A better NAS than Readynas NV+

We use the Tune Method to evaluate performance

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Erik
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A better NAS than Readynas NV+

Post by Erik »

I'm going to buy another NAS for a second location and would like to know if there is a better one than the Readynas NV+ today. The NV+ is getting rather old and lot of new ones has been released. Has anyone compared NASs lately?
The only thing really interesting me is how they compare tune-wise.

/Erik
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Post by DeQMaster »

Hi dude


I can assure that there is no difference related to tune performance between any NAS you can buy or build.

Just buy the one that best suits your needs.

Regards
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Post by lejonklou »

I have a fair amount of experience with these details and there are obvious differences in sound quality between NAS:es (and harddisks+RAM), switches, their positioning, power supplies and network cabling. If your digital side isn't sounding very good to begin with, it's difficult to notice any differences by just changing one part. But once you start getting it really good, small changes become easy to detect. Optimising the digital side of a DS system can bring substantial improvements to how well the music is being reproduced.

There are of course lots of things I haven't compared, and one of these is the difference between NV+ and Duo. Anyone who can comment on their relative sound quality differences? So far I have not heard, or heard of, any NAS sounding better than those two.

I have also not heard any better sounding switch than the GS108.

Regarding harddisks, I believe Paolo has made some recent discoveries. Feel like sharing them, Paolo?
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Post by SaltyDog »

Not a sound based comment as my QNap (409 Pro) is the only one I have heard. It just works. I'm very satisfied.
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Post by Erik »

Different NASs absolutely sounds different. I have lately compared my NV+ with a QNAP 209 and the difference was obvious. I really wish there was as most people states, no difference as there is only digital digits.
I don't like Twonky and the NV+ is slow and noisy even with a new fan and upgraded memory.


Always pay attention to details!

/Erik
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Post by ThomasOK »

I am quite curious about this too. I have not heard any NAS units in a controlled setup other than the NV+ so I'm afraid I can't help. But since Netgear has come out with higher performance (from a technical standpoint) versions like the NV-X and NV-Pro it would be great to know if these kept the good musical quality while giving faster performance and improved capabilities. Or better yet if they actually improved musical quality too.
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Post by Charlie1 »

Any ideas how a NAS can have any effect on sound? I've read that one potential reason the directly-connected-to-DS Ethernet cable can impact sound is that it might be acting as an aerial. Maybe the switch/router at the end of this link can also be put down to the same reason, but really strange that a NAS connected further down the network can have any impact. Presume this is nothing to do with the quality of the CD copy on the NAS and you're just referring to the NAS hardware?
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Post by paolo »

lejonklou wrote: Regarding harddisks, I believe Paolo has made some recent discoveries. Feel like sharing them, Paolo?
Yes, though I cannot really explain the reason, In my experience HDDs can make a musically very significant difference. The best HDD I've found so far is the Seagate Constellation ES, surprisingly better than the previous best one which was the ES.2 again from Seagate. My suggestion for anyone who wants to get the best out of his DS is just to try one of these, both 1TB and 2TB versions are really good.

About the NASes I fear I cannot help, Readynas NV+ is still the best NAS in my experienc, but I've never compared it against the newer more powerful models from Netgar or Qnap.
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Post by SaltyDog »

paolo,

If I am not mistaken these drives are 2.5" drives. I am needing to upgrade my capacity on my QNap 409 turbo pro. I use 3.5" drives. I'm considering going for the 1TB SATA Hard Disks ST31000340NS. These are the 1TB version of the 500GB drives I'm now using.

Any listening experience to guide me?
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Post by DeQMaster »

Hi

I wonder what, besides de quality/long of the ethernet cable and the little current noise that can be conducted by it, can affect the quality of the music that the DS constructs on itself.

I mean, over the ethernet the correct packets that reach destiniy are lots more than the correct info during reading a CD, because the if packets are corrupted or missing, the DS can ask to the remote server to replace them with a new copy, but the Cd player cant do that in real time. Once the correct packets are in the DS, its it what builds up the analog sound you hear, so, i cant find a reason why the NAS should change any of this.

Capacities of long runs of ethernet wire? sure, as well as any other long run of any wire.

Maybe my equipment is not good enough to notice such things.
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Post by Daniel »

SaltyDog wrote:paolo,

If I am not mistaken these drives are 2.5" drives. I am needing to upgrade my capacity on my QNap 409 turbo pro. I use 3.5" drives. I'm considering going for the 1TB SATA Hard Disks ST31000340NS. These are the 1TB version of the 500GB drives I'm now using.

Any listening experience to guide me?
ST31000340NS is the seagate ES.2 that Paolo refers to. (1Tb)
ST31000524NS would be the new one, aka ES. Or ST32000644NS for 2Tb
All 3.5" drives

I hope that helps




Regards
/Daniel

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Post by SaltyDog »

Great News!

That is the 1 TB version of the 500GB drives I'm using. I was strongly leaning towards staying with what I know works both IT and Tune.

Thanks for clearing it up for me.
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Post by paolo »

Daniel wrote:
ST31000340NS is the seagate ES.2 that Paolo refers to. (1Tb)
ST31000524NS would be the new one, aka ES. Or ST32000644NS for 2Tb
All 3.5" drives
Yes thanks Daniel, ST31000524NS and ST32000644NS are exactly the Constellation HDDs I was referring to, and they're both 3.5" models.

Paolo
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Post by Erik »

Thanks Paolo.
I will replace my existing disks with your suggestion.
NV+ is very affordable today and you get used to the rather plegmatic behaviour.

Erik
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Post by paolo »

Erik wrote:Thanks Paolo.
I will replace my existing disks with your suggestion.
NV+ is very affordable today and you get used to the rather plegmatic behaviour.

Erik
Yes I agree about the NV+, as a music library it's still perfectly ok and very reliable.

Please be careful about the capacity of the HDDs you're going to buy: while I'm using the Constellation ST31000524NS 1TB for a couple of months without problems with the NV+, I cannot say anything about the compatibility of NV+ with the 2TB version, and it's also not included in the producer's compatibility list.

What HDDs are you using at the moment?
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Post by Erik »

I'm using Barracuda .12 500GB today and I'm going to replace them with 1TB's. We compared my NAS with a friends QNAP 219? with ES2's and mine was better even if the ES2 discs are ahead of my discs.

/Erik
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Post by Erik »

Update.
I have changed my disks to Constellation ES 1TB and the improvement is obvious. I can't understand why and life would be simple if there was no difference.

/Erik
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Post by Tony Tune-age »

Erik wrote:Update.I have changed my disks to Constellation ES 1TB and the improvement is obvious. I can't understand why and life would be simple if there was no difference.
Life would certainly be much simpler if there were no sonic differences. But on the other hand...it's never boring learning about sonic changes in the audio world, and sometimes they are fun 8) .
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Post by Erik »

I have finally found a better NAS than the ReadyNAS NV+!
The Ripnas Z1000 is the best one I have tried and also vey user friendly when it comes to ripping. The downside is the price.
Almost as good and a real bargain is the WD My Book World Edition 2 1TB! It's almost as good as the Ripnas and fundamentally better than my NV+ with ES constellation discs and exchanged fan.

The WD is also fanless and comes with Twonky preinstalled.

/Erik
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Post by paolo »

Erik wrote:I have finally found a better NAS than the ReadyNAS NV+!
The Ripnas Z1000 is the best one I have tried
/Erik
Very interesting! Which version of RAIDiator, Twonky and RAM memory do you have in your Readynas?

I'll have the chance to try a Ripnas S1000, do you know how it compares to the Z1000 model?

Paolo
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Post by ThomasOK »

Erik, if I understand you correctly you are talking about the 1TB version of the WD My Book World Edition II. This seems to be quite a find as it is quite inexpensive for something that would outperform the NV+! Have you had a chance to listen to the 2TB version as well. If I end up going that way I'd like the extra capacity as, I imagine, would several others.
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Post by Erik »

RAIDiator 4.1.6
Twonky 6.0.30
1GB ram.

I have only tried the 1 TB version but I'm curious about the 2TB as well. I was very surprised of the outcome when I compared the NASes. As a reality check, my NV+ outperformed a friends Duo.
I don't know the difference between Ripnas s and z models.

/Erik
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Post by Daniel »

Hi
It also outperformed my duo.
RAIDiator 4.1.7
Twonky 6.0.30
1GB ram
1 Tb ES.2 discs


Just a small note.

As Erik said it´s the 2.0 version (1tb) of the WD that was tested. If it has a "II" added to the name it´s the two disc version.

Western Digital My Book World Edition II 2.0 2TB = two discs
Western Digital My Book World Edition 2.0 2TB = one disc
/Daniel

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Post by paolo »

Hi,
I've tried the Ripnas S1000 (two disks version) and I've found it clearly less musical than my Readynas NV+ (RaRAIDiator 4.1.6 Twonky 4.1.17, 0,5GB ram, 1 Tb Constellation ES, Noctua fan). An old Qnap109 with ES.2 disk was also better than the Ripnas (though beaten by NV+).

It would be interesting to know what's the reason of our different findings. Most HW parts should be identical between Z1000 and the S1000, while the disks could differ: S1000 has two 2.5" WD5000BEVT, which disk is inside the Z1000? In my experience WD disks are generally quite a bit worse sounding than Seagate ones.

On a different matter, do you have compared Twonky 6.0.30 with the 5.1.x version? I haven't tried that but a couple of fellow guys whose ears I trust report 5 better.

Paolo
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Post by Per A »

If different NAS sound different it means the DS concept is not working, ie to separate the player from the memory.

Could not the differences be explained by power supplies of the NASes? If one causes current peaks.

This is one area I will not enter again. :)
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