Hi Pamela,
The Synology app you need for this is called Audio Station or DS Audio where DS
stands for Disk Sttion.
In iOS there is a suite of these DS apps, DS Manager Pro, DS File, DS Audio, DS
Photo, DS Video, DS Finder, DS Cam (for security cameras) and others like
Synology Drive which if installed on your PC and iOS and enabled on the NAS is
basically like Dropbox, it downloads a local copy of your files on the NAS to
your computer and gives you access to the files on your iPhone and more. DS
File on the iPhone is similar, it gives you access to your files also, but I
think you can't download files whereas Synology Drive allows this. Both
Synology Drive and DS Finder can also be integrated into the iOS Files app.
I have a Synology DS 918+ at my business, it is a 4-bay NAS into which I also
have installed 2 optional 256GB SSD's, one for buffering the reading and the
other the writing of files.
I really like the disk station, the interface is pretty accessible, but it's a
bit of a learning curve.
I have not used audio station because we have a pretty extensive Sonos system
at home and I also have one at my retail store so we simply stream anything we
want from Apple Music and of course have access to free services like Tune In,
our Canadian CBC stations etc. I used to have an old D-Link 2-bay NAS at home
and I used to have all my own music ripeed in lossless FLAC format on it, but I
haven't even bothered to set this up any more in Sonos which can connect to a
music library on a computer or a NAS because with our Apple Music subscription
all that content is available through the cloud anyways.
The Synology iOS apps I have used are mostly accessible so I assume the iOS
app, DS Audio, would also be accessible. It does only get 2 and three quarter
stars, so not super high, but of those ratings 40% are 5 and 4 Star ratings,
throw in the 3 Star ratings and you are up to 60%. There are only 7% 2-Star and
33% 1-Star ratings and here I find one has to take it with a grain of salt
since sometimes people just don't get it to work because they don't understand
something and they give the app a 1-star rating which may or may not be
deserved. One comment did say it was a difficult to navigate interface, but
again, you won't know until you try.
It does also mention you have to enable Audio Station on the NAS for full
functionality, below is an excerpt from what they say on the Synology website
and below that a link to the full article on Synology:
Audio Station allows you to play music by streaming to music players and mobile
devices.
Stream music seamlessly
Audio Station supports streaming music from your Synology NAS to local
computers, USB speakers, media renderers, AirPlay, Chromecast Audio, or
Bluetooth devices.
As you can see, your receiver would have to support Airplay or Chromecast or
have Bluetooth although that would probably the least desirable option since it
may include Voiceover. If it doesn’t you could simply buy a Chromecast dongle
and plug it into a USB port on the receiver or buy the Chromecast Audio (I
think that’s what it is called) which can be plugged into an analogue port like
an RCA port.
Alternatively you could of course buy a Sonos Port or buy a used Sonos Connect
which now that the Port has been released should be easy to find on eBay and
connect it to your receiver and this gives you all Sonos has to offer. The
advantage of a new Sonos Port of course is that it supports Airplay 2 which the
Connect does not and if you have an Amazon Echo in the same room, have any sort
of premium music subscription like Apple Music, Spotify or Deezer and you set
it up right you can even just tell Alexa to play whatever it is you want to
hear, tell it to increase or decrease the volume, skip a song etc. If you have
Audible you could also ask it to play whatever book you want to listen to and
it would play through your stereo.
Lastly, here the link for that information on the Synology Audio
Station.<https://www.synology.com/en-ca/dsm/feature/audio_station>
Regards,
Sieghard
-Original Message-
From: viphone@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of
Ekstrand, Pamela A. -ND
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2019 3:09 PM
To: viphone@googlegroups.com
Subject: Accessibility of Apps for Synology Products
Hi All,
We are considering buying a Synology NAS DiskStation for backing up files and
our music collection. We would also like to play that music from our receiver.
Can anyone comment on the accessibility of the app that would need to be used
for this?
Thanks.
Pam
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