What do I need?

bogart99

Sorry if I am repeating an old cherry. I have read and read articles on here, and elsewhere regarding
streaming media. All I want is to be able to access my music collection, currently all sitting on CD, from anywhere in the house and hopefully from in the garden.
I currently use a Netgear Orbi setup for the home network. So the questions:

1, At present am only bothered about being able to access music, though 4K tv may come later
   as a new tv is on the shopping list, do I need a NAS or is there an alternative arrangement?

2. If NAS is the way to go what attributes should it definitely have as opposed to ones I may never
   need?

3. Getting the music off the CDs  do I need to rip them to my PC then copy to a NAS  or is
   there a gizmo that will do it quicker, I have some 400CDs and the prospect of ripping each
   seperately, well I might be dead first!

4. Digressing slightly now to a different question. I said earlier that I would like my network extended
    out in to the garden, BBQ area etc.  I could put one of my Orbi satellites on a windowsill      
    overlooking this area. The BBQ area is around 15m away. Would this be a sensible option
    or should I look to extend it by another method? It will probably be possible, if deemed the
    way to go, to run a Cat5 cable from my study, where my PC any possible NAS etc will live
    to an outbuilding by the BBG area. I would like dedicated speakers affixed to the outbuilding.
    What kit would be needed in the outbuilding.

   Sorry to have been so long winded but when it come to networking with this media file or that
   media file I am out of my depth, some of you people talk a totally different language!

next010

1. You can use a NAS, there are other alternatives but more work involved, if you have a PC thats on most of the time you could use that too and is probably the easiest way to go.

2. Basic most cheap Synology NAS is sufficient (you must supply or buy your own HDD), Synology have a built in service called Audiostation, this will scan the music on the NAS and make it available to the DS Audio app which can be installed on smartphones and tablets. It can also cast that audio to a variety of network speakers, DLNA, Airplay, Bluetooth based ones.

3. DBpoweramp is a popular ripping tool, it has batch ripping tool as well which works with multiple CD drives, purchase several USB CD drives and hook them up to the PC. For the format to rip to I would suggest FLAC or ALAC (apple lossless) to retain quality.

bogart99

Thanks for taking the time to reply. My PC is on 24/7 but only recently thought to myself I should shut it down at night, save the planet and all that. Read that a NAS draws a lot less power than a PC so leaving on 24/7 is no hassle. I would preferably like to keep the PC for
shall we say PC duties and have something specifically for media. I assume that Audiostation works with Alexa. Also could I use a Chromecast Audio in the outbuilding? Never thought of a
batch of CD drives, but as one can get them for £5 each  I might turn my study into something
that resembles a bootleg CD copying factory.

Sloppy Bob

As to your NAS, if you're going to go down the route of streaming media, then make sure you buy a large enough one to have all your content on it.

There comes a point where a larger NAS with more bays is cheaper than buying one with fewer bays and larger, more expensive drives. This, of course, depends upon how extensive your media collection is.
4K rips are big. About 40-70GB each.

DarkEntity

Other option would be something like the HP Microserver, fill it with drives and Windows home server software or similar and just share the folders.  Does what a NAS will do but works out cheaper for the machine.

You say you want to stream the music, but to what?  If its something like a Bose Soundtouch or similar speaker this setup will work fine (i use it at home)

Filling it with drives, if you think you might need 3 TB, consider 6TB, it you think 10TB will do, consider larger as you will always regret not getting the larger drive sooner than you think.  

When I got my server a number of years ago now, I bought a 3TB drive (coz that was HUGE), its now got 2 x 3TB, and a 10TB, I'm already considering buying 3 more 10TB Drives and ditching the (tiny) 3TB's

bogart99

Mainly at present purely for audio. Will stick with playing video from my BluRay.

bogart99

I just would like my music collection to be available around the house, have a few Amazon Echos dotted about the place. I would also like to be able to play it through my Audio amp as well, thinking a Chromecast audio can do that.

bogart99

Just bought a NAS from amazon. Now to get the drives. As stated I have some 400 CDs what size drive is needed for these assuming in a 2 drive setup I use raid 1? I have no intention of putting any sort of video on it purely music ripped from cds. I reckon 2TB is
way more than I need but is very little difference in price over 1TB version

bogart99

All I want on it are my cds, no videos or photos.

mickevh

Disc capacity required will depend somewhat on the run time of the media and the format you rip to (ie whether you compress or not and how much compression you apply.)

Worst case, with no compression, the maximum capacity of music CD is about 700-750 MB.

400 X 750 MB = 300,000 MB = 300 GB = 0.3 TB.

As you say,at time of posting the cost difference between 1TB and 2TB drives is not great so one "might as well" is you don't mind spending the extra money - though that's always a game one can play with storage - "for just X more money I can get Y more storage." Ultimately it's a value judgement.

If you buy a couple of TB, it's possible you might find "something else" to put on you NAS such as video content. Video eats through storage capacity much more quickly than audio.