Managing music without iTunes

[Freshman]

Hi all, I know this question has been asked before, but I can't believe there's no solution. I don't want to use iTunes because it just a pain in the bum to manage big libraries on different local network devices like a NAS. It frequently hangs or freezes and the sync just never works correctly.
On my PC I've been using Winamp for years and was always happy with it. I can even manage the music on my Android and my wife's Ipod. Unfortunately it doesn't work with the iPad.
I've tried Mediamonkey 4.0 beta, but it somehow get's screwed when iTunes pops up (even when disabling the automatic music sync).
So the bottom line is - how are you people able to manage the music on your iPad?
As an additional question: is there really no app to comfortably access a music library on a NAS? By comfortably I mean, indexing the library on the iPad, using filters and all those things... I've tried Buzz Player, but you really have to click every single song to play it. Again - how are you doing it?
Thanks for your help, a very frustrated first-time-apple-user,
Freshman

 

[DefBref]

I know you don't want to hear it, but if you did use itunes, you could use homesharing to access your NAS from the ipad over your network to stream the music instead of copying (although it would require the MAC/PC with itunes to be on as well).

 

[Freshman]

How can I setup homesharing on a NAS? Although it's running a small Linux the only thing I could setup is Firefly and I think that it's not recognized anymore by Apple software (e.g. the iPod on the iPad - gee, sounds great )
Thanks for the answer, though.

 

[twerppoet]

If the computer can read the NAS then it should be possible to set iTunes up to reference the file instead of copying them when it imports. Those setting are all in the preferences. So you could create a new iTunes library, even on the NAS, (choosing the library location can also be done in Preferences), then import the music folders that way. Since the is no actual file copying, just the database being created, it shouldn't take terribly long.

I have no idea how well this would work, but it should be worth trying. You can always just delete the new iTunes library filed and point iTunes back to the original directory if it does not.