NAS Drives

The instructions they include with the NAS is fairly straight forward. Basically, you physically put the drives into the NAS (screw driver required!), and follow the instructions in the Manual to format the hard drives, create the RAID, etc. I found Synology tech support very helpful. Once the RAID has been created, you will typically have one big ass drive and one spare drive. Typically you will have RAID 5 or RAID 6 - depending on the NAS you chose, the number of bays, etc.

Then, think of the NAS as a "mini computer". It will have an interface which you access by launching a browser and typing in the IP address of the NAS (something like 192.168.1.22). Once you bring up the NAS interface, you enter the default username/password. Then you're in to the Operating System of the NAS. Here, you create shared drives, set security (if you want) and install applications. Synology has some really good applications for your NAS.....Media Server and Audio Station are one's you will want (THEY ARE FREE!) There are lots of other Synology Apps (and third party apps that you also get from Synology) that may or may not interest you.

You will then install a driver on your PC/Mac - and you can access your NAS from all your computers on your network.

I'm sure I'm missing a few steps....but that gives you an idea. Just read the instructions and call Synology if you get stuck - or of course, post here on AS!

It's easy and once you're done, you will wonder why you didn't do it sooner!

REMEMBER: I have not been able to stream DSD directly from my Synology NAS to my DSD Marantz Music Server. Redbook rips, Hi Res, all work like a charm using the Synology Media Server App running on the server. Just not DSD. If you don't care two hoots about DSD, then rock on! If you do (or might), then you may want to investigate offerings from Buffalo and NetGear and others to see if they have apps capable of streaming DSD (DSF) files.

Mike
 
-E- said:
First off: any Enterprise drive will work for a NAS environment. The reason the REDs come into play is because they are some of the cheapest drives out there with a 3-year warranty. HD OEMs have changed warranty policies drastically over the past 12-18 months; WD was the first to use the easy color-coded "you get this warranty with this color" approach for consumers. Their MTBF is the same as the vast majority of just about every other drive in the WD lineup, and of other OEMs as well. The main difference is that TLER is hardcoded on in WD RED and above; you don't get this with Green or Blue drives. And while you can try to software-enable TLER on the cheaper (and lesser warranty drives), you may be shit-outta-luck when they start to drop off your array.

Secondly: It seems that people are seriously confusing the concept of streaming. DSD, or any type of file that matter, should be able to be read from any device for any reason from any device that can collect it over your LAN (and subsequently buffer it and play it). Whether you set the device up as a DLNA server/service (usually unnecessary) or as a SMB (sharing over your network, common with M$ and subsequently SAMBA on Linux offerings), once it is seen, as long as your infrastructure is capable of transferring the data - you are set. The NAS device is not and should not be expected to do the actual playback (transcoding->decoding->pre-amp, etc.). Now if your playback medium is not capable of pulling files from a basic home network - that is the player's problem, not the NAS!

Thirdly: A bitperfect rip of a DSD file (i.e. SACD->ISO->conversion) to, say, 88/24 resolution, still remains bitperfect and is nearly indistinguishable from the original. Is it ideal? No. But does it function well? Yes - especially if you do not have access to DSD core files or the playback software (or output capability from the player to the DAC). This is where DoP (DSD over PCM) comes in, but should more aptly be called DSD over USB (as most manufacturers are using USB as the interface). Basically: the device bitstreams the DSD file by piggybacking it through a PCM channel - no conversion is done, and the software is responsible for picking up on the DSD core file and running with it. There would be no SQ difference based on the source material, or file transfer (assuming your infrastructure can handle it), but you would almost certainly notice a difference from the playback software - and since this segment of the market is practically devoid of software devs, it may be quite some time before we see the WASAPI-standard for DSD playback.

Lastly: Mike, the 2001 "study" you mentioned was actually ripped off from a 1980 study! And it was the same guy that, in essence, said rock music was harmful to your health. Any double-blind tests done of Hi-Rez vs. DSD (especially recently) have resulted in one famous science'y word: 'inconclusive.'
Click to expand...

All well said Mr. -E- ! IMHO
 
Thanks Mike that's sounds pretty straightforward. I was thinking of putting a bunch of sacd on it and being happy. Does Buffalo have an actual server? Seems like the dsd media are limited and expensive. Was thinking of streaming to an Oppo. I do not believe I am going to get heavily into digital. But I do need to back up my important info at home.
 
You cannot rip SACDs unless you have an original PS3 that is un-firmware-updated.
 
Finally thinking of pulling the trigger on a DS1813 for my music and movie collection. What RAID configuration is everyone running? 6 or 10 is what I've been told. Assuming 3TB drives, how many will I need to total 16+ TBs in either configuration? I tried to wiki but almost fainted after reading it. Thanks in advance to the computer savvy among us.
 
Best performance and reliability for the 1813+ = RAID10. Single box fully populated will give you 12TB in RAID10. Add a DX513 to have 13 drive capacity, you can get 18TB+1 hot spare in RAID10.

However, if you are looking for going to the beyond that 15-ish TB barrier - consider an actual WinServer setup with hot-swap drives; you can get really nice RAID cards that will do RAID50, which is my choice for serious work. Not to mention you can then stream DSD via JRiver on the server over DLNA/DoP, etc. :)
 
Thanks for the reply E. I'm trying to avoid an actual box but I would like more than 12TB...hmmm :wacko:

Back to exploring other options I suppose.
 
DS2413+

18 TB fully populated in RAID10. Single NAS with dual gig-e (which has Link Aggregation). Can expand later on with the dummy drone with another 12 drives.

Not gonna get much better than this unless you go rackmount.
 
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