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I have had my personal music collection on NAS drive since buying my Sonos system. 
now the second NAS has broken and I need a new one. 
I don’t plan to keep anything private on the NAS and need the cheapest 1gig NAS around that’s simple to operate as I’m not technically. 
what do people recommend please?

my music collection is in iTunes but you can’t play it directly from there!

I just buy the refurbished models from Western Digital directly from their website. They are cheap but some might point out the support can drop after several years, however it’s only serving music tracks and if anyone managed to hack into it I would not be worried as a) I have several backups b) nothing apart from music in it c) It would be the least of my worries if someone accessed my home network.


WD support time is poor but they usually keep working past the end of support date.

Do be aware that WD devices can be radio-noisy (even with no radio) and can impact other nearby WiFi devices. Mine had to be at least 3 feet from my Sonos for the Sonos to connect and work.

Personally I’d look at something like this, 2 TB for $129.

https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-LinkStation-Private-Storage-Included/dp/B00JKM0A36/ref=sr_1_4


WD support time is poor but they usually keep working past the end of support date.

Do be aware that WD devices can be radio-noisy (even with no radio) and can impact other nearby WiFi devices. Mine had to be at least 3 feet from my Sonos for the Sonos to connect and work.

Personally I’d look at something like this, 2 TB for $129.

https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-LinkStation-Private-Storage-Included/dp/B00JKM0A36/ref=sr_1_4

 

Interesting… I am an active Radio Amateur with a few pieces of equipment that can detect field strength as well as being  able to see RF on a wide spectrum and not seen any significant noise from a WD NAS, probably had about a dozen of them pass through my hands onto family and checked a good six. The FCC are quite strict and the majority of equipment sold worldwide gets an FCC certification so it can be sold in the US.

PSUs can be effected by polarity (yes AC) and DC on the mains quite significantly.


My WD was one of the original WD MyBook Live ones. I don’t have much test gear left these days so I have to do more practical testing.

In this case I started by powering down all the equipment neat the problem Sonos and it started working. Turned all the non-radio gear back on and it quit, a real surprise there! Switching one at a time found the WD to be the issue. With it off and everything else back on all was fine.

I powered the WD back on after unwrapping the power cord so I could move it around. A few inches from the Sonos completely killed the connection, about 3 feet away things worked but there may have been recoverable errors.

As a further test I added an extension cord and assaulted other Sonos around the house with similar results.

May have been an internal failure in the WD, like a dead filter cap and not a problem common to all similar drives. I saw no indication of any internal issue when I scrapped the WD though.


That’s certainly a good one, especially as there is no Wi-Fi and the WD MyBook Live has / had an external PSU. 


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