Best Music Player For Large Library?

[Rob84]

Hi,
I have an 8 TB external drive with about 5TB of Flac music files stored on it. Currently, I use Media Monkey for ripping and playback. However, it stalls a lot because of the large number of files. What music player can handle a seriously large digital music library? Perhaps Roon or Logitech Media Server? I use LMS in a separate media server and it seems to be a solution. I just wonder what other options are out there? I really like to play the files randomly so it is like the ultimate radio station! Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[sKiZo]

Interesting question ... I'm only at around 2tb here, so it never came up. I posted up a note at jRiver to see how Media Center handles a library that size. I do know it's doing a lot of database work in the background.

** Got a reply back from a guy who's running 22tb of music with no issues.

And speaking of background ...

A lot of media players object to having a bunch of other operations running in the background. Also not a problem here, as it's on a dedicated HTPC, and the only thing I've got going in a session is MC and Avast (free), and maybe Firefox if I'm browsing for more info on what's playing.

Also, DO try to run Monkey in "exclusive mode". MC will hiccup some if I don't check that, mostly if I've got Firefox working and it hits a media rich site with a lot of movie kinda stuff. Not sure how MM works, but I know MC will just flat out tell any other media requests to go away ... it's mine, MINE! ;-}

 

[Rob84]

Interesting question ... I'm only at around 2tb here, so it never came up. I posted up a note at jRiver to see how Media Center handles a library that size. I do know it's doing a lot of database work in the background.

** Got a reply back from a guy who's running 22tb of music with no issues.

And speaking of background ...

A lot of media players object to having a bunch of other operations running in the background. Also not a problem here, as it's on a dedicated HTPC, and the only thing I've got going in a session is MC and Avast (free), and maybe Firefox if I'm browsing for more info on what's playing.

Also, DO try to run Monkey in "exclusive mode". MC will hiccup some if I don't check that, mostly if I've got Firefox working and it hits a media rich site with a lot of movie kinda stuff. Not sure how MM works, but I know MC will just flat out tell any other media requests to go away ... it's mine, MINE! ;-}

Thanks for information. Maybe I'll go with JRiver if it can handle a 22 TB library! Wow! And I thought my library was huge. Once I finish ripping my collection, I'll have about 7TB total.

 

[sKiZo]

Update ... apparently the guy who posted up about the 22TB library misspoke himself and it's more like 35TB ... <G>

One of the gurus just chimed in as well. The only potential slowdown is apparently when importing or restoring a HUGE library if you move to another computer, but even that is minimal unless you're pushing TWO MILLION files ...

You might also see a noticeable hit on search times with that amount of media and complex views, but that should never be a problem for us normal folk. <G>

Edit > > corrected GB to TB ... my bad!

 

[Rob84]

Thanks

Update ... apparently the guy who posted up about the 22gb library misspoke himself and it's more like 35gb ... <G>

One of the gurus just chimed in as well. The only potential slowdown is apparently when importing or restoring a HUGE library if you move to another computer, but even that is minimal unless you're pushing TWO MILLION files ...

You might also see a noticeable hit on search times with that amount of media and complex views, but that should never be a problem for us normal folk. <G>

Thanks for the update. Since my files are on an external drive, I do not worry about switching to a new computer. I'll look into J River. Thanks again!

 

[avguytx]

Update ... apparently the guy who posted up about the 22gb library misspoke himself and it's more like 35gb ... <G>

22gb or 22 TB as first mentioned? Man, that's a lot of music files. I've got 355gb in music and maybe 800gb in video (about to delete video...no one uses it anyway) on a 2tb setup in RAID 1 on a NAS and use JRiver. Works like a champ.

 

[sKiZo]

ooPs ... TB ... my bad ...

I remember the bad old daze when I got my first 10 MB drive and figured I'd NEVER be able to fill that up!

PS the 35TB guy also mentioned he's using a QNAP NAS server for storage ... doncha love it when they speak alphabet? <G>

That's a couple thousand bucks, so I think I'll pass. I'm currently using a StarTech USB dock to do the duty for expansion storage. That also acts as a disk duplicator with a push of a button, so just pop one drive out, put in it's backup, and clone it every now and then. Lot of vinyl and shellac rips, not to mention a whole bunch of DVDr video rips to MKV that I've invested a lot of hours in that I'd hate to lose, eh.

 

[reggiesanche]

I used kodi for a long time, and really liked it. I have about 7tb. It takes a while to load everything because it downloads cover art and all that stuff for you, but once its up and running its pretty smmoth. Are you sure its something else thats slowing it down. I had a server running on an old pentium 4 system for way to long, and upgrading solved alot of those problems. At the risk of stating the obvious usb 3.0 makes a big difference.

 

[Rob84]

I used kodi for a long time, and really liked it. I have about 7tb. It takes a while to load everything because it downloads cover art and all that stuff for you, but once its up and running its pretty smmoth. Are you sure its something else thats slowing it down. I had a server running on an old pentium 4 system for way to long, and upgrading solved alot of those problems. At the risk of stating the obvious usb 3.0 makes a big difference.

Yes, I have to admit, my pc is getting old, it still has Windows 7. Perhaps it is time for a new pc? I did not think of this. Thanks!

 

[reggiesanche]

Well winows 7 doesnt indicate a problem, if the motherboard has native usb 3.0 support then its more than enough. If it does not you may think about a pci usb 3.0 card, they are cheap and it will help you decide if thats the problem, that being said I bought a lappy for 300 bucks that was more capable in most ways than a pretty good socket 775 pc

 

[Rob84]

What about trying Daphile? My library isn't that big but Daphile works well and you can try Daphile from a USB stick w/o overwriting your software. Many programs has a limit. I know ROON has a max of 25-30K songs so I am close to the max now.

Daphile is a Linux variant (Gentoo) which is just large enough to LMS (Logitech Media Server).

http://www.daphile.com/

You can also try logitech Media Server as it is freeware now. Yes, it is still being developed and constantly updated.

http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download

I was not aware that Roon can only handle 25-30k songs. I guess I will not be looking to use Roon. Thanks for the info on Daphile and LMS. I'll look into those.

 

[whell]

I was not aware that Roon can only handle 25-30k songs. I guess I will not be looking to use Roon.

I suspect the info about Roon's song capacity is incorrect. Per this thread, might be some confusion between "standard" Roon and "Roon Essentials", which is more of a stripped down version of Roon.

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/is...-of-tracks-albums-artist-in-a-library/12710/7

 

[Rob84]

I suspect the info about Roon's song capacity is incorrect. Per this thread, might be some confusion between "standard" Roon and "Roon Essentials", which is more of a stripped down version of Roon.

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/is...-of-tracks-albums-artist-in-a-library/12710/7

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.

 

[desertmousej]

A few years ago, I went the whole media server route - invested in NAS equipment as well as home-built rigs using raid 5 arrays, server-grade equipment. Worked as expected until I eventually found I was spending alot in AC cooling the room as well as the electrical cost of running the equipment. After a few years of that, plus maintaining the server os and hardware 'upgrades', I found the better solution was to use a sonos connect - small footprint, flac support, gapless playback, connects to pandora, google play, amazon prime with no heat output all controlled via my android phone or android tablet or iphone. For $350, it has been the best investment for my audio system using modern tech.