How do you play music on the NAS speakers? I saved up 60GB of lossless and connected all three speakers at home

last year, I bought quite a few lossless albums for Pozhong, qBittorrent spent over half a year on FLAC, and had accumulated over 60GB and about 2,000 songs. The files were all set, but one day I wanted to listen carefully and realized something was off—all the songs were lying on the NAS, but my headphones, speakers, and amplifier had nothing to do with the NAS. Movies have TV as their outlet, but how can you watch movies in NAS on TV I've long figured it out; When it comes to music, exporting is even more complicated than movies. This time, I connected all three sets of speakers at home, noting down the wiring methods and sound quality records.

clarify one thing first: a phone is a remote control, not a speaker

the easiest way to take a detour is to connect your phone's Bluetooth to the speaker and then use the phone app to play songs from the NAS. This kind of singing can play, but the phone becomes the audio source—if you do something else on your phone or make a call, the music cuts off. Also, the sound quality on this route is compromised for now, which will be discussed later.

the proper way to play is called streaming. DLNA's old protocol has three roles: the NAS is the server, the speaker is the renderer, and the phone is the control point. You click a song on your phone, send commands to the NAS, and the NAS pushes the music files directly to the speaker. The phone only sends a few control commands from start to finish, without touching the music data itself. AirPlay is one idea: Apple's own protocol: tap on your phone, sound comes from the speaker, and the phone's lock screen still plays the playback.

so to judge whether a set of speakers can connect to a NAS, look at one thing: can it connect to the internet on its own? Those who can access the internet basically have a chance; For those who only use Bluetooth, the only narrow path left is Bluetooth.

the first path: smart speakers and active speakers, and you can access the internet yourself

the fastest to get it running is the Pro speaker at home. This device was originally intended as a Bluetooth gateway for smart devices, it was one of the key players in the networking of dozens of devices at home, with built-in WiFi. After browsing, I found that all its music features are online services; local files are not supported. Later, DLNA solved this: I installed a streaming app as the control point on the phone, selected the speaker as the renderer, then browsed FLAC in the NAS shared directory, clicked play, and the sound came out of the speaker.

here's a point I've misunderstood for a long time: the streaming app browses the NAS's shared directory on the phone, but the data isn't transferred from the phone during playback. At first, I thought my phone would pull down the music before pushing it to the speaker, so I deliberately switched to 5G. But when I checked the data, the phone barely moved, and the NAS and speaker were transmitting automatically. So the internet requirements for listening to music are ridiculously low—a lossless song has a bitrate of only 1,300–400 kbps, around 1.4 Mbps, which is more than enough for 2.4G, which is completely different from watching 4K videos.

if you plan to add a new speaker, make sure the packaging shows AirPlay 2 or DLNA. Connecting to a NAS is native capability, so no need to mess around. My AirPlay 2 test was the most worry-free: one-click casting on the phone, continuous streaming on the lock screen, and sound quality is calculated separately afterward.

second path: TV as a stepping stone, zero cost but sound quality at will

living room setup has a TV with built-in speakers and a soundbar. TVs are familiar with NAS—install a player app connected to SMB, or just turn on Jellyfin and play music, with sound flowing through the TV and soundbar. This route is zero-cost and can be done in five minutes. The downside is that sound quality is left to chance—TV speakers are just average, and the echobar depends on its grade. Plus, the TV has to play music on the screen, which adds up to a few yuan in electricity bills per month. NAS adding the electricity bill for peripheral devices I've calculated that the set-top box can still consume 15W on standby, and the TV is even more impressive with the whole screen on. It's best for listening on the spot, not for being the main player.

By the way, I also tried the old TV in the bedroom. 100Mbps Ethernet port, is no problem with lossless play. The music bitrate is less than one-tenth of the video, and even with 100Mbps ports feeding multiple channels losslessly, it's sufficient. So old devices don't need to upgrade their network for music listening, which is different from watching movies.

the third way: my dad's old amplifier was saved by a receiver costing just a few dozen yuan

the most rewarding thing was actually the old amplifier my dad left me. It came with a pair of bookshelf boxes, pure analog input, RCA red and white lotus heads, and not even a USB port. It would be a shame to throw this machine away—it gathers dust and takes up space.

answer is to add a "receiver" to it. Simply put, it's a small box that translates online music into analog signals: one end connects to WiFi, the other output 3.5mm or RCA, and plugs into the amplifier's input port. DLNA and AirPlay are available, costing anywhere from tens to over a hundred yuan. I bought a little over 60 yuan, paired it with WiFi, and you can see it in the streaming app. It works just like a smart speaker. Powered on the amplifier, phone song selection, bookshelf speaker sound—the flavor really can't compare to a small speaker.

money-saving remedy: an old Android phone in a drawer can also be used as an AirPlay receiver. Plug in the receiver app and connect the headphone jack to the amplifier. The downside is that the phone needs to be powered on year-round, so the screen ages and the battery is a swollen one. For long-term use, it's better to use a proper receiver for peace of mind.

on sound quality: the differences between Bluetooth, AirPlay, and DLNA are quite significant

after the three paths were connected, I made a comparison: the same FLAC song, several different outputs were listened to, and then the protocol accounts were revealed. The differences were understandable:

straightforward story: on the WiFi side, AirPlay and DLNA transmit lossless; On the Bluetooth side, aside from LDAC for high-bitrate encoding, which is close to the system, common SBC and AAC devices usually reduce lossless content to about a quarter before transmission. Comparing the AB on my bookshelf case, the difference between Bluetooth and DLNA (DLNA) is obvious at ear, mainly in the high frequencies and vocal density. So when the speaker is far away and only Bluetooth is available, instead of worrying about cables, it's better to first solve the transmission method.

there's another counterintuitive point: the NAS itself doesn't participate in decoding; it's just a file distributor. Music listening requires almost zero NAS performance. My N100 is always busy running Docker, but the CPU doesn't budge at all when playing music.

NAS preparations here, and here's a checklist for you

Once the

export is settled, they'll tackle the NAS side later. The simplest way is to browse the shared directory directly—both streaming apps and TV players can read SMB shares, and the folder is the playlist. But with 2,000 songs, no cover wall or artist categories, finding songs depends on folders, and the experience is just like ten years ago.

want to look dignified, so Docker throw a Navidrome. This device is a dedicated music server, ridiculously lightweight, capable of running even low-end machines. When you put the music catalog in, it automatically scans and automatically assigns covers. Install a Subsonic protocol player on your phone (both Audiostream and Symfonium will work), enter your NAS address and account, and you'll get a cover wall, playlist, and shuffle playback—all connected, whether you're home or away. Synology users can start with the built-in Audio Station and consider upgrading only after it is sufficient.

there's a dormant pit, which is different from watching a movie. Movies have huge traffic, and hard drives keep spinning; Listening to music alone is 30MB. After playing, I rested and rested, then the hard drive fell asleep. When I clicked on the next song, it got stuck waiting for the drive to spin—sometimes three to five seconds fast, sometimes about ten seconds slower. hard drive was awakened from sleep I checked the log all night. Listening to music is a way to wake up for yourself. I moved the music directory into the sleepless download drive—that disc was always waking up, so this one wasn't a problem. If your music is on a separate drive, you have to choose between listening experience and saving a bit of power.

families with many people, remember to create a separate account for each person, only grant read-only access to the music catalog, so no one can accidentally delete another song.

here, all three roads are open. Here's a spot for you:

order suggestion: first run the free streaming mode, confirm whether you can use this playstyle, then decide whether to give the old transmitter a flying receiver. My daily routine now is my phone as a remote control, the living room speakers playing background music, listening intently when I turn on my dad's amplifier, and the NAS quietly serves as its file repository.