Hi!
I wonder if anyone can recommend some budget friendly nas device for music streaming with Naim Atom. I have some history with few nas devices. I have one litlle box called Buffalo Linkstation mini but it got outdated and quite noisy last years, but it worked well for my purpose. I bought Qnap ts-231. Unfortunately it faulted during setup and I have to return it. Setup process was extremely tricky for me but I believe if you succeed build it up once it will work reliable. Then I bought Wd My cloud home product. It was exremely easy to setup but I was very disappointed with features and I don’t know if you can call it Nas server at all. It seemed to me that it’s just a place where you can easely restore your stuff and share it. And with Naim Atom, I didn’t find way to use it.
But back to my initial question. Is there any recommendations for low budget Nas product that is quite easy to setup and use and the main thing is that I can use it music listening with Naim Atom. Qnap is still one option but I think I have to look for some help to make it work. It don’t matter if it is one or two bay model.
With regards Hannu, Finland
I’ve had good experiences over several years with Synology NAS devices. The two bay NAS have a reasonable amount of flexibility in terms of adding storage or redundancy. They’ll also run good uPNP servers (such as Asset) if you want something to do that for your system.
The UI on Synology is really easy to use, so it won’t be difficult to set up or maintain. You can configure it to do all of the common maintenance jobs such as updates etc automatically if you don’t want to bother doing that manually.
I’m using a DS 718+ for my system, and it’s been faultless (although I’m waiting on a memory upgrade because Roon Server rather overran the 2GB that the NAS comes out of the box with.
Avoid anything other than a real NAS, a real NAS is such as QNAP or Synology & Netgear ReadyNAS
I’ve helped friends with a few & noted Synology are a bit easier to set up with an on-line step by step guide. Plus all are able to run a few desirable options such as Asset UPnP or Minimserver.
One bay is OK, budget is OK if it’s just audio & general business/photo storage, but whatever you decide, don’t forget backup.
Synology. I’ve been using a DS214 play for 5 years and it’s been fine except for one of the Hdd going bad. But easy to hot swap in a new one and all is fine.
@Tukka74: A Raspberry Pi 4 with a 1 or 2 TB USB drive and MinimServer is all you need. No point in buying a Synology or a Qnap device. For a turnkey solution, check GenTooPlayer.
I’m not sure if you are aware that the Atom has a built in UPnP server which will serve music files from a directly attached USB drive. While it lacks some of the features on a separate device, it works perfectly well, and a £50 USB drive is all you need.
Thanks a lot for your quick answers and recommendations,
I just unpacked once again my Wd product before bringing it back to seller. Naim couldn’t recognize it at all. I googled for more information and if I got it right, Wd usb port supports only one way direction.
I have considered simply usb drive but what bothers me is that my usb drive never fall in sleep although you shot off Atom, so you have to unplugged it every time you use it.
That ”worlds tinyest computer” Rasberry pi 4 is totally new friend of mine and it takes lot of research to understand how it really works for my purpose.
Hello again!
Your suggestion was really interesting. I wonder if you like to tell me how you build your system up. Here in Finland, you can find that ”starting kit” from plenty of sellers around 100€. I have few questions about it if you like to answer. Is it posible to drive it from mobile app with iPhone or iPad? Can you turn it on or off with app? Is there same kind of possibilities like Nas drives, so you can restore music, pictures etc. via network? Is that Gentooplayer free or some monthly charge? Is that system compatible with Atom, so it is so simply that you can pley music from your folders right away without any adjusting? Can you recommmend any storage to plug in that Rasberry?
Hannu
If you use GenTooPlayer you actually do not need to do any research: just activate MinimServer via the GenTooPlayer web interface and you are up an running. You do not need any keyboard or monitor for the RPi: it just works as a NAS. Setup of MinimServer is done via MinimWatch.
You do not need a starting kit, just get a Raspberry Pi 4, a 16 or 32 GB micro SD card, a compatible power supply, a USB drive or stick and Ethernet cable to connect to your router. Download GenTooPlayer and copy it to the SD card according to the instructions on the GenTooPlayer download site. Insert the SD card into the RPi and power it up. Enter GentooPlayerRpi4-64:5000 in a browser and enable MinimServer and mount the USB drive. Install MinimWatch on a networked computer according to the instructions on the MinimWatch site and enter the folder of the USB drive that cointains your music collection in the “contentDir” field of the pop-up menu. At this point you should be able to select the library served by MinimServer in the Naim app and replay on the Atom. For support and troubleshooting, check the GenTooPlayer thead on Audiophile Style. The author (antonellocaroli) is very supportive. You can send (retrieve) files to (from) GenTooPlayer via “rsync”. There are probably more user-friendly ways of transferring files but I only use rsync. Beside GenTooPlayer, there are other audio dedicated distributions that allow you to easily setup a music server or renderer: Volumio, DietPi, Moode, … You can also install/run MinimServer or Asset on a Synology or Qnap NAS. There is nothing wrong in doing so, the complexity is more or less the same. As suggested by ChrisSU, as a first step just connect a USB drive with your music files to the Atom and use the Atom’s UPnP server. It is not as customizable as MinimServer but will get you up and running in a minute.
I recommend the Netgear ReadNAS. They are cheapish, very reliable, work well as a NAS across three of the main popular network mount protocols, incredible but true, and can run ReadyDLNA which is included, a basic no frills UPnP media server that has one of the best SQ performances I have found… (based on inter frame timing consistency… simplicity seems to be key here… and the SQ benefits were more for the legacy streamers, the newer streamers are less affected by this, and I shared my findings and traces of this with Naim when they were developing the new streamers)
ReadyDLNA is limited compared to Asset and MinimServer, but depends what you want to do. For more advanced server functionality I use Roon or a RPi running Asset or MinimServer.
The WD MyCloud is really a network drive. A simple USB drive such as a WD MyPassport would be more suited to use with the Atom USB port.
The UPnP server on the Atom, in order to be discoverable over the network by other devices, needs to remain powered up. So if you put the Atom in network standby mode, the main transformer remains powered up to enable this.
You might also want to check out innuos zen mini. Although costs more than a nas. It’s much easier to set up and built for serving and storing audio only.