Readynas Duo v2

Hi,

Yep - ReadyNAS Duo works fine (although just upgraded mine for Synology 412+). It could be a bit slow but not for music purposes. I didn't use iTunes, simply saved my MP3's in the 'music' share folder and pointed Sonos at it - worked a treat.

One thing to be aware is this - I used to have mine configured so that it spun down the disks after 20mins of inactivity. If you try to play music when the NAS is in this state you're likely to get an error on the controller. If you execute the 'play' action again it works because the NAS has then 'woken up'.

Not the highest spec NAS in the world by a long way but if you're after a simple storage solution for your home data then it's fine. I also used it to stream pics/vids to the TV which it could do, but the TV didn't always see it on the home network. I didn't manage to work out why this was, but as I was upgrading I didn't do too much investigation. No such issues with the DS412+, which is a fantastic unit and would thoroughly recommend - but in a completely different price bracket of course!

Thanks. Really useful info and advice 🙂

Functionality-wise it can do most of what any others can do (e.g. bit torrent, ftp, sftp, NFS, CIFS, AFP, HTTP(S) access, upnp, rsync, iTunes streaming, squeezecenter, DLNA, backup to/from NAS, timemachine, print server, scheduled switch on/off (you listening SONOS!!??), user and group access control) - and more than the simpler, almost external HDD's with 'NAS' functionality tagged on, can do. For file transfers it's pretty slow though - around 20MB/s tops (note: that is megabytes, not megabits!!)
Just noticed you're talking about the v2 - assume it can do the above (same as V1) as it's 'just' moved from Sparc processor..

I still use my ReadyNAS Duo (Backup duties mainly), although I sold my QNAP in order to upgrade to an HP MicroServer, running UNRaid which is fantastic and surprisingly cheap.

The ReadyNAS worked just fine with Sonos and is beautifully built compared to any other entry-level NAS I've seen - proper metal enclosure, hot-swapable drives in proper caddies etc.

It should be noted that there are currently two different versions of the ReadyNAS Duo. The original was good, but far from great. It had an old, slow processor that wasn't very good at doing many things at once. For simply serving up files, though, it did what it needed to do.

The newer Duo v2 model is much better, with a faster ARM-based processor in it (same thing many smartphones and tablets have in them). It still doesn't hold a candle to their Intel Atom-based models (i.e. Ultra2/Ultra2 Plus), but those models cost a little more for the privilege too.

Thanks for all the info everyone. wonder if I might pose another couple of questions?

What's the noise level like? I have to put it in the same room as the hifi and although I can build a little acoustic foam baffled box in the shelf where it will sit, I'd rather it was fairly quiet to start with.

Secondly, might it be worth moving up a little (price wise) to the synology DS212J?

What's the noise level like? I have to put it in the same room as the hifi and although I can build a little acoustic foam baffled box in the shelf where it will sit, I'd rather it was fairly quiet to start with.


I've had Duo V1 running with my Sonos set-up for 3 years now, and have recently bought a V2, so can offer you some of my experience with them.

First on noise:

I'd say the biggest factor is the noise of the disks that you choose to fill the Duo with. My V1 has two oldish, fairly bog-standard 5400rpm Seagate 1TB drives inside. These buzz, click and chatter noticeably when being read or written to, and you might find them intrusive. But for the V2 I chose some newer 'green' Seagate drives , which are barely audible. I suggest you look carefully at the noise specs of the disks you plan to buy. (Oh, and also make sure they are on the Hardware Compatability List for the ReadyNas Duo - see Netgear's support site for this).

The other factor is the fan on the Duo case. The V1 sounds like its about to take off when it first boots up (from full power off), but then quickly settles down and is pretty quiet to my ears, but its spin speed depends on factors like how hard you are working the disks, their capacity, room temperature, ventilation etc. (The ventilation point is one reason I'd be very careful about boxing the NAS as you suggest.) The V2 has a bigger fan that runs at slower speeds and is much quieter than the V1. Again, I can barely hear it, and its sat on my desk 50cm away as I type this.

Some other observations:

- I have my V1 set to spin-down its disks after 5 minutes of inactivity. Unlike the previous poster, I don't think I have ever had a timeout on Sonos while it spins back up, although there can be a short delay (5s or so) before the library appears on my SONOS controller. Again it might depend on the spin-up time of the hard disks you choose. Once the NAS is in use, ie music playing from the library, then it responds pretty instantly. I don't have the V2 hooked up to SONOS yet, but I would expect the same behaviour, because it depends on the disks more than the NAS box. You can, of course, choose to not let the disks spin down ever, and suffer a little extra electricity consumption and heat generation.

- In my view, the Duo V1 has been a thoroughly reliable and troublefree NAS to serve my SONOS. As commented previously, it is slow compared to the V2, but that hasn't affected SONOS at all, and my library is all encoded as FLAC with pretty meaty filesizes of around 16MB per track. If you want to do other stuff with your NAS as well, eg serving video, then I'd suggest you choose the V2.

- The V1 is limited to max 2TB per disk, so you can either have 2TB of storage in mirrored RAID configuration, or 4TB without mirroring. The V2 will accommodate 3TB drives, and probably larger in future.

I can't speak for the Synology NASs, but I'd wholeheartedly recommend the ReadyNAS Duo for your SONOS library. Whether you choose to spend more for a Synology etc should depend on whether you value its other features compared to the Duo; I can't see how it could be any better in serving your SONOS system.

Hope this helps your decision.

Thanks for your reply. Very interesting points indeed. Will definitely go for the V2 over V1

I guess the best thing I can do is buy it and see how it is. I can always send it back if it's too noisy.

Just a quick comment - surprisingly, the V2 doesn't appear to be able to do everything the V1 could do.
For example, apparently it doesn't act as a print server (on the V1 you can attach a USB printer into it and print to it without having the 'main' PC on).
There are no issues at all streaming full 1080P video from the V1.
The V1 has never let me down but for file transfers it's too slow.

In addition, a week or two back, Netgear released a firmware update on the Duo V1 (4.1.9) that has actually changed the owner and group of the shares on it which has stopped anybody but the more knowledgeable users accessing their data. There's lots of dissatisfied users on the forums and not a single response yet from Netgear. 😞 Even changing them results in them changing back after a reboot! Thankfully, the firmware can be rolled back though.
As much as I like the Duo, without a doubt I'd get the Synology if I were you.

Thanks for your reply. I had read about the firmware upgrade problem. That sounds nasty. I can't see any official response from Netgear......