Does storage medium matter in 24/96 playback

[Richmalk]

I have excellent results playing 24/96 files on my i3 QuadCore Dell laptop, with 7200 rpm SataII HDD, using Music Monkey with all background programs disabled, streaming via a good USB cable to my updated Wadia 381i. My album files from HDtracks are usually 1.5 to 2.5 GB, and play back on my dash at 2 to 3 GB/sec. Sounds great.

 

Considering a new laptop. Is there any advantage to going with a SSD versus a HDD? Does the speed of a HDD matter (hard to find 7200 rpm now)? Is the extraction of the data from storage to computer or DAC in any way a limiting factor in playback. While I understand SSD can read quicker, is it possible a good HDD and setup is functionally the same? Finally, does size of either type drive matter? No luck getting "real" answers to this on the web!

 

Thanks!

[davide256]

I have excellent results playing 24/96 files on my i3 QuadCore Dell laptop, with 7200 rpm SataII HDD, using Music Monkey with all background programs disabled, streaming via a good USB cable to my updated Wadia 381i. My album files from HDtracks are usually 1.5 to 2.5 GB, and play back on my dash at 2 to 3 GB/sec. Sounds great.

 

Considering a new laptop. Is there any advantage to going with a SSD versus a HDD? Does the speed of a HDD matter (hard to find 7200 rpm now)? Is the extraction of the data from storage to computer or DAC in any way a limiting factor in playback. While I understand SSD can read quicker, is it possible a good HDD and setup is functionally the same? Finally, does size of either type drive matter? No luck getting "real" answers to this on the web!

 

Thanks!

 

Don't expect to get improvement from staying with a laptop... there are too many compromises made in the hardware architecture. I didn't find SSD helped with asynch USB, it did with UPNP streaming media server/ NAS

[spdif-usb]

My i3 3110M laptop uses both an internal 5400 rpm harddrive and multiple external USB 3.0 (7200 rpm) harddrives. For playback, it doesn't matter to me where my music files are stored. I can play the files from my laptop over my LAN connection on my old Atom N270 netbook or vice versa, with or without streaming. I can play them off of an SD card or a USB stick. I can even play them from a Ramdisk whenever I feel so inclined (which isn't very often, I probably might add). In every single scenario that I have tried (and I have also tried all of them with an older laptop and an old desktop PC, by the way...), the playback difference was nil.

[avta]

I recently purchased an Ayre QB9 DSD dac at Music Lovers in Berkeley, CA. While listening to some different USB cables the salesperson, Grant, a very affable fellow, mentioned that I should consider changing the HD on my 2010 Mac Mini as his experience was that it would improve the sound. I was skeptical but after some thought I had that done ( $ 300 ). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the improvement was very obvious. The sound was much smoother and the sound stage larger.To be honest I had read about this before but doubted questioned the benefit. Question answered for my system. ( Mac Mini>Ayre dac>Jeff Rowland Capri S2 pre>Jeff Rowland 525 amp>Sonus Faber Venere 3 speakers )

[Richmalk]

avta, can you give us the specifics of your before and after hdd on your Mac Mini. Was the protocol connection to the computer changed, too (like SATA level)?

[avta]

I didn't knowingly change anything else. The exchange of drives was done in one day by a professional not me. I'm not sure what your question about SATA means relative to the new drive.

[Richmalk]

Yes. The question is the connection between the drive and the chip set. I believe in 2010 it was probably SATA 1 (a serial connection faster than the prior parallel connections). However, since then the protocol has gone up to SATA 2 and 3, which support much higher data transfers. If you have a receipt it might state what was swapped in.

[avta]

The installer told me it's a SATA 3 drive.

[Richmalk]

That makes sense, assuming the computer could actually use SATA 3, rather than the SATA 2 that was available when it was built. Either are potentially faster than the SATA 1 it came with. Seems your observations support improved audio performance in your system from a HD update. Thanks for the info.

[avta]

My pleasure.