NAS/HDD recommendation

Hi,

My laptop’s storage is slowly dwindling down with my steadily increasing library. I’m interested in purchasing a synology or qnap NAS to expand my storage. Which would you recommend, the Synology DS218 or the QNAP TS-228A?

I’m interested to know from actual users of both as I’m hesitant to pull the trigger for potential problems with Audirvana. I’m using a Windows 10 laptop with a 2TB expansion HDD by the way, so I think I’ve maxed out the route of just expanding my laptop storage as it is the maximum size I’ve seen in my country for laptop storage.

Should I just stick with the usual USB 3.0 desktop HDD from Seagate or Western Digital?

Thank you.

If you don’t need the nas for anything else I should stay with an usb hdd.

I prefer the NAS solution and I like Synology interface better.

Dear Yoh_Nery,

Stephano is of course correct in his advice that a simple hard drive would do, but if you follow in my own experience, you will also have video files, photos and various personal resources you may wish to use remotely when away from home. A NAS would allow you to do just that without lugging a heavy fat slab of an external hard drive.
Which is why I shall second BitRacer.

As far as a NAS is concerned, it is said that QNAP’s management interface allows users to delve deeper in their configuration and setup than the Synology NAS. Not being more geek than is necessary, I find the management interface of Synology more appealing that QNAP’s one, therefore I went for Synology, and I have found it perfect for my most advanced needs. Videos and photos collections are dealt with by Plex Media Server, which can also deal with a music collection, albeit not as beautifully as Audirvana when sound quality is concerned….

Yes. Syncing it with Plex is also the reason why I wanted to go through the NAS route. I have an ipad I use when I’m mobile around the house or sometimes even when not at home that I want to be able to maximize without leaving my computer on (with my understanding you can leave the NAS on without a computer and it would still work).

I’m actually leaning towards a Synology NAS as it is more accessible here in my country (Philippines).

My main concern though is that if Audirvana will run the Synology NAS without hiccups. I don’t want to buy it and will turn out having several issues playing them smoothly. Have you had any issues with your Synology NAS when syncing it with Audirvana? I have seen issues trying out different dlna servers and it is a pain to see how various software manages the music library. The most flawless I’ve seen was with Plex. Some issues I’ve encountered with other software were:

  1. Poorly organized library (You have to select them by alphabet first or there is no way to change how you’d have the albums be arranged).
  2. Album arts are poorly rendered. Blurry from a mobile device (ipad and android phone).
  3. Disconnects after playing every track (doesn’t go through an entire album even if there was something on queue).

Apologies for the long reply. I just wanna make sure before making a purchase as It not a cheap one hehe.

Dear Yoh_Nery,

I am not sure I have a big experience of running Audirvana using NAS stored music tracks.

On my Home system, the music files are stored on a Thunderbolt Hard Drive. A mirror copy of my music files is made on the NAS, and automatically updated whenever any modification is made to files. It provides me with a relatively stable system.
This is the system I use most.

Occasionally I run Audirvana on my MacBook using the files stored on the NAS. I cannot report any specific problem. I just make sure that the database is synchronised and maintained properly and regularly.

Others have reported repeated difficulties with duplication of tracks and albums, pointing out at such difficulties to the fact their tracks were stored on a NAS.
In my experience it has happened to me too, but with locally stored tracks.
My gut feeling is that it may have something to do with the way Mac OS “follows” the files around the system when moved, with Audirvana playing catch up with some difficulties.
Also, many of us use iTunes or Apple Music to manage metadata or feed our iDevices with the track files used by Audirvana too. It may create some “cross-contamination” that Audirvana does not yet deal with well.
I trust the development team is quite aware of these niggling difficulties and work their best to find a good solution. A future release will surely solve that problem.

As for DLNA, I have never been impressed with it as beyond communication protocol itself which may be fine, the different connected systems may prove incompatible when it comes to file formats.
Too much bother, I would not rely on it for much, Plex being the only exception as it corners all facets of the management and distribution of the resources.