Best storage option for size, sound quality and speed

[extracampine]

I realise that the "3 pillars of data storage" - storage size, sound quality and speed of data access, may not all coincide together.

 

I was wondering if anyone had any expertise on the best way of linking in a 3TB of FLAC music collection with a PC based server, such as the CAPS.

 

I guess that solid state drives are out due to the size. Are there any differences in speed of data access or sound quality when comparing, say:

 

- hard disks on a NAS, connected to the CAPS via ethernet cable

- hard disks on a NAS, connected to the CAPS via USB or firewire cable (or other cable)

- external hard disks, not in a NAS, connected directly to the CAPS via USB or firewire (or otherwise)

 

Or any better alternatives?

 

Thanks !

 

[existentialhero]

Accessing the data over Ethernet has one major advantage: galvanic isolation. Hard drives are electrically noisy, which can have serious implications for SQ if it happens inside your music server. Using an Ethernet-based NAS also makes it easier to share the files among multiple computers, which may or may not be useful in your setup.