G-pac

Hi All - I have read, and read.....and read more over the weekend to try and find some good advice/guidance for this and have had very little success. I have a WD ShareSpace (5 TB) that has worked well but is running out of space and I just purchased a Synology 1513+ after reading a number of CA threads on the Synology products. NOW - I am trying to figure out the following: Can I use Solid State Drives in this NAS Is it a good idea to use SSDs Can I use both SSDs and HDDs? If so, should I or is this not wise? From what I can tel, I do not need to have 5 HDDs (max # allowed) to get started and can add them as I go - if true, is there a good strategy for doing this (such as - buy fewer large 3/4 TB size drives now, or more smaller capacity drives, etc.)? Sounds like I can set up mutliple partitions, should I consider using SSD for primary and HDDs for RAID portion of array? I prefer to buy products with longer warranty terms and do not mind spending money for quality, but I would also like to do this right and have only done it once before with my WD ShareSpace which came with the HDDs installed, so I did not have any input on the drives it came with. Any lessons learned or informed advice from the CA Community is greatly appreciated. I have a working knowledge of "IT" but no more. I am resourceful and am married to a cyber security SME and have lots of friends and colleagues in the business that I can bug when/if needed. I have over 5 TBs of music, video and picture data currently with plans to keep expanding my collections. My current setup is the WD ShareSpace connected to my MacMini with Amara/Audirvana, feeding a Perfect Wave DAC and it works well and sounds amazing. I would like to use the Synology to serve media to all of our other devices as well as the home theater/2-channel listening room currently served by the WD ShareSpace. Cheers-

To the OP - I have a Mach2Music Mac-Mini (mid 2011) running Snow Leopard, Amarra 2.5 (I think) and iTunes 11. The mini has had a couple of significant hardware mods done to it recently, including an external power supply (not battery). I have been running Amarra on it for a couple of months and have a PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC. I have been AMAZED at the sound quality this configuration has produced. I am not a huge fan of the Amarra GUI, but it has improved over the 3+ versions I have used, and based on what my "mac-mini mod guy" said about Audirvana and Lion (not sure if ML or not), I wanted to check it out for myself. I downloaded the Audirvana software this weekend and was very impressed with the ease of install, the settings/preferences were well defined and easy to understand, and I had the system humming in less than an hour in INTEGER mode (as confirmed by the yellow INT on the GUI). I still have not finished enough comparative listening time, but my first impression between Amarra and Audirvana sound quality is that they are very close on my system. I hear a much more obvious and forward soundstage with the Amarra, and a little more clarity at lower volumes on the Audirvana on hi rez audio files that I downloaded from HD Tracks (converted FLAC to 16-bit AIF files so I can run them through iTunes-for now). I have not had the chance yet to hear what my CDs ripped to 16-bit AIF sounds like and plan to listen more tonight. I am happy with iTunes 11 overall. It took a little bit to get used to the changes and I can see why some do not like it. I also run in 64bit mode and have 16 gig of RAM - which rocks BTW..... BOTTOM LINE: ....the combo of Snow Leopard, iTunes 11, Amarra and/or Audirvana has been stable and very enjoyable to me and I am just trying now to determine if I hear enough of a difference to stick with one or the other. Amarra is not cheap, but Audirvana is VERY reasonably priced, and if money is a factor for you in deciding between the two NOW - I would say hands-down, the Audirvana is a great value for the price. Hope this helps a bit -- happy to elaborate more if not. Good luck!

Just to chime in on this...I had a number of questions "pre-purchase" and received timely email responses to each. Further, when the unit I ordered arrived, I thought it had the wrong OS installed (Lion vice SL) and I emailed them to request a return/exchange. I got a call, not an email, from the owner of the company who spent 20 minutes giving me his thoughts on why I should stick with SL. I took his advice and have been thoroughly enjoying my M2M unit and have been more than satisfied with the customer service to date. I am not a M2M "evangelist" by any means, just a happy customer who had a very positive buying and customer support experience to share with you. -Cheers

Hoping this is the correct forum location for this. It might fit also under Music Server, but I am not sure. I am trying to stream my iTunes library (mixed file sizes and types) to my audio system from my upstairs office (about 45 feet apart from each other). I run an iMac 27" with Lion from my office where my iTunes library currently resides. To do this, I came up with the following plan of action (based on what I have been able to read online and in print). >>> Run iTunes (with Amarra) from the 27" iMac in office and transfer the iTunes library to a NAS. Connect NAS to Mac Mini via CAT 6 ethernet. Connect Mac Mini to PW DAC via Furetech USB. Connect DAC to Audio Contraol AVR - 1 Receiver

Jamie- thank you so much for the detailed and thoughtful response. Based on your reply, I am clearly in the right place for quality advice and input and your IT credentials are certainly impressive. I am a defense contractor (non-technical, think PMP) and my wife is a very senior EE with Lockheed. She has the more technical "Apple/MAC chops" but we are both a little overwhelmed with the options we have identified during our initial research. Your input is exactly what we were/are hoping for to help us narrow down our options/choices. As for the PS Audio (not PSB, sorry) Perfect Wave DAC (PWD), I thought I would need a way to access my iTunes library (and photos/vids at some point in the future) from a NAS, and my CDs from a dedicated Emotiva or Oppo transport in my rack. From your reply, maybe I am going about this incorrectly. With my iMac and NAS (and time capsule/router) located upstairs in my office and my rack/theater downstairs (roughly 80-90 foot cable run), I thought that I needed a DAC that could also serve as a music server. I had not considered using a Mac for this. - **How would I set this up? In addition to my iMac 27", my wife and I also have 2-3 other older Macbooks (a pro and a non-pro) that could be put to better use than they are now, collecting dust. We have an iPad dedicated to the theater also so this would be a desirable setup if I can get it to work without any sacrifice to music fidelity/quality.** With regard to the iTunes Plus question, I was only concerned with upgrading my purchased iTunes files that were purchased prior to the change to 256 file types (from 128 I think) by Apple in the 2009-10 timeframe. I never paid much attention to file formats/settings when I ripped many of my CDs into my iTunes library over 5 years ago and want to go back and rip them again correctly this time using the correct software and settings. Essentially starting from scratch with y CD collection transfer to iTunes. Our NAS will be initially set up to store my wife's and my iTunes libraries as a merged single library. We then plan to move ALL of our other media over to it once we get it working correctly. We agree, not a dedicated music NAS. I will keep your suggestions in mind regarding disk price versus volume (redundant) when making the final decision to order drives for the NAS. Are you OK with me sending you our list of finalists and the supporting analysis? Again, thank you for taking so much time. I look forward to any of your additional insights and lessons learned. I am wondering if I posted this in the wrong forum since the responses have been so limited. I did not think it would get enough attention in the General Forum, and thought that the NAS was really more of a storage/server issue, my primary concern at this point. Cheers- G-Pac

Hey all- Been lurking and researching for months now and putting off the actual build/configure steps as a result of finding so much info ad so many conflicting opinions. I have searched and searched and am getting too much disparate info and need your collective help to drill down so I can make some decisions. I have listed my major system components in my sig line. I am building this system piece-by-piece and now that I have a solid power source (Audio Control), I am looking to buy a DAC and speakers. I am working with a local installer who is recommending the PSB Perfect Wave DAC and I am inclined to agree with this suggestion. A number of questions have come up since we started researching this component that he is unsure of b/c my system is all Apple/MAC. GOAL: I am trying to build a quality 2 channel audio system that I can access my sizable music library built largely in iTunes (through purchase and ripping of my DC collection) in highest resolution format possible since sound quality is a major factor to me. I am trying to determine a few key things and may be going about it all wrong. My basic/primary questions are: 1) How can I upgrade my 3500+ songs in iTunes to Plus? I had this option a few months ago and was waiting to upgrade and now that I am ready I do not see the option in iTunes. 2) How should I convert and/or save my upgraded iTunes library (Plus) to a NAS? 3) Do I need Pure Music/Amarra if I am purchasing a DAC? The next (secondary) questions I have are: 1) Trying to decide on a NAS and the front runners are Synology, Dropo, Onnto, and Promise SmartStor (based mostly on what I have read/found on this site). Any suggestions on the best way to make an informed decision on this based on independent testing/reviews? Results I have found seem to be largely anecdotal at best. Any suggestions from any of you that have gone down this path already are appreciated. I am ready to pull the trigger and purchase the equipment, I just feel that there is so much info available and I have not been able to distill it down to actionable levels. I am now totally indecisive and frustrated. Many thanks. G-pac