off the disc and network packet output as a computer whisper chain of different steps that can affect the accuracy of how processing assigns a sequence number/clock value. And that the faster these element's "whisper" to each other, the less clock errors cycle stealing and interrupts can cause.

[boneman]

Very cool.

 

But if you have 4x4TB in RAID-5, isn't your total capacity a bit under 12TB. Unless you're using SHR-2? See https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator

 

That is correct, the SHR used is SHR2.

[austinpop]

That is correct, the SHR used is SHR2.

 

Ok then the numbers make sense. For 4 drives of equal size, SHR-2 is essentially RAID-6, which means you can tolerate the loss of 2 drives.

 

It's a personal choice, of course. With only 4 drives, I'd have gone SHR/RAID-5, so I had more capacity. I can see using SHR-2 when you have more drives.

 

But as I said, it's a personal choice.