Any Preferred In-House Media Files Storage/Apps?

[Bones3DFC]

All input welcome - Different, personal preferences are welcome.
Aside from CD and Phono - I’m curious about different file (example, FLAC) storage and access to said storage for playing audio files.

Assuming a reciever with any network capability. Do you like.... HTPC with connected USB drives for even more storage? Or do you go the NAS route? Or do you simply store [any] amount of music on your everyday laptop, not concerned about crashing because everything is backed up?

I use Plex for movies - but for music Plex is... boring and... tank-like (?) so how do you like to interact with and even manage your digital collection?

Side question - if the reader isn’t already shaking her/his head: am to understand, through the use of apps, modern receivers have adjustable eq settings? I mean, dust me off or bury me but I’m sitting here with the old school 20-band graphic equalizer running to some old Bose speakers. (I’m shopping around for my first, real, entertainment system).

 

[lovinthehd]

I am currently listening to music streaming to my avr over my wifi network from my laptop (and have several backup copies on separate drives, both hdd and usb type), mostly music I've ripped from my cd's into FLAC files. I can also direct music from the pc to other network devices (bluray players, chromecast audio devices) via an android app called BubbleUPnP. I use foobar2000 on the pc itself. My avrs have both automatic eq programs (Audyssey) and on board graphic eq (some avrs have parametric eq), but my Audyssey avrs pre-date the current Audyssey app that you can use from your phone/tablet. If I had more content, like ripped movies, I'd probably use a NAS but I just use the discs for movies.

 

[-Jim-]

Hi Bones,

Welcome to the forum. I have used both networking one of my PCs with over a terabyte of FLAC tunes and about 400 GB of decent MP3s (before I found FLAC); and using both USB Thumb Drives or USB Portable Hard Drives.

Using my older receivers, the networking was cumbersome, slow and I could only play one tune at a time and had to leave the PC on (in another room). I built a Home Theater PC (really just for tunes) and it allowed my to use software to make playlists, and worked reasonably well; but there was still another device to mess with.

With my newest receiver see Denon AVR-X4400H - Initial Setup I've only tried a 500 GIg portable USB drive and it works great. The 4400 has a built in media player, and allows you to make / edit a playlist on the fly. So I can jump around and grab a tune or two off an album, and then browse and grab some more. It's not perfect, but a very workable solution.

In regard to your second question, most new receivers have manual "tone controls" but they are in the setup screens and not knobs on the front like in the past. If you don't like Audyssey EQ setup (or another automatic speaker correction program - as some manufacturers use their own in house software).

Some manual tone controls can control each individual speaker which is far more flexible than a graphic equalizer adjusting all of the speakers with the same correction at one time. So if you want to boost, say bass on the left front speaker, so it balances with the right one that's tight in a corner, you can.

Most here will recommend a lot of different speaker manufacturers, but very few (if any) will recommend Bose.

 

[Bucknekked]

As @lovinthehd said, an AVR with a HTPC or PC is a pretty flexible and capable setup. There are so many different ways to put together a solution its hard to recommend just one. Most people would tend to focus on just a few key things they want a system to do, and then its easy from there to pick the specifics.

For me, I want to sit in my wonderfully comfortable recliner and use an iPad or tablet to control the music in my music room. As long as I can do that, I'm pretty happy. So I run iTunes as my library manager ( Foobar2000 Jriver Plex and any number of other solutions also provide that functionality) and from there I have my library at my fingertips.

I have a Mac Mini attached to my Denon AVR via HDMI so I can use the big screen TV as the console if I want to view stuff, or, just use the tablet as the control and go headless on the PC.

With complete flexibility, comes dozens of decisions. So by limiting what I'm really concerned about, I simplify the choices I need to make. If my needs or wants change, this particular setup (AVR + HTPC) gives me tons of flexibility should I want it.

 

[Bones3DFC]

Thank you for these thoughtful replies! I didn’t disappear - I just slip into rabbit holes
The good news is - I’ll have a decent AVR - so it sounds like (as a beginner, mind you) I could toss a thumbstick at a Denon 3400 or 4400 and totally rock out.

Yep - the goal is - sit in recliner, remote/app in hand, viewing my album collection on the big screen - the JRiver trial I’m testing is ... phenomenal.

Again - thank you -
For the casual reader here’s where I’m at so far. I bought a $1,200 laptop so I’m able to test the waters. I can already see my source should be cabled in as opposed to WiFi which can go wonky when even one WiFi light bulb on your network turns on - even if you assign reserved IPs to everything in your network.

Laptop experimenting leads me to think: ok, a HTPC should work nicely. These little, Intel Nucs seem to be wonderful. The rabbit hole is - do you need something that compact and quiet - can you build your own - can you put a monster desktop shell down in your basement/closet and not care about noise - and it just seems to get deeper and deeper.

Which leads to storage. Where does one keep 5TBs of movies and music and that rabbit hole opens with - when/will that 5TB double or triple or quadruple - not to mention the future of 4K. So now you’re in the NAS rabbit hole. I’m so far down that hole I actually noticed a true audiophile mention something about buzzing, hissing, USB, name brand of NAS, and so on.

I don’t know if I have enough money or even years in life left (I’m old) to become an actual audiophile. Errrrrrrr, a knowledgeable one, anyway.

Yeah. Okay. Now that I’ve left all the rabbit holes and as I sit here relating the experience as a whole - I think I’ll start with a new Denon AVR, a new HTPC to transcode video and run software such as Plex and JRiver, etc. new ... external drives of the.. flash errr SSD errrr diskless variety.

Then I’d be up and running harder, higher and faster than I ever have - and I can always add or switch over to the NAS thing later. I already have a remote server/space plus my Google Drive is virtually unlimited with a domain name - there’s something about a NAS that doesn’t sit right with me. Back in the day there was a contraption known as a TV/VCR combo. If the VCR broke, you couldn’t watch TV and if the TV broke, you couldn’t use the VCR. Ya know what I’m sayin’?

Hey. I have a whole new question I’m about to start a new topic with

 

[Bucknekked]

Thank you for these thoughtful replies! I didn’t disappear - I just slip into rabbit holes
The good news is - I’ll have a decent AVR - so it sounds like (as a beginner, mind you) I could toss a thumbstick at a Denon 3400 or 4400 and totally rock out.

Yep - the goal is - sit in recliner, remote/app in hand, viewing my album collection on the big screen - the JRiver trial I’m testing is ... phenomenal.

Again - thank you -
For the casual reader here’s where I’m at so far. I bought a $1,200 laptop so I’m able to test the waters. I can already see my source should be cabled in as opposed to WiFi which can go wonky when even one WiFi light bulb on your network turns on - even if you assign reserved IPs to everything in your network.

Laptop experimenting leads me to think: ok, a HTPC should work nicely. These little, Intel Nucs seem to be wonderful. The rabbit hole is - do you need something that compact and quiet - can you build your own - can you put a monster desktop shell down in your basement/closet and not care about noise - and it just seems to get deeper and deeper.

Which leads to storage. Where does one keep 5TBs of movies and music and that rabbit hole opens with - when/will that 5TB double or triple or quadruple - not to mention the future of 4K. So now you’re in the NAS rabbit hole. I’m so far down that hole I actually noticed a true audiophile mention something about buzzing, hissing, USB, name brand of NAS, and so on.

I don’t know if I have enough money or even years in life left (I’m old) to become an actual audiophile. Errrrrrrr, a knowledgeable one, anyway.

Yeah. Okay. Now that I’ve left all the rabbit holes and as I sit here relating the experience as a whole - I think I’ll start with a new Denon AVR, a new HTPC to transcode video and run software such as Plex and JRiver, etc. new ... external drives of the.. flash errr SSD errrr diskless variety.

Then I’d be up and running harder, higher and faster than I ever have - and I can always add or switch over to the NAS thing later. I already have a remote server/space plus my Google Drive is virtually unlimited with a domain name - there’s something about a NAS that doesn’t sit right with me. Back in the day there was a contraption known as a TV/VCR combo. If the VCR broke, you couldn’t watch TV and if the TV broke, you couldn’t use the VCR. Ya know what I’m sayin’?

Hey. I have a whole new question I’m about to start a new topic with

I didn't see any specific questions in your post, but, I get the general drift of the conversation. I've been in the vicinity of some of the same ideas for a while now. I just built a new machine in my household so now I face many of those issues of making storage available without pinning it down to a specific machine that has to be up all the time.

I haven't decided which way I will go just yet. I have the luxury of time to decide because the machine in my music room where the audio equipment lives has a complete copy of my music library. The primary copy is on a machine I moved to my wifes office, so it still exists. My backup copies all still exist too. So, what do I want to do moving forward to simplify storage access if I can?

It sounds like you've looked over some of the same ideas: NAS, or something akin to it. Then there's just locally attached drives to each machine that you keep in sync somehow. The good news is that it all will work. There is no bad news that I can tell. Its an area where solutions are plentiful, and none of them are really "bad". Some better than others at making your life simpler, but, as long as the music is available when you want it without too much hassle, there is lots to choose from.

Soundvault is a solution that gets a lot of good press. PLEX servers do to. All require some hardware storage. I honestly don't know which way I will jump. NAS (or something similar) has the edge right now, but, I'm still open to suggestions.

 

[sterling shoote]

Airport Express wired to my amp and my modem/router gives me an Airplay function. That's a means to enjoy my iTunes library from my laptop, iPhone, and iPad wirelessly to the amplifier. The Airport Express receives any digital output converting it to 16/44.1, which is sent to amp via optical S/PDIF connection where my amp does DAC.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Airport Express wired to my amp and my modem/router gives me an Airplay function. That's a means to enjoy my iTunes library from my laptop, iPhone, and iPad wirelessly to the amplifier. The Airport Express receives any digital output converting it to 16/44.1, which is sent to amp via optical S/PDIF connection where my amp does DAC.

This pretty much my approach too. I have a couple TB in my pc which is in my bedroom. iTunes/airport express/apples “remote” app and I’m good. I can stream all day while browsing AH! My avr is too clunky compared to my iphone.

 

[rojo]

If you're comfortable navigating a command line and have no problem flashing firmware, then here's a low power consumption solution. Some routers offer a USB 3.0 port -- my Asus TM-AC1900, for example. It has identical hardware to the Asus RT-AC68U but can often be found for around $50 - $60 refurb. You can often find an 8TB Seagate external drive on Newegg's website for around $140.

Look for a router model that can run community-developed firmware on it such as DD-WRT, Tomato, Merlin, or similar. Those firmwares will usually offer Entware, a sort of mini Linux package manager similar to apt on Debian, yum on Red Hat, emerge on Gentoo, etc. Installing it is usually a simple matter of plugging in a hard drive, running a script (/usr/sbin/entware-install.sh on Tomato),and letting the package manager install itself. Thereafter, you can "opkg update" and "opkg list | grep -i upnp". You'll see a few UPnP servers available -- MediaTomb and Gerbera, to name a couple. "opkg install gerbera" will install Gerbera UPnP server + all its dependencies automatically. Tweak its conf file in /opt/etc to enable the web interface, then you can complete setup via a web browser.

Now your router is your media server.

If you're curious, this isn't the solution I use. My media server is my HTPC. The UPnP server software I use is Serviio. I do have an 8TB drive attached to my router, though, serving as a NAS. *shrug*

 

[Bones3DFC]

If you're comfortable navigating a command line and have no problem flashing firmware, then here's a low power consumption solution. Some routers offer a USB 3.0 port -- my Asus TM-AC1900, for example. It has identical hardware to the Asus RT-AC68U but can often be found for around $50 - $60 refurb. You can often find an 8TB Seagate external drive on Newegg's website for around $140.
.... (original, full quote trimmed)

Thanks to all for an interesting conversation and to rojo:
definitely some intriguing ideas. I’m old and reclusive but aware I fall under the category “cord cutter” and secondly, I supposed I’m attempting to climb my way out of Apple’s “walled garden” (impossible?). More to the point - some of what you’ve mentioned I’ll have to investigate further but generally, yes, I like to flash my old routers and install Linux variations on old, 32-Bit computers. I just purchased my first Windows (a laptop) machine in 20 years. The only reason it isn’t already dual-boot or -Windows wiped- is because I’m still having fun with things like, whaaaaaaat the heck is this “Cortana” and how do I beat it to death with a rusty hammer. I can use rClone between Linux and Google Drive but last night I hit a brick wall sometime after placing rClone in the system32 directory on this Windows machine.

I’m rambling.
As to the subject - where do we keep our media in a modern network - it’s fun to compare notes and exchange thoughts.

 

[Drunkpenguin]

I have a dedicated windows 10 server running in the house for storage. It runs 24/7 with no monitor or input devices needed. I use remote desktop when i need to get into it. Its cabled to the network so all my devices from phones, computers, and fire tvs can access it. I use plex for media which works decent enough. It also doubles as an nvr for security cameras and a central server for smart home devices like the light switches.

 

[little wing]

I have a pretty simple way of doing it. I ripped all of my CDs, mostly Wav files onto a PC. It's on the second floor so it's a wireless connection to the router. My router is behind my equipment, so I was able to hard wire the receiver using a cat6. I use JRiver. It was $50 but I really like it. Of course when the computer goes to sleep, the router can no longer see it. So I just come upstairs and wake up the computer. I often wonder if there is a better way to do it. More convenient, better sound quality maybe? But it works.

 

[Drunkpenguin]

Maybe stop letting it go to sleep? I doubt your burning much electricity with it. You can also look into Wake on Lan which would allow you to remotely wake the computer.

 

[2channel lover]

I have a pretty simple way of doing it. I ripped all of my CDs, mostly Wav files onto a PC. It's on the second floor so it's a wireless connection to the router. My router is behind my equipment, so I was able to hard wire the receiver using a cat6. I use JRiver. It was $50 but I really like it. Of course when the computer goes to sleep, the router can no longer see it. So I just come upstairs and wake up the computer. I often wonder if there is a better way to do it. More convenient, better sound quality maybe? But it works.

I'm not there yet, but my long term goal is to move my laptop (boosted with a 5TB ext. drive) to a permanent spot near the AV rack and hardwire it to the Oppo….for now I connect via wifi and my only issue is having to wakeup the laptop as well.

90% of the time I still listen to discs on the main system, but I'm developing playlists within JRiver all the time mostly for wholehouse music.

 

[rojo]

I'm not there yet, but my long term goal is to move my laptop (boosted with a 5TB ext. drive) to a permanent spot near the AV rack and hardwire it to the Oppo….for now I connect via wifi and my only issue is having to wakeup the laptop as well.

90% of the time I still listen to discs on the main system, but I'm developing playlists within JRiver all the time mostly for wholehouse music.

I recommend against this. I once ran a laptop as a server. It ran for two weeks, then died. Laptops tend to build up too much heat to run 24/7. You'd be better off getting an actual computer for this -- a Shuttle XPC or HP ProDesk Mini, or maybe since you have a rack, look for an actual rack mount server like a used Dell PowerEdge or HP Proliant.

 

[2channel lover]

I recommend against this. I once ran a laptop as a server. It ran for two weeks, then died. Laptops tend to build up too much heat to run 24/7. You'd be better off getting an actual computer for this -- a Shuttle XPC or HP ProDesk Mini, or maybe since you have a rack, look for an actual rack mount server like a used Dell PowerEdge or HP Proliant.

I don't think it's ever be on 24/7, but duly noted.

I said this would be long term, but if I migrate everything to a desktop computer it needs to stay in my office and connect via wifi which is fairly stable but for long stretches (2-3+ hrs) for parties, or just whole house music I prefer the wired connection which would be a challenge now.

Another thought I've had is a streaming device like this and just use my ipad tablet as the interface to run JRiver.

http://salksound.com/streamplayer.php?model=StreamPlayer+Gen+III