NAS for Home & Profession

terrible

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Messages
463
Points
43
Location
Mumbai
Now that I have decided to purchase Synology (maybe DS1815+), was wondering those who have NAS well could advice me (as they have been) on my queries as I bunged in two different uses:

1) I also have a very young film company that makes ads as well as short films. At an average, a film a month would require about 1TB storage, which would mean about 12TB of requirement per year. At maximum, we need to preserve footage or rushes for two years. Given I would also need about 20TB of personal media. Which NAS would be appropriate for me? I have been told many times about Synology, so given the professional requirement would that still be the recommendation?

2) Would RAID5 be what I should be using? (Guess this will also impact the NAS model choice)

3) Will I be able to set this up by myself? This is important, because a diskless DS1815+ is available from Amazon.com at approximately Rs. 71000 inclusive of duty, and delivered to the door. Now compare that to Rs. 1,20,000 + VAT + Octroi for the same model, available from EBM (Synology distributor in India). Though with local purchase, there's three years warranty, its almost double and was thinking I'll get it from Amazon.com. What say?

I am sure I'll have more questions on this as I am now very close to buying. So thanks to all in advance.
 
1) I also have a very young film company that makes ads as well as short films. At an average, a film a month would require about 1TB storage, which would mean about 12TB of requirement per year. At maximum, we need to preserve footage or rushes for two years. Given I would also need about 20TB of personal media. Which NAS would be appropriate for me? I have been told many times about Synology, so given the professional requirement would that still be the recommendation?

Yes for such a huge data and professional work look no other way but Synology. 1815+ is 8 disk NAS. with 5TB you will get 40TB and with 4 32TB. With SHR (or RAID 5, I will recommend SHR), you will get 28TB (with 4TBx8) and 35TB (with 5TBx8). I would suggest 5TB HOWEVER 5TB WD is very expensive 20K+ and 4TB is around 14K this is WD RED I am talking about and I would recommend RED definitely for the kind of work you are purchasing the NAS for.

2) Would RAID5 be what I should be using? (Guess this will also impact the NAS model choice)

Raid 5 and SHR would give you same space so I would recommend SHR. 1815+ supports all kind of RAIDs

3) Will I be able to set this up by myself? This is important, because a diskless DS1815+ is available from Amazon.com at approximately Rs. 71000 inclusive of duty, and delivered to the door. Now compare that to Rs. 1,20,000 + VAT + Octroi for the same model, available from EBM (Synology distributor in India). Though with local purchase, there's three years warranty, its almost double and was thinking I'll get it from Amazon.com. What say?

yes you should be able to set it up yourself its easy, we are also here to assist ... :). I would certainly go for warranty and proper channel, since even 71K is a huge amount to be spent. Get in touch with SoundByDesign,(SID, 095998 21821) gurgaon, they are one of the official dealers of Synology in Delhi NCR. I am sure you will get a deal for 1,15,000 or 1,20,000, including all and shipping as well.

let more queries come. happy to assist ... :)
 
Last edited:
I have a real VFM 4 bay NAS from Digisol which cost me 10000 bucks and am presently using it to stream movies over wifi. I have 2 WD Red 4 TB drives and one WD red 5 TB drive as well as an SSD in JBOD mode. Works fine with a ethernet based transfer speeds of around 60 megabytes per second and wifi transfer speeds of about 15 megabytes per second.

For professional work you can get a costlier NAS with more features and better performance from Synology. You can you 6 TB helium filled NAS DRIVES for a total of 24 TB. 20 for you movies and 4 for work or an 8 bay NAS with RAID 0+1 or RAID 5 for refundency.

The other option is using a dedicated PC with free nas where you can even more drives although the Synology one that you are interested in is great.
 
Last edited:
Yes for such a huge data and professional work look no other way but Synology. 1815+ is 8 disk NAS. with 5TB you will get 40TB and with 4 32TB. With SHR (or RAID 5, I will recommend SHR), you will get 28TB (with 4TBx8) and 35TB (with 5TBx8). I would suggest 5TB HOWEVER 5TB WD is very expensive 20K+ and 4TB is around 14K this is WD RED I am talking about and I would recommend RED definitely for the kind of work you are purchasing the NAS for.

I was actually looking at 6TB, which costs around 20 thou currently. I think that should give me 64TB. Guess that'll become 32TB with SHR or RAID5? I will need to keep 14TB free for professional stuff, so I'll reduce my personal needs.



yes you should be able to set it up yourself its easy, we are also here to assist ... :). I would certainly go for warranty and proper channel, since even 71K is a huge amount to be spent. Get in touch with SoundByDesign,(SID, 095998 21821) gurgaon, they are one of the official dealers of Synology in Delhi NCR. I am sure you will get a deal for 1,15,000 or 1,20,000, including all and shipping as well.

let more queries come. happy to assist ... :)

I know logic would suggest I go with warranty, but the damn cost is almost double. I mean I could throw out one if it got spoilt and buy an absolutely new one; at the cost they are selling it here. Even if I had to pay for a repairs, I am sure it won't be nearly as much as the difference of cost between the one imported and sold here. I am also counting on the fact that these by nature don't get spoilt easily. In case, I get one from Amazon that's spoilt on the get go, I can always return it at their cost. Is there a fear, that no one will locally repair a piece bought from abroad?

Thank you again for helping.

For professional work you can get a costlier NAS with more features and better performance from Synology. You can you 6 TB helium filled NAS DRIVES for a total of 24 TB. 20 for you movies and 4 for work or an 8 bay NAS with RAID 0+1 or RAID 5 for refundency.

Is WD Red helium filled? 4TB for work will be too little. I'll have to reduce my personal space.
 
I was actually looking at 6TB, which costs around 20 thou currently. I think that should give me 64TB. Guess that'll become 32TB with SHR or RAID5? I will need to keep 14TB free for professional stuff, so I'll reduce my personal needs.

It would give you 48TB (6TBx8),not 64TB. With SHR or RADI 5 you will get 42TB of spare space. Are you even getting 6TB WD RED? I could only find WD Green

I know logic would suggest I go with warranty, but the damn cost is almost double. I mean I could throw out one if it got spoilt and buy an absolutely new one; at the cost they are selling it here. Even if I had to pay for a repairs, I am sure it won't be nearly as much as the difference of cost between the one imported and sold here. I am also counting on the fact that these by nature don't get spoilt easily. In case, I get one from Amazon that's spoilt on the get go, I can always return it at their cost. Is there a fear, that no one will locally repair a piece bought from abroad?

Its not double, 71Kx2 is 142K. If you manage to bargain to around 1,05,000, then I guess it should not be pinch as bad as it suppose to ... :D Anyway yes the price difference is there, and if you are ok with the risk, by all means go for it and yes Synology NAS have a lesser hardware fault rate, but if they do, repair is almost impossible on the cards, its almost always replace.
What about the customs and all on amazon, how much would that be? and is there any guarantee they would even clear it without any issue??

Is WD Red helium filled? 4TB for work will be too little. I'll have to reduce my personal space.

Helium filled is new technology, it isn't even freely available commercially. Amazon.com has it (http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Western-Digital-Company-0F23267/dp/B00NP6AOCK#)

The one I am talking about is regular hard drives but recommended for NAS. WD RED.
 
Last edited:
No No thats not how SHR or RADI 5 works, with 6TB you will get 42TB of spare space. Are you even getting 6TB WD RED? I could only find WD Green

Amazon.in: Buy Western Digital Red WD60EFRX 6TB Internal Hard Drive Online at Low Prices in India | Western Digital Reviews & Ratings

Its not double, 71Kx2 is 142K. If you manage to bargain to around 1,05,000, then I guess it should not be pinch as bad as it suppose to ... :D Anyway yes the price difference is there, and if you are ok with the risk, by all means go for it and yes Synology NAS have a lesser hardware fault rate, but if they do, repair is almost impossible on the cards, its almost always replace.
What about the customs and all on amazon, how much would that be? and is there any guarantee they would even clear it without any issue??

I know its not double, but like almost...lol. Well, if repair is almost impossible, that's scary. Coz then, I'll have to bear the cost of sending it to the US. Though even that might be cheaper, with the kind of price difference we are talking about here. And yes, its 71,000, after customs paid. On Amazon, you pay duty at the time of purchase, it saves one from victimisation of customs officials here. I would have an appetite for risk, if I figured what the actual cost of sending this back to America would be in case of breakdown.
 

Grab it!!! ... :) ... But r you going to have all 8 drives in one go?, that's a whopping 1,60,000 just for HDD ..:eek:

I know its not double, but like almost...lol. Well, if repair is almost impossible, that's scary. Coz then, I'll have to bear the cost of sending it to the US. Though even that might be cheaper, with the kind of price difference we are talking about here. And yes, its 71,000, after customs paid. On Amazon, you pay duty at the time of purchase, it saves one from victimisation of customs officials here. I would have an appetite for risk, if I figured what the actual cost of sending this back to America would be in case of breakdown.

See Synology is all single board hardware, nothing is removable. Not sure about 1815+, but 4 bay series is all single board, so if it breaks, no repair in all probability. Just weigh all your pros and cones, before taking the no warranty amazon approach, that is all I am saying. Its not "just" about the money, the hassle of sending the unit back, the time its going to take...etc etc
 
You are going about it all wrong...

I will need to keep 14TB free for professional stuff, so I'll reduce my personal needs.

Buy if for work, you can always claim operating expenses. Get a NAS based on your work requirements.

For personal buy a cheaper one. There is one for sale on the forum for 5K. Or use the Raspberry Pi. DLNA is the same on both. Just have a couple of local backups.

If the Pi is too low in specs and you need video streaming then something like Mac Mini works just as fine. I recently set it up for a friend, cost 35K, and I know folks who have never turned it off in 5 years. It just works. A bare bones PC will cost even less, put Ubuntu on it and you are all set. Or FreeNAS.

I know a NAS rocks, but absolutely no sense in paying excess $$$ for a personal NAS just to stream music and movies. Maybe if you are hosting a web server, email server, etc. it might be worth extra.

You are not even planning on using RAID 1... so there is no purpose of even data security.

Integrate something like Amazon Cloud and you get unlimited backups for $60 a year.
 
The 4TB ones are not helium filled it is the higher capacity ones. I have a 5 TB one too but I don't know whether it is helium filled. It was given as a replacement when one of my 3 4TB WD red drives wentry kaput. Thankfully had a backup. I got my WD red 4TB for 10500 bucks each when they were on sale. My total cost was 10500x3 + 10000 for NAS = 41500 for a 12TB NAS now 13TB because they provided a 5 TB drive instead of RMA ed 4TB. Performs great even when using 4k 60fps wireless streaming.

Shop High Capacity 8TB Hard Drives | Western Digital (WD)
 
Last edited:
Grab it!!! ... :) ... But r you going to have all 8 drives in one go?, that's a whopping 1,60,000 just for HDD ..:eek:

No, I was planning to start with 3. I have about 10-12Tb of music and movies. And one for work. I'll gradually build it up as stuff gets added at work and personal collection.

See Synology is all single board hardware, nothing is removable. Not sure about 1815+, but 4 bay series is all single board, so if it breaks, no repair in all probability. Just weigh all your pros and cones, before taking the no warranty amazon approach, that is all I am saying. Its not "just" about the money, the hassle of sending the unit back, the time its going to take...etc etc

I think, the only issue for me will be the cost of transporting the NAS to and fro from the US. I don't have much issue with the time taken. I can always use 2.5" HDDs in the interim. However if the cost of transport is prohibitive, I'll rethink. I am also trying to find out if I'll have to pay duty when the NAS comes back into India after replacement.

You are going about it all wrong...
Buy if for work, you can always claim operating expenses. Get a NAS based on your work requirements.

For personal buy a cheaper one. There is one for sale on the forum for 5K. Or use the Raspberry Pi. DLNA is the same on both. Just have a couple of local backups.

If the Pi is too low in specs and you need video streaming then something like Mac Mini works just as fine. I recently set it up for a friend, cost 35K, and I know folks who have never turned it off in 5 years. It just works. A bare bones PC will cost even less, put Ubuntu on it and you are all set. Or FreeNAS.

I know a NAS rocks, but absolutely no sense in paying excess $$$ for a personal NAS just to stream music and movies. Maybe if you are hosting a web server, email server, etc. it might be worth extra.

You are not even planning on using RAID 1... so there is no purpose of even data security.

Integrate something like Amazon Cloud and you get unlimited backups for $60 a year.

Oh I thought you were in favour of me getting a NAS. In fact we were talking about the DS1515+ in some other thread.

For me, I can plan for work as well as personal together, as the NAS can be at home. I can still claim operating expense. We also spoke about FreeNAS, but since I have no clue about Linux, don't think it makes sense. On Mac Mini, I think my MacBook Pro Retina is more powerful in most parameters and so I feel no compulsion of getting a dedicated HTPC. I thought RAID 5 was better for security than RAID 1?
 
Last edited:
Oh I thought you were in favour of me getting a NAS. In fact we were talking about the DS1515+ in some other thread.

For me, I can plan for work as well as personal together, as the NAS can be at home. I can still claim operating expense. We also spoke about FreeNAS, but since I have no clue about Linux, don't think it makes sense. On Mac Mini, I think my MacBook Pro Retina is more powerful in most parameters and I have no compulsion of getting a dedicated HTPC. I thought RAID 5 was better for security than RAID 1?

I am highly in favor of a NAS, especially Synology. But somewhere the price to performance ratio has to kick in right?

I see nothing in your usage indication to justify a $900 NAS box. Throw in the HDDs, and even without the expansion slot you are looking at over $3000. That $3000 is not going to improve SQ over the $35 Pi. End of the day DLNA works the same way in every device and cannot be improved upon like with the use of expensive cables.

For work and data backup/redundancy I can understand, but for that you don't need a powerful NAS i.e. a powerful processor. Even a lower specced CPU will do for data backup and redundancy. What you will really need is additional backups or RAID 1 and also cloud backup. So spend on those features and not a 64-bit Intel processor.

Do you plan to transcode video?
Do you plan to upsample music to DSD?
Do you plan to run a webserver and expect to hit over 50K visitors daily?

A powerful NAS does not mean a better NAS. Actually a NAS is supposed to utilize the least amount of power and resources and just be available 24x7 with access to your data and also preferably secure that data.
 
No, I was planning to start with 3. I have about 10-12Tb of music and movies. And one for work. I'll gradually build it up as stuff gets added at work and personal collection.

Oh ok cool, go even number get 2 or 4. better approch
I think, the only issue for me will be the cost of transporting the NAS to and fro from the US. I don't have much issue with the time taken. I can always use 2.5" HDDs in the interim. However if the cost of transport is prohibitive, I'll rethink. I am also trying to find out if I'll have to pay duty when the NAS comes back into India after replacement.

yep as I said weigh all pros and cons before taking the step ...

I can still claim operating expense. We also spoke about FreeNAS, but since I have no clue about Linux, don't think it makes sense. On Mac Mini, I think my MacBook Pro Retina is more powerful in most parameters and so I feel no compulsion of getting a dedicated HTPC. I thought RAID 5 was better for security than RAID 1?

Dont even think of DIY when it comes to professional work, and when you are getting Home Media entertainment as well from the same NAS why not..:) .... and RAID 1 is mirroring unless you have absolutely mission critical NASA type data :D, raid 1 does not make sense at all, especially with so many disks.
Your usable storage will only be the max of one disk in RAID 1. Raid 0+1 it will be halved. Your best bet is RAID 5 or SHR 2 with synology.

Better to take a separate backup externally if you have critical data than RAID 1. RAID 5 or SHR-2 in case of Synology is your best bet.
 
Last edited:
I am highly in favor of a NAS, especially Synology. But somewhere the price to performance ratio has to kick in right?

I see nothing in your usage indication to justify a $900 NAS box. Throw in the HDDs, and even without the expansion slot you are looking at over $3000. That $3000 is not going to improve SQ over the $35 Pi. End of the day DLNA works the same way in every device and cannot be improved upon like with the use of expensive cables.

That's precisely why my first question in the thread was if I combine work requirements do you guys still propose Synology? First let me clarify that I am not looking at NAS to improve SQ or PQ. For that, I am looking at 105D, though don't know how much it'll improve the SQ. That said, I am purely looking at NAS as storage. At one end, it'll give me access to almost 6TB of movies I haven't looked at as its stowed away in those large 2TB WD MyBooks.

Now to explain a little about how production houses work. After a film is shot, there are about 3x1TB of rushes floating between different processing houses. Once the film is made two of them are erased and put back to use and one of them goes to archive. Now over time small and mid-sized production houses have their shelves full of these 1TB HDD (generally Lacie, so expensive) that might and almost always do, get corrupt. Since I was in this mode of buying a NAS, thought I could combine this. If Synology is a a more reliable machine for this storage I would like to stick to that. If not, maybe you can suggest something that would work better. However, I would prefer if I can keep both, work and pleasure in the same booth.

For work and data backup/redundancy I can understand, but for that you don't need a powerful NAS i.e. a powerful processor. Even a lower specced CPU will do for data backup and redundancy. What you will really need is additional backups or RAID 1 and also cloud backup. So spend on those features and not a 64-bit Intel processor.

So which NAS do you suggest for this?

Do you plan to transcode video?

Once I have a NAS, maybe I could, If I need to watch a film on an iPhone or an iPad sometime.

Do you plan to upsample music to DSD?

Don't know what that means and why I would need to do so.

Do you plan to run a webserver and expect to hit over 50K visitors daily?

Nope.

and RAID 1 is mirroring unless you have absolutely mission critical NASA type data :D, raid 1 does not make sense at all, especially with so many disks.
Your usable storage will only be the max of one disk in RAID 1. Raid 0+1 it will be halved. Your best bet is RAID 5 or SHR 2 with synology.

Better to take a separate backup externally if you have critical data than RAID 1. RAID 5 or SHR-2 in case of Synology is your best bet.

I will have critical data. The rushes from the films shot can be asked for by the client at any time in the form of edits or re-runs with changes. Normally the period for this is two years. Anyway to keep it with oneself is to make it easier to access. Another copy is always stored in a studio, for a certain payment. I do understand that RAID is not backup. Though I thought RAID 5 is better than RAID 1 or maybe they are similar.
 
I have two Synology units and am just setting up a third for me nephew to stream audio. Can't recommend these enough. One is a for bay and two are three bay units. All you need to ensure is back up power. Buy decent HDDs, not the cheapest ones, I bought NAS drives which cost me marginally more but these are supposed to be much more robust.
 
I am purely looking at NAS as storage. At one end, it'll give me access to almost 6TB of movies I haven't looked at as its stowed away in those large 2TB WD MyBooks.

Now to explain a little about how production houses work. After a film is shot, there are about 3x1TB of rushes floating between different processing houses. Once the film is made two of them are erased and put back to use and one of them goes to archive. Now over time small and mid-sized production houses have their shelves full of these 1TB HDD (generally Lacie, so expensive) that might and almost always do, get corrupt. Since I was in this mode of buying a NAS, thought I could combine this. If Synology is a a more reliable machine for this storage I would like to stick to that. If not, maybe you can suggest something that would work better. However, I would prefer if I can keep both, work and pleasure in the same booth.

NAS is primarily for storage with better security and safely and backup, having said that the line between the professional NAS and Home NAS has blurred, with Home NAS providing features of a professional NAS and vice versa. So why not get NAS that obviously does do what its suppose to do (centralized storage, back up and security) plus also give full rich multimedia experience. Else you can get an industry grade NAS from the likes of DELL and the same. But that would be purely from storage and backup perspective with different protocols to follow. For mid-size business and home appliance, nothing better than Synology that gives us best of both worlds.


I will have critical data. The rushes from the films shot can be asked for by the client at any time in the form of edits or re-runs with changes. Normally the period for this is two years. Anyway to keep it with oneself is to make it easier to access. Another copy is always stored in a studio, for a certain payment. I do understand that RAID is not backup. Though I thought RAID 5 is better than RAID 1 or maybe they are similar.

Then get a separate backup and don't rely on RAID. RAID is not a copy, not even RAID 1. Make sure you have a separate copy of your critical data stored at a separate location, or if you can afford go for professional cloud backup solution like Amazon Glacier.

There is nothing like..... this RAID is better than that RAID, it all depends on how you wanna use your storage and data. I have seen people using RAID 0 as well, that gives no data security, but that's not what they are targeting for. So RAID 5 is not better or worse than RAID 1 ... just different. As I said for most of us RAID 5 (or SHR 2 in case of Synology) is the one to go for. In your case I would suggest a backup copy of data in a separate location is advised. (like I do with my family snaps and videos collected over a time, too critical data for me .. :) )
 
Last edited:
yep as I said weigh all pros and cons before taking the step ...

Synology customer service indicated to me that for repairs or replacement I'll have to send the NAS to the vendor I buy/bought it from. So I checked with Amazon customer service and I had the most incredible chat! According to the guy, Amazon will bear the cost of courier as well as any duty that may have to be paid. And I have that in writing as the transcript of the chat has been mailed to me. My head's still shaking in disbelief.
 
Last edited:
So which NAS do you suggest for this?

You misunderstood me. I highly recommend a Synology. Just not the model you have picked. You don't need a quad core Intel CPU for data backup.

I fail to understand how a $900 DS1815+ will be any better than a $169.99 DS216j just to store and retrieve data. Both have limited internal bays and both will need expansion slots sooner than later. Put that $$$ difference to better use like better NAS grade HDDs, expansion unit, etc.

Synology is highly recommended for its OS, its more user friendly and also media centric. I know folks using Linux + ZFS for critical data protection and they wouldn't even touch Synology. It goes both ways.

Now to explain a little about how production houses work. After a film is shot, there are about 3x1TB of rushes floating between different processing houses. Once the film is made two of them are erased and put back to use and one of them goes to archive. Now over time small and mid-sized production houses have their shelves full of these 1TB HDD (generally Lacie, so expensive) that might and almost always do, get corrupt. Since I was in this mode of buying a NAS, thought I could combine this. If Synology is a a more reliable machine for this storage I would like to stick to that. If not, maybe you can suggest something that would work better. However, I would prefer if I can keep both, work and pleasure in the same booth.

Keep work and entertainment separate. Different needs and different uses. A single all-in-one solution does not exist for anything.

That's precisely why my first question in the thread was if I combine work requirements do you guys still propose Synology? First let me clarify that I am not looking at NAS to improve SQ or PQ. For that, I am looking at 105D, though don't know how much it'll improve the SQ. That said, I am purely looking at NAS as storage. At one end, it'll give me access to almost 6TB of movies I haven't looked at as its stowed away in those large 2TB WD MyBooks.

I repeat again... for NAS as a storage you don't need a $900 or more NAS.

Unless of course you have $$$ to burn... in which case again I'll repeat a dedicated stereo amp will beat the blushes out of your AVR... again money put to better use.

Of course its your money and so its your decision. All of the folks participating here mean well including me. Even I sought Sam's help in selecting my NAS and I also did go for a higher end NAS with a quad core CPU, but its something I'm really using and even transcoding and watching video in my car. Your needs/requirements seem different from mine, so I believe you are better served by putting that money to better use elsewhere.
 
Synology customer service indicated to me that for repairs or replacement I'll have to send the NAS to the vendor I buy/bought it from. So I checked with Amazon customer service and I had the most incredible chat! According to the guy, Amazon will bear the cost of courier as well as any duty that may have to be paid. And I have that in writing as the transcript of the chat has been mailed to me. My head's still shaking in disbelief.

Amazon has been doing that for a while now, and precisely the reason I bought from Amazon.com. However, not all items are cheap... something like the Devialet is proving to be more expensive via Amazon.
 
You misunderstood me. I highly recommend a Synology. Just not the model you have picked. You don't need a quad core Intel CPU for data backup.

I fail to understand how a $900 DS1815+ will be any better than a $169.99 DS216j just to store and retrieve data. Both have limited internal bays and both will need expansion slots sooner than later. Put that $$$ difference to better use like better NAS grade HDDs, expansion unit, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I know you guys have best interest of members in mind. You have already saved me a bunch of money when I opted out of Auralic. However, given my absolute lack of knowledge of these things you will need to be direct in your recommendations. Can you suggest a Synology make for me? The only reason I opted for DS1815+ was because of the slots available. Also, I see no harm in keeping work files along with other media. Primarily because one copy of all the films I direct will be in a studio under professional care, its just the production house copy I want to keep in Synology for easy access (I won't have to keep going back to the studio to access rushes) and to avoid 70-80 1TB disks floating in different shelves. And no sir, given that I have a fledgeling production house, I don't have $$$ to burn.


Even I sought Sam's help in selecting my NAS and I also did go for a higher end NAS with a quad core CPU, but its something I'm really using and even transcoding and watching video in my car. Your needs/requirements seem different from mine, so I believe you are better served by putting that money to better use elsewhere.

Now, I would love to do that too; watch a movie in my car. I didn't even know I could do that with a NAS lying at home. How does that work? Very keen to know and am sure to use it.

Amazon has been doing that for a while now, and precisely the reason I bought from Amazon.com. However, not all items are cheap... something like the Devialet is proving to be more expensive via Amazon.

In this case, I assure you Amazon is proving to be way cheaper (duty paid) than the distributor here. DS1815+ duty paid is for 71,000, while the distributors final price is 1,20,000 + 5% VAT and 5% Octroi (Mumbai). So even if I have to spend Rs. 10000 one way to send and get the product, I'll save money. Customs can be avoided by giving a letter to the authorities that its a product for replacement and not a new one.
 
Get the Wharfedale EVO 4.2 3-Way Standmount Speakers at a Special Offer Price.
Back
Top