Need help setting up a new server for music only.

[dikkiedirk]

As Asset runs runs on a limited choice of hardware I like your opinion on the best performing configuration/setup.

1. Windows 7 PC accessing a share on a NAS.

2. A dedicated NAS for music that can run Asset natively. QNAP (which family?) Synology?, other Linux based solutions.

3. Windows Home Server for Music storage running Asset.

Asset might have to do on the fly converting/transcoding flac to wav.

I left out Mac solutions as I don't own a Mac.

[Spoon]

Define best performing....a true computer will be faster to browse (if you have a massive collection of files), if not then a normal nas will seem identical. On the fly converting can be done on any platform without performance issues. If you have 8 locations around the home which all play at the same time then potentially better server hardware is required than an ARM cpu.

[dikkiedirk]

Best performing in respect to serving upto 24/192 flacs to possibly 4 to devices without network or other hiccups, slowdowns etc. The devices are ipad, iphone and Android phones and a network audio player. This may grow in future. The library will definitely grow and I am currently at 500 albums/6000 songs. I'd rather avoid running Asset on a PC connecting to a share on a server.

[Spoon]

Perhaps go for a QNAP which has the faster intel atom cpu and more memory than the base arm systems.

[dikkiedirk]

Perhaps go for a QNAP which has the faster intel atom cpu and more memory than the base arm systems.

On which QNAP families does Asset run natively? It won't run on a TS-639, eventhough it has a Intel CPU.

[Spoon]

All models are listed next to the download:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm

So a TS-469 is supported (it needs the 64 bit Intel Atom CPU).

[matt_lazell]

Define best performing....a true computer will be faster to browse (if you have a massive collection of files), if not then a normal nas will seem identical. On the fly converting can be done on any platform without performance issues. If you have 8 locations around the home which all play at the same time then potentially better server hardware is required than an ARM cpu.

hi Spoon,

I'm looking to move from a PC to a NAS based music system. I'm doing some research and have come to the conclusion that Asset running on QNAP is the way to go, and I'm now trying to work out what QNAP NAS to go for, particularly with regard to the ARM vs Intel question. My music collection is around 25,000 files at present.

could I ask for clarification on your above statement that "a true computer will be faster to browse (if you have a massive collection of files)". Are you just talking about an initial scan of the file system? Because I would have thought that even the most puny processor (by modern standards) should have no difficulty zipping through an indexed database of files and metadata, certainly for 10s of thousands of files and probably for 100s of thousands.

many thanks for your help,

Matt

[Spoon]

Many of the processors in QNAPs are pretty similar to what you would have in a phone...and I would not expect my phone to be snappy doing a database browse on 50K files. Put it this way...on a modern full computer you could encode to mp3 at around 50x encoding speed (in that a 50 second file would take 1 second to encode). ARM processors cannot even do x1, hence why there is no option for mp3 transcoding on the arm.

[matt_lazell]

thanks for your response. I guess I only have 6,000 of my tunez on my Android phone, which can be navigated instantly on PowerAmp, but maybe I would notice performance issues once the full 25,000 were being scanned.

your comment "there is no option for mp3 transcoding on the arm" seems at odds with your previous comment "On the fly converting can be done on any platform without performance issues". Does this mean that by "any platform" you meant "any platform running an x86 or x64 CPU"?

[Spoon]

Most people never encode to mp3 on the fly, they will decode to wave or lpcm.

[matt_lazell]

ok. So you can transcode to lossless formats on ARM, but not to mp3 (which needs converting twice). And ARM can handle wav/lpcm at 24bit?

[Spoon]

All lossless is supported on arm for transcoding.

[matt_lazell]

brilliant. That's been a real help to my research effort. Appreciate your prompt, clear and helpful responses Spoon.