Hi
I have a P4 based system with Windows XP SP3 OS and use cics memory player ( CMP2 ) for highest quality music playback.
I use EAC to rip CDs to hard disk and have a 40G SATA connected internal drive and have just added a Western Elements 1 Tb external drive that is powered via AC and connected via USB.
I started ripping to new drive and played back a few albums and thought somethings a miss here, a bit harsher sounding, less real and involving....
so re-ripped a track to each drive for an exact test comparison...'Bennie and the Jets' as I was ripping Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'.
In CMP2, track is loaded from hard disk to RAM and all playback is from 'RAM', even so the differences are clear, my internal Seagate drive sounds..more more information, more presense, and more emotionally involving, rythmic and listenable, engaging...
by comparison the external drive was as aforementioned previously above......so differences could be cable related, usb as opposed to sata this being compounded as remember music is first copied then resent from the hard drive back along the cable for another journey before playback, or power supply, or internal electronic makeup of the drives, and/or any combination of these factors...
so in my system, which also includes a NAD304 Amplifier, DAC
is SB Audigy 24bit internal sound card, Cardas interlink up to amplifier and some custom 3 way in-wall speakers, there are sound quality differences.
:) Stephen
I have a P4 based system with Windows XP SP3 OS and use cics memory player ( CMP2 ) for highest quality music playback.
I use EAC to rip CDs to hard disk and have a 40G SATA connected internal drive and have just added a Western Elements 1 Tb external drive that is powered via AC and connected via USB.
I started ripping to new drive and played back a few albums and thought somethings a miss here, a bit harsher sounding, less real and involving....
so re-ripped a track to each drive for an exact test comparison...'Bennie and the Jets' as I was ripping Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'.
In CMP2, track is loaded from hard disk to RAM and all playback is from 'RAM', even so the differences are clear, my internal Seagate drive sounds..more more information, more presense, and more emotionally involving, rythmic and listenable, engaging...
by comparison the external drive was as aforementioned previously above......so differences could be cable related, usb as opposed to sata this being compounded as remember music is first copied then resent from the hard drive back along the cable for another journey before playback, or power supply, or internal electronic makeup of the drives, and/or any combination of these factors...
so in my system, which also includes a NAD304 Amplifier, DAC
is SB Audigy 24bit internal sound card, Cardas interlink up to amplifier and some custom 3 way in-wall speakers, there are sound quality differences.
:) Stephen