Any audiophiles out there? How do you manage your music collection? NAS/Server? Etc

Jonathanthomas83

I've become a bit disenchanted with spotify/amazon etc and want to go back to my old FLAC colelction of hi-res music. But my DIY NAS is shite and keeps breaking down. I'm wondering if I could profit from getting a dedicated, proper NAS and do things properly. Are there dedicated hifi systems that solve this issue nowadays or is it just a reliance on a NAS and go from there?

I anticipate responses to this may be few!

octatonic

I don't think of myself as an audiophile but I do like quality audio.
I have some stuff on a Synology 4 bay NAS but I mostly use Spotify, Apple Music.
I have used Tidal in the past too.

I'm going to say something contentious, which is the amplifier/transducer combination plus acoustic treatment of the room trumps playback format.
I converted a bunch of files to FLAC and compared them to good quality AAC and 24bit 96k wave files on some really, really good monitors vs OK monitors (Kii Three's, ATC SCM45a's vs B&W 685 S2 vs B&W 606).
In a blind test almost everyone cannot tell the difference between file format.
They definitely can tell the difference between speakers and amps.

There is a baseline for decent audio quality in terms of file format but IMHO Spotify etc meet that requirement.
Personally I'd throw more money into the monitors/speakers/amps and bass trapping.

Jalapeno

Proper NAS a definite. A lot also have home streaming software as well.

My primary iTunes library (I know) is on PC (non-system disc), copy of Library on additional SATA disc (and backup on a dedicated SATA disc).  Manually copied to NAS at infrequent intervals as it takes a while !

iTunes is a bastard for losing files, and not properly downloading things from the cloud when you buy them - I'm foreever finding zombie albums that have to be deleted and CDs re-ripped(or re-downloaded). I guess unless you're committed - avoid Apple .....

Grumpyrocker

I just keep it all on my PC these days.

In did go down the NAS route for a while running a Twonky server or sometimes Minimserver. Had to make sure I could listen to my FLAC files anywhere in the house. These were then shared to my Marantz hifi via Bubble uPNP on my phone. Spent years tinkering with various options. Differing software servers, sharing protocols, apps etc. 

Not any more.

I've learned to just stop worrying about it and enjoy the music.

Anywhere other than using my PC* I'll use Spotify. Spotify on my hifi via Chromecast Audio.  

Have just this weekend decided I'm going to stop buying the combo of CD/Flac as well as the vinyl too. I'll buy the vinyl of favourite stuff to have a nice item, but I'll use Spotify rather than worrying about having a special digital version on top of the less portable vinyl. I'm not going to stop buying CD/Flac if I'm not buying the vinyl, but I'm not doubling up anymore.

So yes sometimes I'm listening to a lovely vinyl through a pair of nice Q Acoustic speakers or AKG 712 Pro headphones. 

But most often it's Spotify through my Cambridge Audio bluetooth in-ears. And it's good.

Glad I don't have to mess with my crappy NAS anymore.




*truth is quite often I just launch Spotify on my PC too, even though there are FLAC files on the same machine. The horror!

Grumpyrocker

octatonic said:

There is a baseline for decent audio quality in terms of file format but IMHO Spotify etc meet that requirement.
Personally I'd throw more money into the monitors/speakers/amps and bass trapping.

This. It's taken me too much money and time to get here. But glad I eventually got here anyway. Spotify + good speakers/headphones. 

Jonathanthomas83

I'd love to dedicate to Spotify, @Grumpyrocker and @octatonic, but some obscure recordings that I'm quite fond of don't exist on the platform and I always find that a source of frustration. How do you negotiate that?

octatonic

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I'd love to dedicate to Spotify, @Grumpyrocker and @octatonic, but some obscure recordings that I'm quite fond of don't exist on the platform and I always find that a source of frustration. How do you negotiate that?

That's why I have a NAS.
I use Spotify and Apple Music for everything other than the rare stuff, which is on the NAS.

fields5069

If I were an audiophile, then surely "managing" my music collection would just involve choosing and installing the appropriate shelving? I think you mean Music Lover.

Jonathanthomas83

octatonic said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I'd love to dedicate to Spotify, @Grumpyrocker and @octatonic, but some obscure recordings that I'm quite fond of don't exist on the platform and I always find that a source of frustration. How do you negotiate that?

That's why I have a NAS.
I use Spotify and Apple Music for everything other than the rare stuff, which is on the NAS.

Sounds like what I'm currently doing, but it's a pain not having a consolidated view of that.

Grumpyrocker

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I'd love to dedicate to Spotify, @Grumpyrocker and @octatonic, but some obscure recordings that I'm quite fond of don't exist on the platform and I always find that a source of frustration. How do you negotiate that?

I just have them on my PC. I have quite a few, but they are a small part of my listening. 

Jonathanthomas83

@Grumpyrocker thanks, sounds like we're all doing the same thing.

It's a shame though isn't it.

octatonic

Jonathanthomas83 said:

octatonic said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I'd love to dedicate to Spotify, @Grumpyrocker and @octatonic, but some obscure recordings that I'm quite fond of don't exist on the platform and I always find that a source of frustration. How do you negotiate that?

That's why I have a NAS.
I use Spotify and Apple Music for everything other than the rare stuff, which is on the NAS.

Sounds like what I'm currently doing, but it's a pain not having a consolidated view of that.

Sure, but that isn't an option unless you are prepared to store a LOT of data.
I can't possibly have an archive the size of Spotify's data store.
Managing it would be a full-time job.

Grumpyrocker

Jonathanthomas83 said:

@Grumpyrocker thanks, sounds like we're all doing the same thing.

It's a shame though isn't it.

I work from home. So am often at my desk, so that music is readily at hand.

But after many years of tinkering, I think I'd rather miss out on a few albums in other rooms than spend time pissing around with a NAS, servers, and trying to get the fecking cover.jpg images to work.

Jonathanthomas83

Yes true, management is a pain. That said, I'm nowhere near talking a library the size of Spotify's :-)

Grumpyrocker

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Yes true, management is a pain. That said, I'm nowhere near talking a library the size of Spotify's :-)

According to my PC, my music library is 676 albums and 209GB of data. So not vast by any means. 

I've also got the whole lot on a tiny Shanling M0 mp3 player. Yes all the FLAC files. So I could plug that into my hifi at any point and that'd be less hassle than continuing with the whole NAS thing. 

Jonathanthomas83

Yes, you've certainly sold me on the idea of not using a NAS. You're right that in this new world, there's little need for music outside of my home office!

Grumpyrocker

I have also in the past put my entire music collection on a Micro SD card in my phone. 

But over time I've left that idea behind. Spotify really is good enough. Though it took me a long time to admit that to myself.

I still buy CD and Vinyl because I like having the items, and it supports the musicians. But Spotify will do for most listening. 

horse

I used to use Plex server with my files in the cloud but it wasn't really stable enough. Moved to Spotify for convenience.

In terms of rare stuff not on Spotify, you can add local files to Spotify. It's not amazingly flexible, and is a bit of a pain if you're adding new local files regularly, but it does work.

TheBigDipper

I don't use "paid-for" streaming services. One of my bugbears about streaming services is the way they change the music they serve up - sometimes swapping the UK reIease of an album for the US one, or changing the explicit lyrics edition for the radio-friendly edition.

I buy CDs or buy & download from places like Bandcamp. The CDs get ripped to Apple Lossless and go onto a WD MyCloud NAS that I originally bought just to share documents and automate data backups overnight when the laptops are turned off. I organise the folder structure and naming conventions myself - there's no software doing it. The downloads get burnt to CD for playing on the "nice" system (which is 20 years old, so no streaming option).

I stream via my MacBook, iPad or iPhone using 8player Pro. I've got a couple of Sonos SL One wireless speakers in the conservatory and dining room (get me!) which can also cast from the NAS drive. So most of the recorded music I'm listening to is coming from the NAS and I'm selecting it from the 8player Pro or Sonos apps. Sitting in the lounge and putting on a CD is less common than it used to be. 

I'm not sure a WD MyCloud is the best NAS for music. I've had it a while and the software support from WD can be a bit flaky, but it's worked OK so far on the music side of things. 

Grumpyrocker

TheBigDipper said:

The downloads get burnt to CD for playing on the "nice" system (which is 20 years old, so no streaming option).

You could simplify a little by adding a streaming dongle to your "nice" system for very little money. Then stream the same stuff you do on all your devices. No more burning CDs.

Something like this for £30 or a Chromecast Audio. They don't make the latter anymore but you can still buy them.

roberty

As long as the NAS supports DLNA it will work with network streamers. My NAS is a WD something or other

I stream from the network using an IQAudio Pi Dac Pro with Volumio, which also supports Apple Airplay, Spotify Connect, internet radio etc etc.  Distortion measures an order of magnitude below the audible range. It picks up the NAS automatically

I had a dedicated network streamer but it was a black box with regards to firmware which made me nervous (yay built in redundancy)