I’ve had mu MuSo 2 for just over two years now, mostly for radio - Radio Paradise etc and playing recorded music from my MacBook Air.
I’ve recently started recording (ripping?) my old LPs to digital and I’ve been enjoying process as well as rediscovering music from my youth, as well as enjoying the rabbit hole of Hi-Fi/audiophile stuff. It’s non practical to have my turntable (NAD533) and pre-amp in the lounge long term with the MuSo - happy wife, happy life and all that.
I’ve been happy enough with playing stuff from the MacBook, but having shifted away from the Apple Music app, I’ve tried Pine Player, COG and have just discovered Plexamp, which seems to offer me everything I would want.
So my thoughts have turned to using Plexamp or similar on a NAS, probably an old Mac Mini (which I would need to buy), rather than an old MacBook Pro I have. However, I have no idea where to start, just a thought that it would be fun and I could play my recorded stuff from iPhone/Mac/etc… I just need some help in where to start, so, Is there an idiots guide someone could point me to please? Or tell me it’s all unnecessary!
Can’t see why you need a Mac Mini.
Just get a NAS drive (Look at Synology or Qnap), install a UPNP program, eg Asset or Minimserver , copy over all your digital audio files,job done.
Use the Naim app to play your NAS music via your Muso.
May be worth doing a forum search for the many threads here about using a NAS.
Yes, and the go-to NASes are Synology or QNAP. With one of those you won’t go wrong. Asset is simpler to set up so id recommend that. Rip CDs using dBpoweramp, it’s made by the people who make Asset so the two work perfectly together.
Second the advice from @Neilb1906. I run a standalone NAS and add ‘historical’ music as you describe from my MacBook Air. I bought a non-Apple CD / DVD drive to get the files onto my Mac and transfer them across to the NAS. I’ve had this Netgear drive for about 5 years now and it was ‘plug and play’ back then so I don’t expect you will have any problems setting it up. Mine is hardwired and on the same network as my router etc.
The other advantage as you can use the NAS to back up other files too.
It depends on the price of the Mac Mini really. If you already had one going spare then it would make more sense. I would personally get a two drive NAS like Synology or Qnap. An old intel Mac Mini could be upgraded with a new drive (depending on your storage needs) but its a tad fiddly. The newer M1, M2 and M4 have storage soldered to the motherboard and would need an external drive unless you have very deep pockets or dont need much on board storage.
I originally had a Synology DS218+ and a pair of 1Tb drives for file storage including music. The Synology units tend to be a bit more expensive, but the software they provide is quite user friendly. Having a NAS on your network (assuming you have a spare ethernet port available on your router, or a switch if not) does allow you to do other things like store photos and files. I also use Asset to serve the music, but Synology do have their own onboard solution for media.
When I had an ND5XS, after a cheap noisy NAS I used a Mac Mini as music server until I moved on from the ND5XS. My MM is a “late 2012” bought secondhand (this was about 2014/5. I upgraded taking to 16GB Ram and fitting two 1TB SSDs. I copied my files in from my NAS, installed Serviio server software, which was free, ran that, and that was it, the ND5XS saw all my music files (organised by file structure as I like, and I could play music at will, not touching the MM. it worked flawlessly for the few months I used like that, and silently unlike my NAS! The MM is still doing sterling service, storing, serving and playing my music using Audirvana.
You can use either a Mac Mini or a NAS (Synology; QNAP etc).
I have both and both have Asset UPnP installed (other UPnP server software is available). Synology media server works fine for example…
I bought the NAS some time ago and it’s my household backup (photos, household documents as well as music).
I bought the Mac Mini used off fleabay and added a cheap USB solid state drive for additional storage. I installed Asset and run it ‘headless’ off my iMac (really easy to do). It’s silent and very quick when loading music. Plenty of capacity to try Roon or Audirvana if you fancy it. I therefore have 2 separate copies of my ripped albums.
Both solutions work well. Defo recommend Asset though on either hardware solution.
Hi @Aston
Which ever method you choose do not forget keep a back up of what ever you store on your NAS.
I keep a portable ssd back up in protective case in the garage and a back up in the cloud, pCloud.
My NAS is set up as Raid 1 with two discs, so if one disc fails the other disc has a direct copy on it.
I use a Qnap NAS, I have used their free help desk a few times to help trouble shoot issues.
I purchased my NAS from a company that set it all up for me before posting it out to me.
Depends. I have a Synology which I certainly wouldn’t want in my listening rooms. It burbles away contentedly in the hall. But I also have a fanless QNAP which is completely silent and I’d be happy with that on my rack. In fact, it’s also in the hall for convenience. Both mine have HDDs and I’d imagine SSDs have the potential to be quieter but I don’t have direct experience.
I have a Synology which was rarely silent, and I mistakenly believed that it was the hard drive constantly spinning that caused the noise, but in fact it turned out to be the cooling fan. It is set by default to be nearly always on. Putting the fan on the lowest setting solved it. I rarely use the NAS for anything other than music, which means that it hardly ever works hard enough to need the fan.
