Digital Audio Storage Options?

[marpow]

@B&W Driver
I am a little late to this party, and as I can see all the posters have given you really good answers. Your original question changed a little as the thread went on but all still remains the same. I like others on this thread have very good listening and storage options with back up.
1. A external hard drive plugged into OPPO, great, works, but not as good as NAS.
2. You say that you use JRiver, so that would be MAC in your case running from your computer either on the internal hard drive or an external hard drive connected to the computer, USB out to the OPPO, I presume. Another good way.
3. By having the NAS as your storage with RAID on you now have instant access to your music library at anytime, using your computer>to OPPO.
4. In your case with not having a solid internet access due to where you live, by having the external portable hard drive will work during times when your internet is down.
5. As others have said a back up hard drive is paramount for your collection. You can keep this back up on site or at work, wherever. Things break even a NAS, I do not have any experience losing my library but I take every precaution.
6. Cost: of a NAS, cables, time, external back up is nothing compared to the cost of your physical library, especially if you do as many who rip and sell.
7. The little SSD's are good for back up but also real good for in the car in case you have an USB input in the car.

I have been using a NAS, JRiver on a PC for about 4 years now and it just works every day, plain and simple. I have external hard drives for storage back up (duplicates) just in case. I enjoy my hobby and I like keeping things nice and tidy. All my connections are Ethernet connected, none are wireless. I have a dedicated PC that I use solely for my JRiver software USB out to my external DAC which connects to my Pre/pro. I access my dedicated PC from my PC that is where I sit using a program called Splashtop for the remote access, or I can use the JRiver remote app for access.
When I rip whatever kind of disc I usually do about 15 rips or so that are stored on my PC and the NAS and when I hit around 15 or so rips, I back them up to my designated portable hard drives and delete them from my PC.
Hope this helps plus the other good answers from the above QQ posters.

 

[sbrom]

Are you saying that NAS using an Oppo to decode is more difficult, or in general gapless from NAS is more difficult? If you meant the latter, I disagree. The gapless capability is media player dependent, regardless of how the files are stored.

Yes, you’re right. My observation was based on M-connect, my current iPad-based DLNA app, which has difficulty with gapless play to my Oppo. I’m sure there are better gapless options. Kodi being the one you use per your previous post. I’ll have to try that.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Yes, you’re right. My observation was based on M-connect, my current iPad-based DLNA app, which has difficulty with gapless play to my Oppo. I’m sure there are better gapless options. Kodi being the one you use per your previous post. I’ll have to try that.

JRiver will work as well.

 

[sbrom]

I've got an inkling of what you mean by "gapless playback," but I'm not really clear about how it comes into play via our Oppo 105D. Are you saying that you can [somehow] play a list of songs -- employing the Oppo audio playback interface -- and not experience an annoying break in the music? If one were to play Led Zeppelin II, for example, can you set up the Oppo interface so that there's no break in between "Heartbreaker" and "Livin' Lovin' Maid"...in other words, LP style?

My apologies if these questions seems a bit daft, but we're very old school stereo listeners who are only now moving toward MC and digital, in general.

Yes. With a USB drive attached to my Oppo 103 I can play album tracks gapless (no breaks) as you describe. The UI is very kludgy though and the Oppo is slow to catalog the attached drive.