Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Music as represented in 1's and 0's. Discuss anything pertaining to D hardware - CD, DVD, SACD, DAC, etc.

Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby Mamimili » Thu Oct 09, 2014 9:23 pm

Thank you!
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby rtsyrtsy » Thu Oct 09, 2014 9:50 pm

mykel18 wrote:Linksys WRT 1900AC and I also have a range extender, Amped Wireless SR20000G to which my WD MyBook Live 1TB and 3TB is connected to. Before it is AEBS + Amped Wireless. For peace of mind, get one of the best routers out there.


These are words of wisdom.

To me, routers are one of those set and forget sort of stuff--they tend to stay with me for a long while so I get the best I can.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby alfa » Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:35 am

I have not used an apple time capsule but I presently use a QNAP brand NAS with 2 hard drive bays to stream FLAC music and movies throughout the house. On one drive i stored my ripped DVD movies. On the other drive i stored my music. Some of the music are in FLAC format the others are in MP3.

This is a very good option if you want to listen to music wherever you are in the house. Some of the situations we use it in;

1. In one room i have a cambridge NAS player via wifi. The FLAC is very good and the music does not skip
2. In another room i stream FLAC to a PC running XBMC/or Jriver; the PC is connected to a DAC then the amp.
3. My kids walk around the house playing music or movies in their iPad, iPhone or tablets.
4. I sometimes stream FLAC music to an old android phone/ headphones

Often we do these things simultaneously and nothing skips. I ran the NAS through a 2 year old Linksys router. Almost all run through WiFI connection. However, the movie is connected to a media player via ethernet cable. My brother who's an IT guy says that the router contributed to the no hitch connections. Call/email me if you need more details.
Last edited by alfa on Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby vintage_dog » Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:21 am

90% of my digital needs are now being met by Spotify Premium and am extremely pleased :). laptop -> wired into a Shiit Audio DAC straight (no pre-amp) into an Eico HF87 amp....streaming thru Apple Extreme. goodbye iTunes, bye MP3/WAV/etc files, bye CDs, bye iPod/Wadia... hehe

(a wireless option from laptop is to use a wifi dac..but have not tried this yet).

enjoy the music amigos 8)
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby Mamimili » Sun Oct 12, 2014 12:36 am

Goodbye digital files. The King is dead, long live the King?
:o
I think i am also getting close to saying goodbye to itunes!
On a whim i plugged my music hard drive into my WD TV box. I was impressed and saw a bright new digital world of music pass before my eyes and ears, until i realized i was playing mp3's so i changed to my ALAC files. My smile and hopes faded into the silence.
I have converted so many flac files to ALAC, and never kept a single flac file ;( Now i need to reverse the process ;(

On the plus side, i now see and hear the potential of what you guys already know.
All i wanted to do was get rid of a hard drive hanging off my laptop, now i am interested in a separate display (wall mounted or mounted on a swing arm) and a small remote control for a "box" that is wired to my dac, with my files on my personal cloud. I have even given thought to multiple room setup's.

So now i just need to decide which "box". Apart from Sonus, Cambridge and Squeezebox, what other brands are worth looking at?
Do these media streamers come with their own UI or can one choose? I bet Apple do not allow itunes to be used on non-Apple products.
I either like or i am simply used to itunes, so, is there a similar UI out there?
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby SD-6 » Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:49 am

Sonos GUI gets getting used to but at least it can read your playlists and does accept ALAC. ;) That is what is saleable to me about Sonus.

Having said that and loving the iTunes GUI I just find Sonos app ugly.

It was much less an adjustment with Spotify that appears to have hired better GUI people.

Sonos app is ugly because it was needlessly complicated.

Although Architect Audio ppl didnt know how to demo a Sonos Connect you can do so at their Greenbelt 5 branch. Just pre-install the free app on your phone and download the PDF manual as reference.

Again wish Apple would support FLAC.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby JoeyGS » Mon Oct 13, 2014 11:52 am

If you are open into building your own music server (ala DIY style) and still prefers hi-res music output, this is what I am using now.......

Music Server:
CAPS v3 Zuma (http://www.computeraudiophile.com/conte ... s-v3-zuma/) with Vortex Box OS/MusicPlayer
NOTE: This computer is configured for audio play only and cannot be used as an all around computer.

Case: Streacom FC5WS EVO - This case is built for handling fanless processors and power supply. This ensures that the noise generated by fans does not contaminate the audio signal
Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel Motherboard - Current Intel motherboards are recommended as they use less power and generate less heat
Processor: Intel i3 - or even i7.... what's critical is to use the processor model that generates less heat even at higher processing speeds. This helps in eliminating the use of cooling fans
Memory: 4GB RAM or more
HDD: 2.5" 1TB - The better upgrade is to use SSD for the OS and another HDD for the music files. Eventually, when SSD capacities increase and price decreases, this is the way to go. With SSD, then are no mechanical operation thereby eliminating induced noise from the mechanical moving parts
Power Supply: picoPSU-150-XT + Adapter Power Kit - This is a fanless power supply system with enough wattage for audio purpose only. The next upgrade for this is an external linear power supply.
OS: VortexBox / Fedora Linux - Currently I am satisfied with the performance of this OS. This OS is free. The drawback of the Linux based OS is that you need some knowledge to facilitate its installation process. The next upgrade I am looking at is the use of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 coupled with JRiver. The advantage of this OS is that it's more user friendly since I am a windows user for a long time already. I already heard this combo in my system and it raises the bar in another level.
Playback App: SqueezPad, Logitech Media Server (formerly SlimServer, SqueezeCenter and Squeezebox Server) - This application provides wireless remote and wire streaming. Nice GUI and easy to use.
Accessories: Audiophile grade SATA cable, USB card re-clocker, isolation platforms for HDD/SSD - This accessories inside the music server has provide several levels of improvement in audio quality. At first I did not believe it, but when it was installed in the server, there is no turning back.....

You supply your own DAC to connect to the above music server via USB. Quality of the USB cable also matters and has an impact on the output quality. I would also be nice to get DACs with DSD/DXD capabilities together with the regular PCM.

Hope the above helps...... just sharing.......
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby SD-6 » Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:15 am

Got this NAS.

Image

Image

It has USB so DAC should work. It also has HDMI so audio out would be covered too. ;)

Review: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas- ... s-reviewed
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby Mamimili » Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:35 pm

I purchased a 4TB WD My Cloud and a WD TV Live.
Over a month ago but i only connected the My Cloud this week. The WD TV box is still in its box.....lazy me.

It took a week of evenings to transfer my digital files from my old portable drive to the My Cloud! What a pain that was.
I am still using the Apple Airport, but at least the hard drive is no longer hanging off a laptop, i am now a little more portable which was one of the main objectives.

Now for the best part, i have used 2 laptops to verify and am very pleased to state that after at least 7 hours of playback i have not had a single drop out, not even a skipped beat. Sound quality has also improved quite a lot, there is more depth and i feel a lot more involved with the music.
I can only conclude that the hard drive was the cause of the audio drop out problem as i am still wireless.

Question - is it possible to transfer all itunes files & folders etc. to the My Cloud and link them somehow to my laptop?
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby TheAnalogSource » Tue Dec 30, 2014 2:26 pm

with your indulgence Paul, may i ask if there is a NAS that you can use a FAT or NTFS system. Most i had had to be reformatted to the NAS proprietary file system. Problem happens when the NAS breaks down then then HD inside becomes useless too unless you buy the same NAS.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby Mamimili » Tue Dec 30, 2014 3:17 pm

TheAnalogSource wrote:with your indulgence Paul, may i ask if there is a NAS that you can use a FAT or NTFS system. Most i had had to be reformatted to the NAS proprietary file system. Problem happens when the NAS breaks down then then HD inside becomes useless too unless you buy the same NAS.


Hey Noly, I am the wrong person to ask as i only looked at a few. As far as i know the My Cloud i have is NTFS.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby muypogi » Wed Dec 31, 2014 7:41 am

Mamimili wrote:I purchased a 4TB WD My Cloud and a WD TV Live.
Over a month ago but i only connected the My Cloud this week. The WD TV box is still in its box.....lazy me.

It took a week of evenings to transfer my digital files from my old portable drive to the My Cloud! What a pain that was.
I am still using the Apple Airport, but at least the hard drive is no longer hanging off a laptop, i am now a little more portable which was one of the main objectives.

Now for the best part, i have used 2 laptops to verify and am very pleased to state that after at least 7 hours of playback i have not had a single drop out, not even a skipped beat. Sound quality has also improved quite a lot, there is more depth and i feel a lot more involved with the music.
I can only conclude that the hard drive was the cause of the audio drop out problem as i am still wireless.

Question - is it possible to transfer all itunes files & folders etc. to the My Cloud and link them somehow to my laptop?


Yes you can. You can copy the entire iTunes folder to an external drive and then when you reopen iTunes just go to Preferences/Advanced and select the new location of the iTunes folder. I have changed my iTunes folder to an external 4TB Seagate drive (along with my photo and video files), but that is via USB 3.

I stream video though via my Apple TV and the lag is non-existent assuming your internal WiFi network is robust enough. . .
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby muypogi » Wed Dec 31, 2014 7:48 am

TheAnalogSource wrote:with your indulgence Paul, may i ask if there is a NAS that you can use a FAT or NTFS system. Most i had had to be reformatted to the NAS proprietary file system. Problem happens when the NAS breaks down then then HD inside becomes useless too unless you buy the same NAS.


Noly I know the NAS use the same file system as computers so baka iba yung RAID config. Kung multiple drives yan, baka yung system ng NAS treats the 2 or more drives as one single drive, so the bits of files are not contiguous and can be located in another drive. So kung nasira yung isa, baka may mga files na hindi mo na ma-recover.

Here's a guide:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370235,00.asp

Which RAID Is Right for Me?
As mentioned, there are several RAID levels, and the one you choose depends on whether you are using RAID for performance or fault tolerance (or both). It also matters whether you have hardware or software RAID, because software supports fewer levels than hardware-based RAID. In the case of hardware RAID, the type of controller you have matters, too. Different controllers support different levels of RAID and also dictate the kinds of disks you can use in an array: SAS, SATA or SSD.
Here's the rundown on popular RAID levels:

•RAID 0 is used to boost a server's performance. It's also known as "disk striping." With RAID 0, data is written across multiple disks. This means the work that the computer is doing is handled by multiple disks rather than just one, increasing performance because multiple drives are reading and writing data, improving disk I/O. A minimum of two disks is required. Both software and hardware RAID support RAID 0, as do most controllers. The downside is that there is no fault tolerance. If one disk fails, then that affects the entire array and the chances for data loss or corruption increases.

•RAID 1 is a fault-tolerance configuration known as "disk mirroring." With RAID 1, data is copied seamlessly and simultaneously, from one disk to another, creating a replica, or mirror. If one disk gets fried, the other can keep working. It's the simplest way to implement fault tolerance and it's relatively low cost.

The downside is that RAID 1 causes a slight drag on performance. RAID 1 can be implemented through either software or hardware. A minimum of two disks is required for RAID 1 hardware implementations. With software RAID 1, instead of two physical disks, data can be mirrored between volumes on a single disk. One additional point to remember is that RAID 1 cuts total disk capacity in half: If a server with two 1TB drives is configured with RAID 1, then total storage capacity will be 1TB not 2TB.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby Mamimili » Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:32 am

muypogi wrote:Yes you can. You can copy the entire iTunes folder to an external drive and then when you reopen iTunes just go to Preferences/Advanced and select the new location of the iTunes folder. I have changed my iTunes folder to an external 4TB Seagate drive (along with my photo and video files), but that is via USB 3.

I stream video though via my Apple TV and the lag is non-existent assuming your internal WiFi network is robust enough. . .


Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing, i have moved the music files, but can i move all other iTunes operating files from my hard drive to the My Cloud?
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby muypogi » Wed Dec 31, 2014 5:52 pm

Mamimili wrote:
muypogi wrote:Yes you can. You can copy the entire iTunes folder to an external drive and then when you reopen iTunes just go to Preferences/Advanced and select the new location of the iTunes folder. I have changed my iTunes folder to an external 4TB Seagate drive (along with my photo and video files), but that is via USB 3.

I stream video though via my Apple TV and the lag is non-existent assuming your internal WiFi network is robust enough. . .


Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing, i have moved the music files, but can i move all other iTunes operating files from my hard drive to the My Cloud?


You need to copy the whole iTunes folder from it's old location to the new location. Then set the new location. iTunes will then act normally, whether on video or audio. . .
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby TheAnalogSource » Wed Dec 31, 2014 7:32 pm

Thanks Moi. Ive used different raid system for different environment. I've tried the dlink and the buffalo Nas and both indicate that if an HD with previous content (assumed fat or ntfs), it will be erased and reformatted to the Nas file system. Though I haven't plugged an HD from Nas to a regular pc.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby muypogi » Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:01 am

TheAnalogSource wrote:Thanks Moi. Ive used different raid system for different environment. I've tried the dlink and the buffalo Nas and both indicate that if an HD with previous content (assumed fat or ntfs), it will be erased and reformatted to the Nas file system. Though I haven't plugged an HD from Nas to a regular pc.


Kung ganoon then naka default RAID 0 siguro yung NAS kung multiple disks . . . JBOD na lang siguro para as is yung HDD.
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby TheAnalogSource » Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:15 am

Ano un jbod
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby muypogi » Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:15 pm

JBOD - just a bunch of disks, no RAID formatting. So drives are your usua drive a, b, c, d
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Re: Apple Time Capsule or NAS?

Postby rtsyrtsy » Mon Jan 05, 2015 11:19 am

Mamimili wrote:
Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing, i have moved the music files, but can i move all other iTunes operating files from my hard drive to the My Cloud?


This may help: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201562. Do not skip the "Consolidate Files" step. You probably don't want your entire library hogging limited hard drive space in two locations which is why you used RAID in the first place!

Can't help on the NTFS question. Have not been using Windows to this depth for 6-7 years now!
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