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  • The Computer Audiophile
    The Computer Audiophile

    Music Storage, New Music, Remote Access, and a Cool Streamer Project

    Hey hey hey CA, this week I had plans to publish a completely different article, but sometimes Spacely Sprockets throws a wrench into Cogswell Cogs business plan. In other words, Schiit happens. 

     

    Anyway, I have a pressing storage issue that requires some input from the CA Community. I found some new music, of which I can't get enough. I'm working on a remote access article to help people trying to access Roon remotely. And, I have a cool streamer project I'd like to start, but want some input from the Community on as well. 

     

     


    Music Storage

     

     

    Let's start with the music storage issue. As discussed in the forum a little while back, Amazon is discontinuing it's $60 per year unlimited Amazon Cloud Drive storage plan. My current "contract" expired August 25th. This is a real pain for me because I have 14.8 terabytes stored on a Synology NAS, that is automatically backed up to Amazon Cloud Drive. When I add new music to my NAS, it is copied to Amazon without me having to touch anything or kick off a process. I guess when something is too good to be true, it is too good to be true. 

     

    Amazon's new storage plans range from $11.99 for 100GB to $1799.70 for 30TB of space. Given my need for 14.8TB, I'd need to spend $1199.80 per year for the 20TB plan. I'm just not willing to rent disk space for that much money.

     

    I've started researching new solutions but haven't found a 1 to 1 replacement of Amazon Cloud Drive. A couple features that I really like about Amazon Cloud Drive are 1) My Synology NAS has built in support for auto-backup directly to the drive, and 2) The interface and ease of sharing content stored on Amazon Cloud Drive (A good friend lost all his music and I admit to allowing him to download a limited amount of my content to replace the exact content he already purchased).

     

    Searching for a replacement, I checked a couple well known companies, but found the pricing way too high and the fine print annoying. For example, Dropbox claims unlimited storage for its Advanced level plan at $20 per month per user. That would be $240 per year for my nearly 15TB of storage. However, reading the fine print, one will find there's a three user minimum. This elevates the price to $720 per year.

     

    Google also says its G Suite customers can upgrade to a business plan for unlimited storage. The fine print says, if there are four or fewer users, 1Tb is the maximum amount of storage per user. Five users at $10 per month is $50 /month or $600 /year. If this is truly unlimited, it's cheaper than Dropbox, but still 10x the cost of Amazon Cloud Drive. Strangely, when I look at the cost of just adding more storage to my Google account, the cost is $200 per month for 20TB. There's something amiss here. I can get unlimited storage for $600 /year or 20TB for $2,400 /year.

     

    Backblaze is another cloud storage company I am investigating for my music backup. The cost of its B2 Cloud plan is $0.005 per GB per month. This would be $75 /month or $900 /year for my 15TB of backed up NAS. 

     

    Perhaps the Amazon Cloud Drive solution (unlimited for $60 per year) was a unicorn that will never be seen again. I need a solution to my issue, but haven't found one that excites me for a reasonable price. 

     

    I'd love of the CA Community to let me know what they are using or to offer suggestions. I'll continue investigating and write up an article about the final selection (hopefully soon).

     

     

     

    amazon-pricing.png my-amazon.png

     

     

     

     

     

     

    New Music

     


    BSR_EP_CoverArt_hi.jpgOn August 10, 2017 I read the latest blog from Bob Lefsetz, raving about the band Greta Van Fleet. I don't usually check out Bob's music recommendations, but this one was different. He said the band sounded like Led Zeppelin. 

     


    "It’s a Led Zeppelin rip-off.

     

    But didn’t Led Zeppelin rip off Willie Dixon and the rest of the bluesmeisters?

     

    If you lived through that era, you will instantly hear mid-period Zeppelin, complete with Robert Plant screams. Then you remember that was 45 years ago! About the same distance, if not longer, that Zeppelin was removed from the classic delta blues artists.

     

    It starts off as homage. Then you take off from there. Think about all the covers on the initial Beatle albums!"

     

     


    After reading Bob's entire blog, I immediately opened Tidal and gave Greta Van Fleet a listen. Then another listen, and another. The band sounds very much like Led Zeppelin, one of my all time favorites. I couldn't stop listening to GVF. I'm glad I actually read Bob's blog before hearing about this band. I could have easily written them off as a Zeppelin imitation band. However, Bob is correct in that Zeppelin copied all the blues masters and that was 45 years ago. All artists are influenced by previous generations of music. This band is no different. 

     

    GFV is an American band from Michigan, formed in 2012. The band hasn't released much in this time, but it's January , 2017 EP titled Black Smoke Rising is what should have everybody listening / talking. I've cranked it up on my main system, my headphone system, and my car system. It's great rock and roll that deserves to be cranked up. 

     

    I highly recommend reading Bob's blog first, then giving the band a listen. it will set your frame of mind and get you excited for a little rock and roll.


    Bob Lefsetz - Greta Van Fleet

     

    Greta Van Fleet - Black Smoke Rising - YouTube | Spotify | Tidal

     

     


     

     


    Remote Access

     


    I've been working off and on trying to gain access to Roon while I'm out of the house. Until Roon on the go is released, we will have to find such a temporary solution.  I know it's possible to do this, but I  want to find an elegant solution that I can recommend to everyone and everyone can either buy or setup without too much trouble.

     

    Launching Roon remote from a mobile device without a WiFi connection, won't work. Roon presents an error message about requiring WiFi. Thus, VPN alone won't due the trick. Whatever device is used, will have to be on a WiFi network. Once this is established, a VPN seems like the next logical step.

     

    There are countless VPN solutions that enable one to access a home network (where the Roon core resides). I've used a couple of them and have been testing several others. So far the PiVPN based on a Raspberry Pi is really nice, but it's another device to put on the network and for which a firewall rule is needed. I'm testing out two different wired routers that have built-in VPN, enabling people to configure this VPN and connect remotely without the need for more devices. I believe both the PiVPN and a router based solution will be good options. 

     

    Feel free to offer recommendations, while I continue my testing. I'll publish an article fairly soon, once I am satisfied with the results. 

     

     

     

     

    Cool Streamer Project

     


    The other day I found a cool RCA Victor AM radio in my basement. This thing has several tubes and even built-in presets for local radio stations. It's built like a tank inside and made of cool wood on the outside. Good luck buying something new like this today. 

     

    My idea is to turn this into a desktop all-in-one streamer, like the Naim Mu-so or Klipsch The Three. I'm not sure what it will take, but I'm starting the investigation today. I'm guessing a Raspberry Pi could be used with something from HiFi Berry, but I have no clue about the other pieces such as if I can still use the tubes, amplifier, and speaker. This project isn't that big, but it's out of my comfort zone as soon as I get beyond the digital streaming part.

     

    I'd love all the input I can get from the CA Community on this project. 

     

    P.S. If this one goes well, I have an old Bendix console radio / record player that I'd love to turn into a great stereo.

     

     

     

    IMG_20170816_112519.jpg IMG_20170816_112613.jpg IMG_20170816_112622.jpg IMG_20170816_112646.jpg




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    On 8/18/2017 at 2:16 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

     

    I wonder if you're grandfathered into the plan. I looked at it yesterday and Google wouldn't enable me to select less than 3 users for the unlimited plan.

    FYI, at this time, even though G-suite marketing says 10/ per user per month and up to 1TB limit per user for 1-4 users and 5 users or more - unlimited data, they actually DON'T enforce it, they will actually allow you (as a one person / one user G-Suite account to have unlimited storage anyhow! )

    Note, this is under G-Suite (not G-Drive), however G-Suite includes G-Drive in addition to all Google Docs, G-Mail, Google Calendar, and a bunch of other features and products and it's only $10/ mo / per one user account and they DO actually allow unlimited storage at this time for one user accounts (it does not state this, but they just seem to allow it anyhow). 

    I suspect that eventually they may start to enforce the rule as written, but perhaps it depends on if a lot of people start to abuse it or not? Their main goal / priority is trying to steal away all of Microsoft Office, OneCloud, and Amazon Drive and Dropbox's customers, that's all they care about as of now. 

    I've also thought about (to play it safe in case they start actually enforcing it), to just get 4 other audiophile friends to pool together so that each person pays the same $10/ mo per user as they would with an individual account, but as being 5 users as a group, we would all then "legally" be entitled to the unlimited data anyhow if and when they did start to actually enforce it in the future. 

    The only problem (which seems to be universal of all cloud storage services) is that they throttle the uploading, thus it's really slow! It has taken me many months now (about 4/5) to upload 10 TB's of music to G-Suite. 

    Also, FYI you can do automatic syncing of a Synology NAS to G-Suite just the same as with Amazon cloud. 

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    @agladstone

    I am quite sure that we can assemble 5 or even 10 users for the access to unlimited storage. However, I do hear you about the throttling, which would surely impact the rate at which the users will be able to upload their music. This makes it hardly any better than many of the other cloud backup solutions available.

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    @foodfiend - it's a shame that they throttle, it's soo slow to upload (about 10mbps) and I've found the more I attempt to upload at once, the slower the upload speed (so one song or one album is about 20mbps, but a 500GB folder will be like 2mbps). 

    Ive asked them about this and they said that:

    A. They're NOT a backup service and G-Drive was not created to backup 40TB's of media files, thus upload speed is of no consideration or importance to them or most users. 

    B. They have an intensive anti-malware and virus scanning software tool that all uploaded data goes through before being uploaded and that this is partially responsible for the slow upload speeds. 

    If you currently have your media stored or backed up on another cloud service (I don't), you can use a service / tool called mult-Cloud or Multi-cloud (can't remember exact name/spelling) and apparently (per some of my friends), that tool will transfer media / data from Amazon Cloud or Dropbox, etc to G-Suite at about 200 mbps, so that is a much faster option. 

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    @agladstone Is it possible to write a script to upload a folder/album at a time sequentially, thereby circumventing the throttling? 20 Mbps, while not speedy, is much better than 2 Mbps.

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    39 minutes ago, foodfiend said:

    @agladstone Is it possible to write a script to upload a folder/album at a time sequentially, thereby circumventing the throttling? 20 Mbps, while not speedy, is much better than 2 Mbps.

    I'm sure it's possible! I'm not at all technical nor capable of such a task, but I'll bet plenty of CA members are! 

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    On 8/19/2017 at 5:46 PM, jimx1169 said:

    I have an 8TB HDD and rent a safe deposit box from my local bank for $75/year.  Once per month or so I retrieve the drive from the box, bring it home and sync any new media, and take it back to the box the next day.

    Very low tech but cheap & easy.  I could save the $75 and keep the drive at a friend's house but I always know when the bank is open.

     

    If the safety deposit boxes had network connections, that would be really cool. 

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    8 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

    If the safety deposit boxes had network connections, that would be really cool. 

    Don't forget the power supply too... ;)

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    28 minutes ago, nsxelent said:

    Just went through a similar data backup decision a few months ago.  

     

    I have 20TB of music on a Synology DS1517+ NAS.  I researched several of the cloud-based storage solutions but ultimately went with a matching Synology NAS for backup.  It's not a cheap option (cost approx $3k for 50TB) but it should provide backup for many years and when you spread that cost over its life, it's not too bad on an annual basis.  The setup is expandable too if I ever need more in the future.  

     

    After I completed the initial 20TB backup on my local network, I moved the backup server offsite (to my in-laws house) and now just perform incremental updates nightly (at 2am when we're not generally on-line).  Synology's Hyperbackup utility makes the whole process relatively easy.

     

    Best regards,

     

    Tony

     

    +1

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    I'm using Carbon Copy for my 4TB music library.  Runs nicely in the background, appropriately alerts when things go wrong.  Weaknesses: took me two months to get backed up to them with my library size of the time (2.1TB) because for whatever bizarre reason, they throttle incoming backup. They also make a big deal out of their "restore acceleration" which is to ship you a 1TB disk of the initial 1TB... yeah, that first TB will really accelerate things...

     

    Ended up staying with them because I couldn't find a cloud backup service near the price and ease of use. There's also a significant amount of gravity from any backup service because of the slow speed of the initial image.  Once you're on, the operational cost of switching is heinous.  I did realize I could probably buy a cloud URL and set up my own backup servers at roughly the same price, even a cloud web host, but the backup software (which does de-dupe, compression, etc) does have value.  I'd rather listen to music than code backup scripts.

     

    All that said... I have four online backups, and three offline. Don't trust, constantly verify.

     

    I'm a couple days of thinking away from building my own zfs cloud backup. one at home, with a backup to a couple disks that live off site at my wife's law offices. Haven't found a cloud where I could run zfs with scripts for backup. That's my fantasy... minus having to code the scripts.

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    Bad news this morning from CrashPlan:  "It's because of this trust that we want you to know that we have shifted our business strategy to focus on the enterprise and small business segments. This means that over the next 14 months we will be exiting the consumer market and you must choose another option for data backup before your subscription expires. We are committed to providing you with an easy and efficient transition."  

     

    Grrrrr

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    On 8/16/2017 at 1:53 PM, mrvco said:

    For off-site backup I use Crashplan (including my digital music library).  The Family Plan is $149.99 / year w/ unlimited storage for up to ten machines.  There is also a single machine plan for $59.99 / year.

     

    LOL... scratch Crashplan Family.  I just received an email notifying me that they are ending their 'home user' plans next year.  Their "Small Business" plan is $10 / month / machine.

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    7 minutes ago, mrvco said:

     

    LOL... scratch Crashplan Family.  I just received an email notifying me that they are ending their 'home user' plans next year.  Their "Small Business" plan is $10 / month / machine.

     

    So $120 per year?  What's the storage capacity?

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    3 hours ago, Johnseye said:

     

    So $120 per year?  What's the storage capacity?

     

    Unlimited.  So it looks as though this just ends up being a price increase for me - from $5.99 per month to $10 a month.  

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    25 minutes ago, kennyb123 said:

     

    Unlimited.  So it looks as though this just ends up being a price increase for me - from $5.99 per month to $10 a month.  

     

    So that's "relatively" nothing.  $720 over 6 years which is the typical lifetime of hardware like a NAS.  @The Computer Audiophile wouldn't that work for you?

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    Just now, Johnseye said:

     

    So that's "relatively" nothing.  $720 over 6 years which is the typical lifetime of hardware like a NAS.  @The Computer Audiophile wouldn't that work for you?

     

    I'd really love a solution I can configure on my NAS rather than have to run a PC just for the backup application. 

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    Time to ask Crashplan if their "small business" solutions support NAS back-up directly.

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    2 minutes ago, foodfiend said:

    Time to ask Crashplan if their "small business" solutions support NAS back-up directly.

     

    Since their focus is now on small business, I suspect they will be inclined to support that.

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    I remember someone had developed a package to run Crashplan on a Synology NAS. However, I am not sure how to get it to work. Crashplan also mention that they do not support NASes - no customer support for that in the "small business" tier.

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