Most of the time I enjoy my music through a headphone via an USB DAC/Amplifier where JRiver (MC22) is running on my MAC Book Pro.
Today I have my music library (over 2000 albums including a lot of DSD) on a DAS (USB attached WD passport) and a copy on a NAS (QNAP HS 210). Given that my DAS is full, I need to upgrade, which I want to do by upgrading my NAS and - ideally - take out the DAS completely.
HOWEVER, the performance of the playback with music coming from the NAS now has too many dropouts and buffering. Playback with the music from the DAS is (almost) perfect and comes close to playback of music from my SSD of the MAC Book Pro. KEY QUESTION: What is causing the dropouts: 1. The wifi or 2. The slow performance of the NAS. I am convinced it is not the wifi (Apple Airport Extreme within 10 feet of the MAC Book Pro). My question: Does a newer NAS improve the read speed in such a way that I can enjoy stutterfree music via wifi/NAS. Therefore,
WHO IS VERY SATISFIED WITH A SETUP LIKE I WANT: USB-DAC - JRiver ON APPLE MACBOOKPRO - MUSIC ON NAS AND WIFI BETWEEN MACBOOKPRO AND NETWORK WITH NAS.
By the way the issue I described is even much worst for video playback. Using the NAS is unbearable watching and I need to copy the MKV files first to my DAS before watching. Than playback performance is very fine.
I use a Qnap TS-251+ to store music and videos. I send music via our WiFi network to a JRiver Id and videos via that network to a TCL Roku TV. No dropouts for audio or video. I retrieve music files from the NAS for playback using JRiver on a Windows PC through a wired connection. No dropouts there either.
Before you make a decision, you might do an experiment. Connect your NAS via an ethernet cable to your router and the Mac to the router with a cable. See if the number of dropouts is less.
WiFi performance is affected by a lot of factors. I wouldn't dismiss it as the cause of dropouts right away.
A word about NAS read speed. You do need adequate read speed. However, playing a continuous stream of music or video requires
consistent behavior. If the NAS or the WiFi network ever allows the buffers at the playback device to get empty, you hear a dropout or a glitch. The fact that the chain performed well enough almost all the time just isn't good enough. (This brings back memories. I developed algorithms for handling real-time recording of voice messages over 35 years ago.)
Playing music from an internal drive is the simplest way to do music playback. Using a directly connected USB drive is a bit more complicated. Playing music from a NAS is considerably more complicated. If you have been happy with playback from the WD Passport, consider getting a new one with higher capacity. If you have a clear reason to prefer the NAS route, do that but keep in mind that you are taking on more complexity.
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Topic: NAS or DAS: How reliable is wifi for Playback with JRiver (Read 1670 times)