Gigantic
A big, big love
correct. FLAC won't play natively on Mac or iOS apps like Apple Music, but oddly, ALAC will play almost anywhere.
Basic External Hard Drive Library Questions
- Thread starter j_loop
- Start date
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
I reached out to you yesterday afternoon via direct message, sharing how I do this including pictures of current setup (Mini & DAC).
TwoCat
Active Member
A pair of 2Tb SSD's. I use one as the main heap. Clone the second as needs grow. These are USB-C so portable and resistant to OS type and vintage greater than Windows XP.
A terabyte can store an exhausting amount of digital music -and concert videos. A two terabyte is about all you will ever need.
You only need RAID if you are running a business or other fault-intolerant environ. A USB can be plugged into some routers as Network Attached Storage.
-k
Yep - you can get those USB to SATA adapters for well under $10 from Amazon these days ...
(I've got one on an external Blu-Ray/DVD/CD reader/burner for my mac - but needs a power connector for the motors)
the SSDs themselves are a bit more pricey
I'm at 5tb and counting.
VERY COOL! I have an old 500 GB Seagate Firecuda 510 500GB 3D TLC NAND PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe M.2 Internal SSD I used as a fast boot drive in my old MacPro tower,
now useless since my new macs don't have PCI buss - but that $15 adapter will allow me to use that $100 memory stick again! WOW - Thank you.
(My main external drive case holds 4 Seagate Barracuda drives and totals 28 TB - 2TB for Music, 8TB for video & such, 8TB for documents, and 10TB Mac backup)
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mrehorst
Super Member
I think the idea of limiting the playback device choices to Apple is a mistake. The OP is trying to build a library that he's likely to have around for a long time. It would be best if the library and drives it's stored on could be used with many different computers/playback devices without having to reformat or rerip the whole thing.
I'm not familiar with J-river, but my experience with Plex as a video server was awful. It was good for a few years, but when Plex decided to become a video streaming platform I suddenly had to start logging into their servers every time I wanted to watch stuff streaming from my own HDD at my home, 15 feet away from the HDD. I replaced Plex with Jellyfin and would never consider going back.
LMS has been around for over 20 years and is still actively developed by "the community". You can stream to all the Wiim devices, including the ones that won't play Apple Music (yes, I know, that's a service, not a file format), and many others, without any messing around to make it work. I think most of the available streamers and new ones coming out are LMS compatible because there are no licenses required.
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
Okay, I hear what your saying and good advice if he decides in the future to go to another ecosystem.
My responses were based on a post in another thread that this (MacMini >External DAC>receiver/amplifier) was something that interested him and since he already has an Apple ecosystem (iPad,iPhone,Mac Mini) was why I was pointing him towards keeping it simple and using ALAC.
Gigantic
A big, big love
The irony is the ALAC files are more compatible, due to the ubiquity of iPhones and Apple Music, than FLAC, which will not play on apple hardware without 3rd party software.
TwoCat
Active Member
40 years ago I was eating hard disks for a paycheck. My employer supplied Hollywood with the raid array that the animated movie ANTZ was created on.
Hard disks have progressed a loooong ways since the days of 25 watt (+5 & +12) power consumption, but I 've morphed into USB powered and the only two hard drives I use now are in my TIVO roamios.
Less heat and loading on UPS/battery, pocket size AND they don't care if you drop 'em.
To conquer the partition size and compatibility issues, I sometimes FAT32 numerous partitions so older stuff can access. Car and pocket players (legacy stuff) come to mind..
LOL, JBOD -just a bunch of disks...haven't even thought of that for a while.
-k
Hard disks have progressed a loooong ways since the days of 25 watt (+5 & +12) power consumption, but I 've morphed into USB powered and the only two hard drives I use now are in my TIVO roamios.
Less heat and loading on UPS/battery, pocket size AND they don't care if you drop 'em.
To conquer the partition size and compatibility issues, I sometimes FAT32 numerous partitions so older stuff can access. Car and pocket players (legacy stuff) come to mind..
LOL, JBOD -just a bunch of disks...haven't even thought of that for a while.
-k
Re FLAC vs ALAC - I normally recommend ALAC to people who are enmeshed in the Apple ecosystem of applications.
But for those users who are seeking to move outside those applications, and looking towards a future where they want maximum compatibility with whatever products become available in the future - I recommend FLAC.
In the case of car audio - mainstream car media players (Pioneer, Alpine, Sony, JVC, Kenwood etc) commonly support FLAC, but not ALAC. (I just did some Googling now, to check)
@j_loop we really need to know the make/model of your car audio player.
But for those users who are seeking to move outside those applications, and looking towards a future where they want maximum compatibility with whatever products become available in the future - I recommend FLAC.
In the case of car audio - mainstream car media players (Pioneer, Alpine, Sony, JVC, Kenwood etc) commonly support FLAC, but not ALAC. (I just did some Googling now, to check)
@j_loop we really need to know the make/model of your car audio player.
I'd pass on converting 5tb of music to another format. Why not go for compatibility? I rip to wav files anyway, not at all concerned about file size.
whoaru99
Epic Member
Don't really care what anyone uses. The main point is/was one isn't locked into either one of them forever.
And, yes, all the rips I've personally done for my library are WAVs and converted as copies to other formats if/as needed. But, my library also contains lots of music in other formats too; not all of it lossless.
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@linuxfan
It’s a 2017 Legacy. I’d be using an old iphone (no service) or an even older ipod.
Do you know if Lyrion on raspberrypi can be managed totally with a (reasonably priced, small) touch screen? My raspberry has the keyboard combo, but if I could do without the mouse that’d be great.
As per back-up, I just figured I’d need 2 hard drives.
Another basic question I forgot to ask:
5. What’s a good external hard drive brand? I was leaning towards SSD because they’re so darn quiet and this is for listening after all.
It’s a 2017 Legacy. I’d be using an old iphone (no service) or an even older ipod.
Do you know if Lyrion on raspberrypi can be managed totally with a (reasonably priced, small) touch screen? My raspberry has the keyboard combo, but if I could do without the mouse that’d be great.
As per back-up, I just figured I’d need 2 hard drives.
Another basic question I forgot to ask:
5. What’s a good external hard drive brand? I was leaning towards SSD because they’re so darn quiet and this is for listening after all.
Yes. There's an application called SqueezePlay which should do what you want -
SqueezePlay - Lyrion Music Server
I believe this would require installing a Linux version on the Pi with full desktop graphics support, which is something I have never done.
The official 7 inch "Touch2" display is $155
Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 - 7" 720x1280 with Capacitive Touch
A decent case is the SmartiPi $65
SmartiPi Touch Pro 3
But wait ... I know that touchscreens are flavour-of-the-month (think WiiM Ultra and Eversolo DMP-A6) but the strength of music servers has always been that you can control them from a smartphone or tablet while you move around your music listening area - and I believe you already have an iPad ready for that purpose? The server really requires no form of direct interaction other than a power button!
You seem to be going down the Lyrion path, and that's great, I'm just suggesting that an onboard display is an unnecessary extravagance.
I don't know, I don't use them. Are you considering attaching an external drive to your Lyrion-powered Raspberry Pi? As I mentioned earlier, a music library is at high risk of damage once it's treated as being portable. I strongly recommend making your music storage device stationary - in your case attached to the Raspberry Pi. That now makes your Pi a combined music server/player + network storage device - a powerful and useful combination.
There are quite a number of stand-off mounting boards for a rPi5 which provide connectivity for an NVME storage drive, but I don't like these - they restrict airflow above the CPU. I prefer the type which mount underneath the Pi, such as this one from Pimoroni (US$15)
NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5
Put it all in a matching case (US$15)
NVMe Base Case for Raspberry Pi 5
and you have a neat little music server/player, ready to connect to a DAC.
All of this assumes you have some basic skills to be able to SSH into the Raspberry Pi to generate commands and perform certain configurations.
If not ... I see you have a Mac Mini - alternatively that could work well as a Lyrion server. Just throwing the idea out there.
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GlamrLama
Active Member
Pick a digital format. I recommend FLAC.
Pick a ripper. There are dozens to choose from. On Windows I alternate between EAC and fre:ac
Pick a player. The are hundreds of reliable options. On Windows I use WinAmp and its modern clone WACUP for the last 25 years.
Enjoy!
Now back to number 1. Your data. Back up your data. Then back it up again. And again. And again. And keep a copy OFF SITE. I have multiple audio systems at my home. Each has a dedicated copy. My office audio system has the master copy and a back up copy. The living room HT system has a copy. The basement HT system has a copy. The basement audio system has a copy. And I keep an external drive at my mother's house. My phone with a 512GB SD card can JUST hold a copy which I expect to exceed shortly. The lesson here is to keep proper backups. If the data is important to you BACK IT UP!
Pick a ripper. There are dozens to choose from. On Windows I alternate between EAC and fre:ac
Pick a player. The are hundreds of reliable options. On Windows I use WinAmp and its modern clone WACUP for the last 25 years.
Enjoy!
Now back to number 1. Your data. Back up your data. Then back it up again. And again. And again. And keep a copy OFF SITE. I have multiple audio systems at my home. Each has a dedicated copy. My office audio system has the master copy and a back up copy. The living room HT system has a copy. The basement HT system has a copy. The basement audio system has a copy. And I keep an external drive at my mother's house. My phone with a 512GB SD card can JUST hold a copy which I expect to exceed shortly. The lesson here is to keep proper backups. If the data is important to you BACK IT UP!