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Currently debating with Mrs Noise whether to subscribe to YouTube Music now that the free service is so poor after the move from Google Music.
I'm not sure it's great value and have suggested putting that cash towards a simple NAS setup for music streaming primarily (don't want Spotify for reasons).
But... Despite being fairly tech savvy, I have no real clue where to start with this. I know I need an enclosure and some drives, but after that I'm in the dark. Do I need new (wifi) speakers or can I hook into my existing Google devices and Chromecast TV (voice control would be desirable but not a deal breaker)?
Obviously there's Sonos, but I quite like the other features of a more general/customisable NAS - I take a fair few photos and video, and another (automatic) backup would be welcome for example.
So, what do I need and what would STW recommend? Entry level stuff is fine for now, and the name that keeps coming up is Synology?
TIA.
I've just got a Synology, it seems reasonable simple to set up. I've not tried streaming music from it.
Synology, lots of info on the website.
Lots here https://www.youtube.com/c/synologyinc/videos
If you want to stream to a phone etc you can use the DS Audio App.
For hifi you would usually install the mimin server package https://minimserver.com/ and use a streamer connected to your hifi, sonos connect, Bluesound etc.
I use mine for all my shared files, photo’s and music/video.
Have a look at nascompares for info and reviews
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFyP17HoU-vpxhIpGXnXx2g
Lots of info on the synology knowledge base https://kb.synology.com/en-uk/search
Don’t forget you need to also backup your data to a USB drive or use a cloud option like idrive or synology C2, its also a good idea to enable 2 factor authentication.
I have a Synology and an Apple TV. I use plex for all my media (including music) - you can pay a subscription, but the free version has almost all the same features. They have versions for virtually every platform, including one that’ll run on your NAS 24/7 serving media to your tv/phone/iPad whatever.
Plex used to be pretty average for music, but they’ve since released “Plexamp” which is a dedicated music player app - it’s really good.
As an aside: I have both Synology and qnap NAS boxes. On paper the qnap is better value for money - but the Synology is just in a different league.
I'd suggest Ardbeg Uigeadail, Glen Scotia Victoriana and Kilchoman Sanaig.
Bump for the 'not bloody riding in this weather' Sunday morning crew.
Just bear in mind that Nas drives aren't silent. I bought one for the living room and had to send it back as it was distracting when not in active use.
That was a Synology ds220
Seems a lot of faff. I just have an Apple Music* sub.
*other services are available.
As Slackboy says they can be tad noisy when indexing content especially if you are using fast spinning discs. Noise levels can be reduced by the application of some a lot of money and installing big SSD drives.
I have a synology 2 bay in the loft but I find music streaming frustratingly slow. I have a mirror in the garage (Seagate single NAS) and I stream from that because it is so much quicker for streaming music. both units are connected via ethernet.
The synology is great for backup and I run my CCTV through it (although you only get 2 free camera licenses as standard)
I have a synology 2 bay in the loft but I find music streaming frustratingly slow.
Can you say what is slow about it? I wouldn't expect a NAS to have difficulty streaming music due to the much lower bandwidth compared with video.
Synology user here too - I have 2x 2 bay ones. One for general back up duties (Time Machine for all our Macs, photos, other docs and shiz). And an older one that's just used for CCTV recording.
I did used one for music storage but soon got bored of it - a subscription streaming service is far, far better.
Everything about DS Audio is slow, browsing for music, loading albums etc. The Seagate mirror is lightening fast though.
My main backup is to the Synology but I have a software backup that mirrors to the Seagate and I connect to that for music streaming. The Synology seems slow for most tasks but is vital for my main backup and dual bay redundancy setup.
I kind-of agree about it being a bit of a faff vs: a music subscription, but only when you are setting it up. Once it’s up and running it’s zero hassle (in my experience).
Digitising your music is a reasonably time consuming task - obviously related to how big your cd collection is. If your music is already digitised then it’s very quick to try out different platforms.
The hardware is fairly expensive - I wouldn’t recommend a NAS just for music streaming vs subscription