Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Meridian Offer QNAP & dBpoweramp Support

FWIW: I just got myself a QNAP 469L, with 2x3TB in RAID1. Following M's instructions, creating the Sooloos share and installing the QPKG plugin was pretty straightforward. I disabled the storage on the MC200 -- all shiny and new 3TB's are proudly showing as 'Non-Sooloos storage'.

Imports are fast (as in: no noticable difference with the MC200 only) and music plays instantly (as it should).

Sounds better too.

I just read the dBpoweramp brochure and I am confused. I was already using dBpoweramp and it sounds like nothing much changes. Can someone summarise what the benefit is?

I am assuming it gets the artwork correct size and .....

...and you groom your metadata in dBpoweramp instead of at the Sooloos import stage.

Instead of importing the album using the import screen you use the "restore from backup" which bypasses the AMG lookup stage. Theoretically this will reduce the amount of time spent grooming metadata from 1.5 times to just one time.

One example I can think of is multidisc sets, where Sooloos tends to ignore the correct metadata in FLAC files during its AMG lookup stage.

Does anyone have a view/experience of the noise from QNAP servers vs an MD600?

Alternatively, does anyone know how much quieter (if at all) an MD600 becomes if just working as Core, without storage? May not be ideal in terms of having storage separate, but could help me in other ways.

Richard

The MD600 has an inbuilt fan that works independent of the HDD's. I have never noted the HDD noise but the fan is a $)&@$. I'm on record elsewhere in this forum saying for the $ spent on the MD600 they could have at least come up with a passive cooling solution.

Made by the same people who gave us the near-silent MC200! I would guess a secondhand MC200 will be a quite a desirable item to get.

Sounds like however quiet QNAP servers may be, my much put-off plan to move the MD600 to another room should progress.

Thanks,


Richard

I wouldn't call the QNAP especially quiet, though most of the noise probably comes from the enterprise hard drives in mine. There's a (rather large) fan on the unit, revving quietly at ~1000RPM, most of the time.

I neatly tucked it away in a storage room -- in any case it is way too noisy to be near a listening environment.

I think you should assume that the more expensive and more enterprise like the NAS is, the louder it is. This as an enterprise won't care about sound levels. Spec sheets typically have the sound levels on them and they can differ greatly . I have rack mounted NAS's, and they typically are the loudest, but the sound varies greatly. My buffalo was very loud and required an enclosure. My current Sysology is deadpan quiet. I would note that one step above my current model, which has a larger processor, was 3x's louder.

If you go here, pick the model your interested in and pick hardware specs, it will list the sound level.

QNAP storage

Looks like the home units hover around these levels. HDD sleep: 18.7 dB In operation: 25.0 - 27.5 dB

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who makes the motherboards for QNAP boxes?

Here is a Inside look my TS-669 Pro

PerS

Hello. Is there a list of which QNAP products will work with Meridian products?

Every QNAP model using a x86 compatible CPUs.

This means almost all units would work.