Late to this thread, but any audio streaming breakdown here is more likely caused by a networking infrastructure deficiency as opposed to a storage device or server problem, provided the NAS is not being asked to work like a 12-core Xeon server.
Digital audio, even at high definition bitrates, consumes very modest bandwidth, especially compared to more demanding HD or 4k video streams. It is never going to saturate even an antiquated 54mb g wireless link. No NAS or HDD made in the last decade will have any problem spooling off a 3,000 kb/s hi-res audio stream. If its a wireless hookup, make sure the router isnt overtaxed feeding too many 2.4 ghz clients. And even if its an ethernet connection, a more modern router and quality switch gear can be the deciding factor. Sometimes QoS needs to be tweaked to give the audio/video streams higher queue priority in a busy network. The explosion of the Internet of Things and smart wireless connected everything in the past few years is now pushing top-tier routers of only a few years ago to their limits. Home networks exceeding 30 active clients is now more common, and would have been unheard of only 5 years ago. I am not a big fan of running LMS on a NAS with a larger library if you are asking the NAS to do too many other things. A NAS is not a multi purpose server machine. If its already an iTunes, DLNA and general data server, a surveillance camera cache, and a TimeMachine or other backup disk target too, its often asking too much of a consumer grade NAS to simultaneously stream a lot of audio besides. By larger library, I mean one exceeding 30,000 tracks. Try capping off the playlist length on weaker server machines with larger libraries. SOTA is in the eye of the beholder. A $14,000 Mac Pro server machine feeding a 10G ethernet network to a Touch might be SOTA to someone with a fat wallet looking to impress geeks, but is totally unnecessary. A modern dual-core NAS running LMS and not much else through an AC3100 router to a Touch is a more practical SOTA for the application and is more than enough hardware to support several HD audio streams. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ sgmlaw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13995 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=109312
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