SD card transports

[Norton]

I'm not a particular fan of networked solutions, the idea of a local SD card transport that works just like a cd transport but with the advantage of multi album capacity, hires capability and above all SQ vs. a spinning disc really appeals. I tend to listen to complete CD sized folders one a time, rather than surfing individual tracks, so navigating say 10-20 folders via a built in screen and remote is no particular hardship, if I get SQ benefits in return.

 

I appreciate I'm probably in a very small minority in this but I wondered if anyone had experience of this approach to CA?

 

I'm aware of a part- DIY solution, the sdtrans386 and also a seemingly amazingly heavy and I imagine fabulously expensive projected product from Lessloss ( which seems to have been projected for quite a long time now...) but haven't heard of anything else. I'm also aware of some professional products which offer replay from a SD card, but I'm looking for a dedicated audiophile product, with suitable attention to pcb, power supplies, clocks, DAC interfaces etc

 

I specify SD card as I've read past posts suggesting the SQ is much better than say a USB thumb drive (I used to own a Bryston BDP). Grateful for any comments on the truth of this too, or even on what might be involved in building such a device.

[monteverdi]

I do have a Sdtrans 384 and it is my best sounding source (second best is my CD transport). Yes it is DIY but not very challenging but it requires a very good powersupply. Navigation is extremely rudimentary but maybe such minimalist design is partly responsible for its sound quality. I found some ebay suppliers of SD transports but no idea how they sound. Almost all DAPs use SD cards to store music and I do have an Astell&Kern AK 120 which has digital out via toslink but its sound quality is quite inferior to the SDtrans and I think it is not only a SPDIF vs toslink issue.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[davide256]

I've abandoned SSD drives in Synology NAS for locally attached SD card library to PC, currently using a 512GB Sandisk Pro Extreme in a Lexmark USB3 card reader. The high speed SD card basically does a more convincing job of providing the micro details that create the illusion of a live performance than a local or network attached SSD drive. However I do use a network attached renderer (microRendu) as I have never had good results with same file server feeding asynch USB to DAC directly. This works well for streaming with Foobar2000 or if I run Minimserver locally on the PC and control remotely with Kinsky.

[skyline]

I'm not a particular fan of networked solutions, the idea of a local SD card transport that works just like a cd transport but with the advantage of multi album capacity, hires capability and above all SQ vs. a spinning disc really appeals.

 

I looked into getting the sdtrans, as another audiophile told me it was the best digital source he's ever heard.

 

However, I balked at the rudimentary navigation. And the fact that my CD rips don't sound anywhere near CD playback (even on a modest Cambridge player used as a transport).

[jriver]

We're doing something similar. We ship the JRiver Id software on a microSD card. It's JRiver Media Center plus Linux on a bootable card, ready to insert in a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.

 

Id Pi mSD -- Release September 15th

 

The 16GB card would only have about 10GB for storage, but it can also be ordered with a 128GB card.

[Norton]

Thanks for the feedback and comments so far. Just how DIY is the sdtrans (if it involves soldering I'm out...)?

 

I already run JRiver on a little fanless PC, which has a SD card slot, I guess not that different from an ID?

[monteverdi]

No soldering required! More or less building a box for a circuit board

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[jriver]

I already run JRiver on a little fanless PC, which has a SD card slot, I guess not that different from an ID?

Someone asked a similar question yesterday and I replied here:

Id Pi mSD -- Release September 15th

 

You could build something that was similar (for audio). It's just a question of whether you want to do the work or you want us to do it.