Music storage : NAS vs DIY nas vs Melco

[rico25]

Good morning all,

Today I have a diy euphony/stylus server that I use with a Qnap hs210 NAS powered by a js2 Uptone (linked in the Jcat Femto Net card of my diy server) (and a Naim NDS as a DAC alone ... yes I am a naimee :) )
In your experience, for music storage, which would be the best between :

 

1* Fanless NAS with good power supply

2* diy NAS (good power supply, good net card, good M2 nvme  cards for OS and for storage (direct to cpu))

3* Melco N1Z/2EX using direct "player" rj45 output to server

 

thank you in advance for sharing your experience
Good day to you !

[DuckToller]

 

24 minutes ago, rico25 said:

Good morning all,

Today I have a diy euphony/stylus server that I use with a Qnap hs210 NAS powered by a js2 Uptone (linked in the Jcat Femto Net card of my diy server) (and a Naim NDS as a DAC alone ... yes I am a naimee :) )
In your experience, for music storage, which would be the best between :

 

1* Fanless NAS with good power supply

2* diy NAS (good power supply, good net card, good M2 nvme  cards for OS and for storage (direct to cpu))

3* Melco N1Z/2EX using direct "player" rj45 output to server

 

thank you in advance for sharing your experience
Good day to you !

 

Salut Rico,

please describe the characteristics of"best" for you?
 

I have had two different DIY NAS in use, both with Unraid software (6.2/6.9.2) , but different motherboards/processor (ASROCK RACK C2550D4I /Gigabyte C246M-WU4-CF with Pentium Gold5400) and I can't complain about the NAS functionality,the software is on USB stick, the NAS is using up to 8 HDD (2 for Parity/6 for storage). Compared to QNAP or Synology environment, I would say it is quite budget at less than 1.7k Euros for effective 24TB avalilable NAS disk space. Thus, it is not a single purpose NAS for audio alone.
However, I haven't come across (for me) convincing information, that I would make me feel that I need higher performance RAM, processors or mainboards to enjoy significant better SQ from my NAS.

The path I may like to test out in the future would be the use of fibre optic connectivity for the data stream between NAS - musicserver and endpoint instead of the WIFI/Ethernet I am using now. Perhaps that may change the NAS config in relation to an alternative network card, but not sure about that as it depends on the network design I may favour.

Bon weekend, Tom

[rico25]

Thank you Tom for sharing your experience :)

 

"best" for me concerns the sound quality

I followed the path of nas fanless then the one of qualitative power supply because each time the sound quality has increased
My need is 4 to 8TB of music storage
It is true that the configuration of the internet network has an influence. The best results I've had so far are using the streamer's net card to receive the nas (better than going through a switch).
I'm not looking for the best value for money but only the best sound quality

[stefano_mbp]

@rico25 you can check this nas: Qnap HS-453DX.

It is a two bay 3.5” + two bay m2 sata  fanless nas 

[rico25]

Thank you Stefano, the HS-453DX seems to be a nice improvement compared to my HS210 !

 

If I am not wrong :

* mount 2x 4Go of good RAM ( Apacer sodimm RAM 75.B93GJ.G010B)

* mount 2x M2 SSD Samsung 860. Need to know if there can be alone, or still need the 2,5" ou 3,5" disc ?

* I see PCIe net cards as an option. Does it mean I can mount a Jcat net card ? How to put it in the case ?

* desable a maximum of app (as I have done with the hs210)

 

But I need to know how it works, to find out if it is worth putting on good equipments (RAM, M2 SSD, ...)

 

And of course, would it be a better sound quality VS a diy nas or a Melco ?

 

 

[DuckToller]

1 hour ago, rico25 said:

And of course, would it be a better sound quality VS a diy nas or a Melco ?

 

As you are obviously not afraid of details, eventually try to rethink if a package based transport technique with several protocols would allow changes to your file you then could discern as audible? If yes, you may want to go back to the source of your file (backwards) and try to eliminate the audible artifacts you can discern before it arrived at your diskspace?

No interest in starting a hot aired discussion about that, as everyone should decide for themselves what makes him/her happy, however it is meant merely as food for thought.

Beau dimanche,  Tom