I sold a Request server (N1.800) and the client wants more storage. Request has a program where an old server (this is disco'd) can be sent in and replaced by a new model, which uses a NAS, or they can pay for an update that will allow using this model with a NAS (not sure if the internal network drive would be used for storage, or not). The problem is that the NAS they recommend are in the $1000 range and that, along with the selling price + other upgrades previously paid for, makes this a damn expensive device. I saw Fusion Research & Kaleidoscape at CEDIA but I'm not sure I want to have the discussion about "I spent all that time loading these CDs and now, I have to do it all over again?", plus I paid $XXXX for this and it's only worth $XXX now? Thanks for screwing me!".

What are you guys doing WRT music servers that A) have a good GUI, B) sound really good, C) can be operated via IR or a network device (computer or iDevice) and D) can stream from the server, using any computer, from any location?

Vortexbox  www.vortexbox.org

Technology changes. When you sold him the request, it was the right product for what he wanted to do. Today, there are other options out there. Not sure what NAS your looking at thats $1000 but I would assume thats including hard drives right? Have you looked at the price of hard drives lately? 1k for a 4.5gb Raid-5 NAS (4x1.5TB Drives)is about right.

Autonomics MMS

If $1000 scares you, quote him a kaleidescape :)

To me, that's a fair price for a huge upgrade...

Dropped Request a couple of years ago for this and other issues. Switched to Kaleidescape, even for music only servers and have never looked back. A happy customer is a long term profitable customer. Try to spec product that has built in support and backup and you will sleep better too.

I Called Request and they have a limited number of 500GB hard drives and the price isn't terrible- includes transferring the data to the new disc. They also have a trade-in process and it's about $1000, comes with a 500GB drive and is set up to work with a NAS. The third option is to pay the fee for the NAS update and use one of the ones they support- LaCIE 2Big or 5Big, or Netgear ReadyNAS 2100 (or higher). The prices for these is pretty reasonable, so I'll discuss it.

Since this is only used for music, the people I spoke with at Kaleidescape & I decided that theirs isn't necessarily the way to go from this point, but if it was a new system, it would be. I also called Fusion Research.

Thanks for the info.