DIGITAL HIGH-RES AUDIO SYSTEM -HELP PLEASE

Hi Al and Willie (or is that Mr. wonka to me?),

I really appreciate your assistance. I've decided to up my budget a bit, to $1,600 or so, and buy the Oppo BDP-105 and NAS hopefully within a week. The Oppo is a definite buy after reading a lot of great owners' feedback and professional reviews. It just seems like the ideal unit for my situation. As to the NAS, I'm currently considering 2:

The Synology DS213j ($199 on Amazon) with 2 Seagate Constellation 2TB hard-drives (about $135 ea.) which would be a total of about $470.

The Seagate STBN4000100 with 2 2TB hard-drives included is $322 on Amazon.
The Seagate looks like the better value but I don't know what the differences are in user interfaces, customer support and compatibility compared to the Synology.

I understand the mirroring is not the same as backing up, more like redundancy, and will look for this feature on whatever NAS I consider. I believe both of the ones above allow for mirroring 0,1,5 and possibly more protocols.

My main concern is how, and if, this is all going to work together: laptop, Oppo and NAS. I have some questions that I need further assistance with:

1. Should I buy the less expensive Seagate or the recommended Synology?

2. Having the laptop wireless is very convenient and being limited to a 12-14ft USB cable is not working well. The Oppo and NAS will be set right next to each other in my rack. Our only close neighbor is within 100 ft and I know their LAN extends into our house (at times, their network displays as an available network choice on my laptop). Can I reduce dropouts,and will it function properly, if I use a short USB cable from the NAS to the Oppo and leave the laptop connection wireless?

3. Do I use the laptop as the controller via JRiver to download and play hi-rez files, or am I not understanding how the downloading/playback is controlled?

4. Any good websites to learn about choosing and setting up this stuff?

I'm watching the Denver-New England game right now and the 5.1 surround system is sounding great, even with my 20 yr old Parasound pre/processor. I think the new system will probably sound at least as good for ht and much better with discs and downloads. Plus I'm gaining a bluray player as a bonus.

Thanks again to all,
Tim

Tim - it's actually Steve - aka Willie
But there is a nice ring to Mr. Wonka :-)

Your setup appears to be quite different from my own in that my computer is wired to the system and all remote function is provided via my tablet that controls playback on the computer, from the NAS drive.

In your proposed configuration it appears the TV can stream, but only the Oppo and the computer can stream from the NAS

However only the computer is capable of downloading music files from the web, which can be stored on the NAS for playback via the Oppo or the computer.

It also appears there is an ability to remotely control the Oppo from an Android device, but I couldn't fing anything about using a computer running OSX or Windows for remote control.

So the only issue I can see relates to how you are going to stream...
- via computer - then you have to connect to the Oppo (as a DAC) via USB or Optical or spdif
- via the Oppo - then you have to use the Oppo's remote to control playback.

I may not be aware of some other Oppo/Computer feature so it might be quite possible without any further hardware.

I would NOT worry about the dropouts in your case - I have three neighbours within 60ft of my house and I have two wireless routers in my house, so it became an issue.

I did come across one review that reported problems with the Seagate NAS, but reported the Synology NAS had worked OK. So you might want to go with the Synology.

Sorry I could be of more assistance.

Tim, I usually find it useful when ordering computer-related things to review the user comments at Newegg.com for the items under consideration, while keeping in mind that negative experiences tend to be disproportionately represented. Here are links to Newegg's listings for the two NAS devices; click on the "reviews" tab a short way down on each page, or on the ratings link just under the title at the top:

Seagate STBN4000100

Synology DS213j

I haven't taken the time to read most of the comments, but the bottom line appears to not be particularly good for the Seagate. Also, although it appears in the photos to have USB connectors, there is no mention of USB connectivity in the description or the list of system requirements, which seems disconcerting given your intended connection configuration. And based on the description at Amazon, it appears that those connectors may be just for connection of external hard drives or other peripherals TO the NAS, not for connection of the NAS to a host (the Oppo in this case). For that matter, based on a quick look I'm not sure that the same concern doesn't apply to the Synology as well.

Also, you may want to consider ordering from Newegg, as they are considered by many (including me) to be THE place to go for computer-related parts and accessories.

I agree with Willie/Steve that if the only wireless competition is 100 or so feet away you are unlikely to have a problem with it, especially if:

(a)The distance between the laptop and your wireless router or access point, and the distance between the Oppo and the wireless router or access point, is not especially great, and/or there are minimal or no walls or other obstructions in between.

(b)If necessary, you change the channel setting on the wireless router or access point to be a few numbers away from the channel used by the neighbor's wireless equipment. You would do that via its setup menus.

(c)If necessary (and I suspect that it won't be) you install a top-quality wireless access point such as the one I linked to earlier, and use it in conjunction with your existing router. In doing so, you would turn off the router's wireless function, assuming it has one, which should be doable via its setup menus.

Finally, keep in mind that a RAID 1 mirror will protect against failure of one of the two hard drives, but it will not protect against the admittedly much less likely possibility that a problem arises which can destroy or corrupt both hard drives at once. Such as the RAID controller circuitry or its programming going berserk, or the power supply going into an overvoltage condition, or some other latent design issue that may be lurking in any of the equipment that is involved. At some point you should consider adding a second means of backup.

Regards,
-- Al

Hey guys,

I've been researching setting up wireless systems on various internet sites in an attempt to wrap my head around how all this is configured and controlled. Something must have sunk in because I think I may have figured this out with your assistance.
Could you please confirm my proposed thinking outlined below? I'd like to ensure I'm doing this optimally for sq but realize going wireless is riskier than wired. However, there might be a fatal flaw in my plan that I'll detail after I outline my plan below.

My current plan:
-Laptop is currently wireless and Oppo and NAS are wireless capable with N type' dongles attached at USB inputs of both.
-Laptop, running Windows 7, will act as the controller with assistance of JRiver Media Center and DBpoweramp software.
-NAS will be setup as a storage device on Windows 7 and downloads will be directed via JRiver to the NAS.
-Oppo BDP-105 will be setup as the 'Preferred Output Device' (I believe just as a DAC is).
-Files stored on NAS would be initiated for playback via laptop/JRiver.
-For 5.1 music, tv and Bluray movies, volume would be controlled via the Oppo's remote.
-For 2-channel stereo playback, the Oppo's 'dedicated stereo outputs' would be connected (via my highest quality RCA intrconnect cables) to the 'CD' inputs of my VTL preamp. Volume would be controlled through the preamp. I may need to set the Oppo to 'Stereo' output as well.

The only thing I'm concerned would ruin this plan is my router. I have an AT&T high-speed internet network but I don't know if the router is capable of connecting and routing information to individual devices within this environment. So, worst case, I'm hoping an upgraded router exists that would be capable of this. Is there such a thing as a 'network within a network'? I may need professional help with this setup.
Any suggestions are very welcomed.
Thanks,
Tim

What is the make and model number of the router?

Regards,
-- Al