JDutko Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Hi Folks, My first post here - just got re-introduced to nice audio reproduction. I wonder if anyone has used a Synology NAS and its Audio Station app with an integrated amp, such as the NAD D3020, connected via USB. I own a NAD D3020, constantly amazed by it, and Sonos Connect to render music via coax. Sonos works pretty well with my crappy, almost useless, NAS (Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition) for 16/44 flac files. A caveat of Sonos is its inability to render above 16 bit/44 kHz files. The DAC in the D3020 can do it but the stupid Iomega has no chance at bridging the connection. The ideal setup is to upgrade our NAS to Sonolgy and have it render music to the D3020 via USB because we don't want to connect/disconnect our laptop every time we want to play 24 bit files. NAD supplies drivers for the D3020 to function downstream of my PC. My guess is that USB direct from Synology to D3020 might not work without drivers for the Synology control software. Alternative suggestions or solutions appreciated! Plan B is a media server such as CAPS or other instead of Synology and adding Synology later. Thanks! Link to comment
phatoldsun Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Hi Folks, My first post here - just got re-introduced to nice audio reproduction. I wonder if anyone has used a Synology NAS and its Audio Station app with an integrated amp, such as the NAD D3020, connected via USB. I own a NAD D3020, constantly amazed by it, and Sonos Connect to render music via coax. Sonos works pretty well with my crappy, almost useless, NAS (Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition) for 16/44 flac files. A caveat of Sonos is its inability to render above 16 bit/44 kHz files. The DAC in the D3020 can do it but the stupid Iomega has no chance at bridging the connection. The ideal setup is to upgrade our NAS to Sonolgy and have it render music to the D3020 via USB because we don't want to connect/disconnect our laptop every time we want to play 24 bit files. NAD supplies drivers for the D3020 to function downstream of my PC. My guess is that USB direct from Synology to D3020 might not work without drivers for the Synology control software. Alternative suggestions or solutions appreciated! Plan B is a media server such as CAPS or other instead of Synology and adding Synology later. Thanks! Hi, welcome to CA. If USB out of the Synology works is probably dependent on the DAC it is connected to. It does have the Music Station player and USB audio out. I got my DS213 to work with a Audioquest DragonFly. I haven't tried it with other DACs. This thread suggests it works with a Schiit Bifrost. http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/synology-network-attached-storage-schiit-bifrost-digital-analogue-converter-18368/index2.html There is a compatible equipment list on Synology's website too. It runs a version of Linux, but I don't know about loading drivers to it. Link to comment
JDutko Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 Thanks for the reply and greeting! Quick question, does the DragonFly require Audioquest drivers when connected to a PC? I saw the Schiit post but I figured I might post my specifics. I'll check the compatible list, thanks. I saw a list of USB speakers but not DACs. As for Linux, I found this comment which indicates easy compatibility with Fedora. I am checking with the Synology forums too, so maybe someone over there knows. Link to comment
phatoldsun Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Thanks for the reply and greeting! Quick question, does the DragonFly require Audioquest drivers when connected to a PC? I saw the Schiit post but I figured I might post my specifics. I'll check the compatible list, thanks. I saw a list of USB speakers but not DACs. As for Linux, I found this comment which indicates easy compatibility with Fedora. I am checking with the Synology forums too, so maybe someone over there knows. Not sure. I think the DragonFly is designed so no drivers are required. It's only 96/24. I'm on Mac. No drivers needed. Link to comment
JDutko Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 Thanks for letting me know. No word from other forums yet. I also asked NAD folks and my local shop if they could test the Synology DiskStation USB direct connect. It such a simple solution for now, I hope it is possible. Link to comment
mattpitts74 Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 I also have the NAD d3020, but I haven't tried connecting directly to my synolgy yet, I will give it a go and report back. Link to comment
JDutko Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 Fantastic! Thanks for your help. It would be great if it works but info either way is super helpful to me. Link to comment
stkandl523 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Hi, I'm also curious to hear the results of the test. Another possibility for connectivity between the Synology and the NAD would be to use an USB optical output dongle connected to the NAS, with optical running to an input on the NAD. I was searching around to see if others had success with one of these, and stumbled on Synology's version, which even comes with a remote. No idea how well it'd work, but its definitely intriguing! Synology - Network Attached Storage (NAS) Link to comment
stkandl523 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Update - looks like the Synology Remote might be discontinued. THough it's still listed on their webpage, I haven't found any shops that carry it. Link to comment
JDutko Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Hi, I'm also curious to hear the results of the test. Another possibility for connectivity between the Synology and the NAD would be to use an USB optical output dongle connected to the NAS, with optical running to an input on the NAD. This is an interesting idea. Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into this possibility too! Link to comment
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