Buying a new HD for my music

[bencat]

Currently my Logitech Media Server resides on a standalone Raspberry Pi 4 8GB set  up using Max2play as the distro . My Library of music is on a 2 TB USB Drive pretty standard . The current cost of the USB HD is about £65 - 70 depending on the deals on the day . In my view not that huge a cost but possibly for others who do not heed this size of storage .

While browsing the net late at night as I seem to do and came across a thread saying that SSD HD were much better (silent in use , quicker , not subject shocks) . Sounded like a good idea but i do remember the last time I looked at this (probably over a year) 2 TB drives were around £500 - 600 . Have to admit forgot about it then as that is just too much to pay . Well last night I did a search on a few sites and most were now around £350 / 400 which is cheaper but still a little too much.

Then up popped a short term deal on Amazon for Crucial X8 SSD 2 TB £174.99 which is tempting , but then even better I can pay for it in five installments at interest free credit. So too good for me to say no . I am not expecting that it will offer me anything too different to the standard USB Drives i use but just to have the extra speed and silent use is pretty okay .

Arrived today and i am amazed at how small it is . Started the process of copying across all my music which is going to take so many hours but hopefully late Tuesday or first thing Wednesday and I should be able to put it in place .

Anyone use an SSD as there HD for music ? Are they really faster ? Any tip hints or suggestions to get the best out of this would be appreciated .

 

[Man in a van]

Hey Andrew, I take it this is the portable drive ?

The usb 3 on the pi is still not as fast as a Desktop computer but scan times should be reduced.

Maybe ask Max2Play  about enabling "Trim", one can do that in "Buster". There are several threads on the Raspberry Pi forum that expalin how to do that (if the drive allows).

It should also be possible to run Max2Play on the drive (although you have started to do the file copy, it's a bit late for that )

ronnie

 

[bencat]

Okay I now want to just want to get strapped in to my nice white jacket and get taken to that nice room that has the soft walls . I have completed the transfer of all my music files by about one today. Turned off the the LMS removed the USB HD and replaced it with the crucial SSD HD .

Mounted the drive and then did a full rescan . Took about the same time as the USB HD and have not noticed any speed advantages .

Now the mad part the music sounds better there is so much more of every thing in it , it is not subtle or easy to miss . There is no sensible explanation and i am not going to suggest anyone else joins in with my form of mental deception . I know and understand there should be no difference both drives delivered files that were checked when ripped as being perfect digital files . They are not different they are identical but they do sound different . I am not going to ask anyone else to consider or believe it I am just going to enjoy the demented improvements for as long as they last .

 

[Sumdumgi]

Okay I now want to just want to get strapped in to my nice white jacket and get taken to that nice room that has the soft walls . I have completed the transfer of all my music files by about one today. Turned off the the LMS removed the USB HD and replaced it with the crucial SSD HD .

Mounted the drive and then did a full rescan . Took about the same time as the USB HD and have not noticed any speed advantages .

Now the mad part the music sounds better there is so much more of every thing in it , it is not subtle or easy to miss . There is no sensible explanation and i am not going to suggest anyone else joins in with my form of mental deception . I know and understand there should be no difference both drives delivered files that were checked when ripped as being perfect digital files . They are not different they are identical but they do sound different . I am not going to ask anyone else to consider or believe it I am just going to enjoy the demented improvements for as long as they last .

I'm going to have a go at attaching an external HD to my Node 2i and had contemplated an SSD - my NAS setup is overblown just for music so I'm thinking about repurposing it for network backup (2x iMacs) and CCTV monitoring. We have Sonos but any music on there is only from Spotify or radio, don't see the need to use my library generally other than on my main system. The Node is wired to the router which is located in another room but you have set me off contemplating whether a direct attachment might have some audio benefits . Anyway tonight I'm going to transfer a few albums to an external WD Passport Drive and see what happens ...  Will report back in due course

 

[Beyond you]

I'm going to have a go at attaching an external HD to my Node 2i and had contemplated an SSD - my NAS setup is overblown just for music so I'm thinking about repurposing it for network backup (2x iMacs) and CCTV monitoring. We have Sonos but any music on there is only from Spotify or radio, don't see the need to use my library generally other than on my main system. The Node is wired to the router which is located in another room but you have set me off contemplating whether a direct attachment might have some audio benefits . Anyway tonight I'm going to transfer a few albums to an external WD Passport Drive and see what happens ...  Will report back in due course

Any good Les?

 

[Andrei]

While browsing the net late at night as I seem to do and came across a thread saying that SSD HD were much better (silent in use , quicker , not subject shocks) . Sounded like a good idea but i do remember the last time I looked at this (probably over a year) 2 TB drives were around £500 - 600 . Have to admit forgot about it then as that is just too much to pay . Well last night I did a search on a few sites and most were now around £350 / 400 which is cheaper but still a little too much.

Then up popped a short term deal on Amazon for Crucial X8 SSD 2 TB £174.99 which is tempting , but then even better I can pay for it in five installments at interest free credit. So too good for me to say no . I am not expecting that it will offer me anything too different to the standard USB Drives i use but just to have the extra speed and silent use is pretty okay .

Arrived today and i am amazed at how small it is . Started the process of copying across all my music which is going to take so many hours but hopefully late Tuesday or first thing Wednesday and I should be able to put it in place .

Anyone use an SSD as there HD for music ? Are they really faster ? Any tip hints or suggestions to get the best out of this would be appreciated .

You have gone the right way.  In terms of musical performance there will not be much difference unless you are into undisciplined multitasking.   Files are loaded into memory prior to being processed, so the storage medium loses relevance.  However you get all the benefits of an SSD.  Faster reading, more reliability.  You may also get a small noise benefit.  Samsung used to make particularly quiet Hard Drives, but most others did have residual noise.  Pricing is important of course but compared to other bits of HI-Fi this is far less of a difference. 

I have only two tips, The first relates to backup.  Of course everyone preaches the virtues of backup with the conviction of an insurance salesman.  Here is something to consider: Get a program called quickpar.   Each time you put files on your HD use quickpar to protect the files.  It is not infallible but you get a very high level of protection for a tiny file size.  

The second relates to filesize.  I have a a 2 TB SSD (and a 2TB HDD on another rig) but they are approaching their max.  Two sub-points.  If you have PCM at 192, consider downing that to 96khz or even 48khz.  This is a vexed, flame subject - but there is actually no music above 60khz.  There is also the limitations of one's ears and the limitations of tweeters, not mention the limitations of microphones.  

The second sub-point is DSD.  There is currently no lossless music compression for  DSD.  For example PCM can be converted to FLAC.   There is no such option for DSD.  So what I do for my DSD files on my drives is to use Windows compression.  In theory this relates to a requirement of more computational time.  We lawyers call this De Minimus.  It it like putting a sock in your boot and saying the petrol consumption will go up.

 

[Sumdumgi]

Any good Les?

It’s a bit weird and I’m going to listen further. It does sound a little different  . And maybe ... better. I am going to run a test with SWMBO assisting tomorrow by building a playlist from both the NAS and the HD with the tracks duplicated from each source so I can listen to the tracks back to back. The issue, or slight issue is I prefer my system switched off if I’m not using it and the Node has to rebuild the index on the external HD each time it boots up. It only takes a few minutes so I suppose it’s not critical. It has make me wonder whether the Vault 2i is a better fit but given my CD collection is ripped and I only buy the odd CD here and there now and have an external CD drive for my Mac it seems an unnecessary expense ...

Will report back tomorrow after some extended listening. 

 

[Sumdumgi]

Any good Les?

Interesting. I compiled a playlist of 10 duplicated tracks from the NAS and HD and SWMBO and I spent 90 minutes yesterday afternoon relaxing with a nice bottle of red and doing an unscientific comparison. I have to say that the tracks from the HD did sound different to me - not sure about better but some subtle changes in the level of detail and soundstage. Now the duplicate tracks did play back to back and randomised from source and SWMBO picked 9 of the 10 from the hard drive .

I've decided I will look out for a deal on an external 2tb SSD to use as they are smaller and perhaps the index will rebuild quicker.  The check was to clarify whether I would lose any sound quality by dropping the NAS for directly attached storage, it actually appears there may be a small bonus in that SQ 'seems' better.

 

[bencat]

Not as cheap as the deal i got but this is still quite a good price for an SSD HD . Same one I am using and it is fast and silent and surprisingly small .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08C3XVP2P/ref=twister_B08GR4RHQ5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Pete the Feet]

It may be expectation bias that makes it sound better. I now run a 1TB SSD in my laptop with music stored. Does it sound better, who knows? I don't think the processing of audio files is too much of an onerous task on a modern laptop but video files which carry a lot more data will put more of a load on a system regards processing. It may be easier to notice this with hi rez video files on one of these new hi rez televisions. However the laptop does start up lightning fast compared to a spinning disc. It also runs scans much faster.

 

[Chumpchops]

Not wishing to spoil any perceptions of improved sound from Either local, networked, HDD or SSD based music files, some of you may be overlooking the small, but significant detail  Of local computer, embedded device, or NAS  cache.  Your music plays from cache. 

The music you hear is coming from cache where data is staged (buffered) from disc (Or internet stream),  prior to being processed by your application in CPU,  before it’s onward journey to DAC.  Regardless of the music file location, it is always cached somewhere before playing.  Now, you can argue that cache sounds different, but that’s deffo a new one.  
 

Audiophile quality cache. Hmmm that sounds like the next big thing. 

 

[Cable Monkey]

Audiophile quality cache. Hmmm that sounds like the next big thing. 

It is actually old hat. The Audiophile operating systems will often cache the entire track then go silent for playback. Roon don’t do that and actually attract a lot of criticism for refusing to do it.