External USB Music Library - on computer or on SMS200?

My 500gb external music library is on a simple USB drive attached to my iMac. There, the contents of the library are included in my Roon and recently Audirvana Studio music programs.

I know that the SMS200 Ultra Neo has a USB input for attaching an external library, but in all these years I've never used it.

My question is, is there any benefit to relocating that external drive to the SoTM device rather than have it attached to my iMac? And, if so, what.

I'm also unclear how I'd even point my music playing apps to finding the external drive connected to the SoTM?????

14 hours ago, creativepart said:

My question is, is there any benefit to relocating that external drive to the SoTM device rather than have it attached to my iMac?

I don’t think there can be some benefit, and you should consider that the SOtM Ethernet connection will be charged twice : it will deliver tracks to the player and, at the same time, it will receive the stream from the player.

14 hours ago, creativepart said:

I'm also unclear how I'd even point my music playing apps to finding the external drive connected to the SoTM?????

The usb attached external drive will be shared over the network, therefore it will be available to the players.

Go to Library configuration and check 

• Automatic usb disk mount
• Share folder (samba)

Thanks for that info. I hadn't considered the round trip for the file from the HD to the computer and back to the SoTM. I thought perhaps it would be a more direct path. Directly from the HD to the SoTM.

Makes sense.

Maybe I'll try it someday for yucks and giggles.