I wouldn’t advise anybody considering moving into streaming to buy a NAS. Now, that would be a waste of money.
NAS drive, hard drives, server software and ripping software.
I’ve been streaming from a NAS for the past 10 years, but since I started streaming from Deezer, Tidal and finally Qobuz, about two years ago, I very rarely stream from the NAS. It is now mainly used to backup stuff on my PC.
Although, I do realise some people get great pleasure from spending hours and hours ripping CD’s, creating music libraries, fine tuning music servers, modifying metadata and tags etc. (Although to be fair, most of the above is actually unnecessary).
I did not enjoy the amount of time I originally put into ripping all my CD’s but have found the NAS to be valuable as a backup to streaming music. There is occasions that I have music on my NAS that is not available on Qobuz and the NAS makes it easy to access vs looking for a CD. The majority of the CD’s are packed away in containers in a closet. Out of site and not taking up space. The NAS is located in a room downstairs and does not have to be anywhere near the audio system.
I can see myself ripping Australian artists to a Core one day as not all Australian bands or singers make it onto streaming sites. I do not recall which sites at the time as it was a while ago. It was a site that you could purchase HiRes music from.
If you’ve already have a NAS with hundreds of CD’s ripped onto it, that’s a bonus, for the reasons you’ve stated.
However, if all my music got wiped off the NAS and I didn’t have backups, I personally wouldn’t re-rip my CD’s.
Also, I’d estimate I haven’t even bothered listening to 10% of the CD’s I ripped 10 years ago through the streamer.
I have all my ripped CDs on a 1 TB SSD attached to my Roon music server. Since I’ve had Qobuz I almost never stream any of the CD files. I have some hi-res (24/96, 24/192) FLAC files, mostly purchased classical music that I stream on occasion, but 95% of my overall streaming is from Qobuz.
USB HDD or SSD are fine, and a lot of people use them. I also like the fact that it ia also a backup of your music. I don’t think there is a Drive size limit, but see below.
What you may not know, is if you are buying new then an ND5 XS2 comes with a 3 month trial of Tidal, then £9.99 per month
I took up a one-month subscription to the Qobuz HiRES account and am sold. The convenience is just too easy. The home’s NBN bandwidth held up. I might actually achieve value for money with my unlimited data account. I am not rushing out to purchase an ND5 XS 2 just yet as the minister of finances and I will be having a pre-discussion tomorrow. Though down the track it looks hopeful. I will stay playing vinyl and CDs when my wife is watching 4k TV. Though other times I think I am going to have a field day.
The variety of country, gospel, soul, rock, and soundtracks are amazing. I think the only problem will be limiting my playlists. Albums that I have missed out on that commanded $299 AUD are there in 24/192k. I doubt if I will ever hear the difference. Though it is there my example is Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”. There are Australian artists that have sadly passed away. The complete Darlene Zschech Hillsong collection and more. So much more.
I’ve sadly fallen into this a few times recently. Notably buying a CD of DSOTM and then looking at my CD store a few weeks later and thinking, where did that one come from? So I have an original with full booklet and a 2011 remaster……
I would say the only thing I really
buy now is vinyl and even then more selectively.
Moving house with my collection was a reminder of the burden it puts on one!
Hope you’re well btw, quite a few system changes your end I see, not changed your lovely view at least I hope.
We’re good thanks, enjoying a very leisurely long summer break at our same home to match the school holidays with our daughter. Yes, the system had a few big changes last year and it’s now downstairs in the office come new music room, less of a view, but a worthwhile place for significantly more dedicated listening
Glad to hear it’s being put to good use regularly, I’ve been using mine a fair bit more lately, bit more headphone listening and changed speakers on a few systems on the way, need to pause for a bit and enjoy it all now!
I think I have 4 DSOTM LP’s but they are all different pressings; 2 early UK pressings (but not identical), one from Japan, and I think one is the 30th or 40th anniversary. A bit silly on my part.
I very deliberately have 3 copies of ACR Good Together.
My original tape copy went missing, plus, I no longer own a tape deck, so I bought a vinyl copy the first time i came across one. It is badly scratched.
I bought a copy of the recent reissue, on white vinyl. It is lovely, but inexplicably is over 4 sides, and some of the tracks that continuously mix in the original, are split between sides in the reissue!
So I sought a mint original vinyl copy from Discogs, and that’s my favourite
The relevance to the OP is that there are many ways your vinyl collection might expand beyond the space available
