Time Capsule vs. Other Mass Storage Device

Question

I am a Mac newby seeking advice.  I recently purchased the MBA below to replace my personal PC.  My previous setup was a desktop with plenty of storage to handle my needs (including iTunes) and I backed up data directly to an external hard drive (I know pretty basic).
After purchasing the MBA, I realized I do not have enough internal hard drive space to store all of my music and my current external drive is too small for all the media and backup of the MBA.  Also, the point of the MBA is to be mobile. Also, I would like my Sonos music system (with an application similar to iTunes) to be able to access the music library.  Lastly, I have far to many songs purchase outside of iTunes to use iTunes Match.  Therefore, I started seeking wireless alternatives to store my music and backup my MBA.  Although an NAS would probably be ideal, I have found out through trial and error that the basic systems do not work with a MAC and the only ones with a prayer are the more expensive ones (i.e. Synology and QNAPS).  Therefore, I have decided to pursue a more simplified approach.
My Internet and TV provider is CenturyLink.  Their router is very basic with only 802.11g speed and without any USB ports.  The following configuration has been suggested to my by some more experienced Apple users to provide wireless data access and backup.
Requesting CenturyLink provide me with a basic modem.
Purchasing an Airport Extreme (or similar wireless n router with a USB port).
Connecting the Airport Extreme (or other wireless router) to the basic modem.
Purchasing a Time Capsule (or other mass storage device).
Partitioning it using either the specific one for the Time Capsule (or Disk Utility for other mass storage devices) to provide one volume for my media and one for backup using Time Machine.
Moving the media from my old external drive (which is catalogued with folders for each artist, subfolders for each album and the songs in the subfolders) by connecting the old mass storage device and Time Machine to my MBA and using Finder to do this (see the questions below regarding this).
Moving/cataloging the media from the Time Capsule (or other mass storage device) by dragging it into the iTunes window.
Connecting the Time Capsule (or other mass storage device) to the USB port of the Airport Extreme (or other wireless router).
Setting up Time Machine to use the volume partitioned for backups.
Possibly having to move cataloging files from my iTunes, Music folder to the external drive and pointing iTunes to the Time Capsule (or other mass storage device) through Preferences, Advanced to access the music.
Overall, I am concerned with the total cost.  I just spent a lot of money, not only purchasing the MBA, but also the iPad 3 and upgrading my cell phone to the iPhone 5 (I skipped the 4).  It seems that by the time I purchase an Airport Extreme and a Time Capsule, I could also have just bought a NAS like the Synology 213 with 2 X 1TB drives, connect it to the existing wireless router via ethernet connections and have a more comprehensive solution.  Based upon these instructions and cost concerns (and bad experience), I have several questions related to this.
Does this configuration and these instructions make sense, including those for moving and accessing my music files through iTunes (i.e. will it work)?
Are both the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule necessary to make this work easily or can I purchase alternatives to either or each and if so, what is recommended?  If they are necessary, would you recommend doing this or buying one of the aforementioned NAS's to a Mac newby?
Given the file structure for my music on the old external mass storage drive, can I simply move the folders over with the subfolders containing the musice files in them or do I have to literally enter into each subfolder, select all and move them subfolder by subfolder (i.e. album by album)?
Am I missing something totally better and easier solution?
I would be massively grateful to anyone who can provide some good answers, advice and guidance.  I am about to pull my hair out!!!!
Thanks,
WinoSkiBoy

Answer 1

They both said about the same thing except the Apple Store business tech said to buy an Airport Extreme and just attach a partitioned external third party HDD to it.
Except that is flakey for TM backup..
http://pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
And slow as the proverbial dog.. although I guess the dog is old.
And totally inadequate as a media store or server.
Apple's pricing is pretty cunning.. I really doubt you are going to find a cheaper unit to do both wireless and TM backups than the TC. And it is a perfectly good device to do that. It is good to have in the network. And Apple sure make their products work with other apple products.. so it does work better than other similar cost products.. although you miss a lot of features that Apple predecided for you.
But I don't think anyone has the ideal solution to your problem. Apple believe in cloud. And if you have fibre internet that will work really well.. forks out your money and apple will store your stuff. But for the real world most of us do not have internet connection even a fraction of speed required. And it can be another decade before we will. We need a box that is half way between a TC and media PC, a file store and a NAS. Will Apple make one.. ?? I don't think so.. They believe in cloud..
You can make the missing link one yourself. If you are so inclined.. A HP microserver running freeNAS can do TM backups and makes an excellent media store because it can do AFP. You can put a graphics card in it and plug it into your TV. You can use it with a airport extreme. But you will need a degree in Geek.. !! The synology is a preconfigured form of that.. No Geekdom required. Synology seems to have the upper hand.. this week.
Let me make a suggestion.. Figure out if you are going to jump into the Apple way of doing stuff.. which is basically itunes on computer as a server.. and the whole network.. working as part of this.. so any media is pushed from a store in itunes.. whether local or internet..  if you want to do it that way.. getting something other than the air to run itunes is well worth it. That is what a NAS cannot do.. it cannot be a media player.
Or you do hybrid.. ie you don't use put all your media into itunes, you use a bit of this and bit of something else.. As long as that can play files.. stored on NAS or even on the TC without the itunes requirement.. It won't be as pretty. But it isn't hard to get working.. as long as you accept this isn't going to be the perfect Apple solution.