|
I would also have expected the SSD to sound better. Interesting.
The HD is here. It's taking several days to transfer files (partly due to the amo8unt, partly because I am trying to make 3 drives identical & the other 2 weren't quite there); should be able to report back next week. The USB chord is the same semi proprietary cable that Western Digital uses; I'm not sure if there is an audiophile option. |
Found a 3tb Seagate for $90 delivered. Hopefully no noise issues...... Thanks for the replies! Now what to do with the 25+ flash drives??! |
Been doing some on line reading. Sounds like it's necessary to spend at least $100 on a high end usb cable(sigh). I may just stick with the flash drives & enjoy the extra backup / storage.
See what my ears tell me when it arrives. |
I've been very pleased with the Flash Drives re: the Oppo sonically; but they're impossible to sort (I just put files on the drives as I get them, so they're in no order); & my collection of hi rez is getting huge. Even as far as cd goes, I really need to physically downsize. That & the sale price made me pull he trigger.
What made me think of the question when I posted is that with 2 piece cd players I've always heard HUGE differences between digital cables (I am currently using an Illuminati between my aging Esoterc P-10 & PS Audio SL3 which FYI sounds better on red book cd than the Oppo does; though the Oppo blows the cd set up away on hi-res); & it dawned on me that USB cables would likely have the same issue. Possibly worse as generic USB cable is ike generic radio shack cable quality wise.
Additionally the flash drives are 100% solid state & there is no wire involved.........
Will report back. |
A few VERY INITIAL comments:
1. It works!
2. It's definitely putting out a lower (digital) volume level than discs or flash drives. No idea why. Not a big deal, I'd say I'm turning the volume control 1-2 clock markings higher
3. I decided to use an older hard drive that does not have the proprietary usb jack, so if I ever do have the $'s to try an audiophile cable, it would be an option.
4. Due to the layout of my power conditioner, I can only plug in the wall wort in 1 direction, so I can't test the audible effects of polarity unless I use a cheap power strip or plug straight into the wall.
5. I really feel I need at least a couple weeks to make an accurate statement regarding what I'm hearing (other than the volume drop, which is not subtle). My INITIAL reaction is: not bad, but seems to be a bit less of a sense of depth & sound stage on i-res, 44/16 sounded about the same.
I'm going to take some time o get used to the current sound, then do some a-b', then I will report back.
I have a suspicion that despite some comments above, the cables are going to have an impact. Of course the problem with subjective hearing is we often hear what we expect to hear, unless it's really obvious!
The benefits for me is not having o have all those flash drives (& possibly eventually moving a huge disc collection to hd's) & as compared to Flash Drives, everything is sorted by genre & alphabetically o I don't have to look at a list to see what album is on what Flash drive.
But the sound quality will be my real determination. |
Either I'm going brain dead, or my "s" & "t" keys are intermittently not working (or both......) |
A couple more quick comments: I'm going to break what I said above about waiting:
1. The volume issue was me; I'm too embarrassed to say what I did, bit it was me.
2. WITHOUT a/b ing at all, my initial reaction is that other than missing HDCD (the Oppo only encodes HDCD on discs), 44/16 sounds fine; based on memory 44/16 sounds just as good as it does on disc. As I may have to do a major physical downsize, I may end up ripping most discs to hd's.
3. I hear very little difference WITH THE HARD DRIVE between hi-res & 44/16. Based on memory alone, the Flash drives & real discs are much better on hi res. Don't know if it's my imagination, or a cable issue; but that's what I'm hearing.
The Oppo's strength is sound staging & depth on high res material, & at least today that strength is almost totally gone with hi-def files played back through the USB HD (identical files to those I've been playing on the Flash Drives).
Again, I will report back in a couple weeks, though I do not expect to have the money to try audiophile cabling options in the meantime so that will remain a variable. |
I still haven't spent enough time, but my initial reaction is on hi-res with the BDP-95 The Flash Drives seem to sound quite a bit better. I so far haven't heard much difference with 44/16, though.
I need to spend more time before I make that statement definitively, though.
The main comparison I did was the 96/24 Flac version of Keith Jarrett - Koln Concert. The Flash seemed to have more air, better soundstaging, definition & more detail; the hard drive was a bit bright in the loud passages where the Flash was not.
Identical files. |
While I don't know for certain which physical differences would cause what sound differences, in the world of cd there are HUGE difference both between standalone cd transports, digital cables, & at least some of us hear differences between power cables (I certainly do, though I don't understand why).
Taking that comparison here (both the Flash drive & the hard drive are filling the same role as the standalone cd transport); on the one hand we have a solid state device with no power, no cable & no moving parts.
On the other hand, we have a spinning disc, a $2.00 digital cable, a $5 cable including a power supply (the power supply alone in my Esoteric cd transport is probably a $100 part), & who knows what inside the box connecting the hd to the USB enclosure.
As I mentioned in one of the posts above, I can also only check the polarity in 1 position at this time on the drive due to the physical set up of my power conditioner.
All that said, I'm still not 100% certain that the Flash Drives sound better; I can only say with certainty the flash sounded much better on a solo Piano album. I just haven't had the time to do more comparisons. I will admit I developed a bias from the one comparison, but I do plan to check a few more albums when I can.
For complete transparency, the comparison I made on the Jarrett is between a Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB STCA2000100 USB 3.0 HD & an Adata C008 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash. |
|
I don't have many further opinions yet. I also spend time paying discs, & work. I continue to lean towards the USB wired/powered hd seems to cause a slight drop in sound quality & adds a ton of convenience but I don't feel that I have formed a definitive (for me at least!) opinion yet.
Commons sense would seem to say that an SSD with a male USB plug built in shouldn't have any disadvantages to a flash.
That's an interesting idea.
I'd appreciate an explanation I can understand as to why Power cords & digital cables make a dramatic difference with transports, but not with an hd.
I also know there is a big market for audiophile US cables. It could be a scam, but I can sat with 100% certainty that
digital cables make a HUGE difference from transport to D/A.
I do apologize that I haven;t had much time for my experiment. Other then yet another redundant backup, it almost feels like it was a waste of money.
The only other a/b I've had time for was Joni's Court & Spark in 192/24. I didn't hear as much difference as with the Jarrett, but there seemed to be a better sense of ease with the Flash. I'll be the first to admit I am developing a bias & what I hard on the Joni COULD be psychological.
I also agree with a previous poster that factory pressed discs seem to out perform both files & iso's sonically. |
Al, I am using a powered Seagate. I believe I stated that above. My original question did reference underpowered WD's which I would have preferred to avoid the power quality issue); but the price on the Seagate was too good to pass up.
Does anyone know if Robert Harley has written on these issues? In the past I found that I often heard similar to how he did (he also recommended my SUPERB PS Audio SL3 DA during an in store many years ago; which was the only blind mail order purchase II ever made before the Oppo. |
Weatherb, my Oppo's fan is louder from my listening seat than that of the Seagate!
And in 3 months or so, the central heat will be 5 times louder than the 2 combined............ |
I had my first (non counterfeit) Flash Drive die tonight. It was a 3 week old Lexar, which WAS my go to brand.
It was 64 gb, Anecdotally they seem to die more often than smaller ones do. Fortunately, all files were backed up on 3 separate hard drives, & fortunately Fred Meyer gave me a no hassle exchange with no receipt.
I've had a couple of HP's & a Verbatim get flakey, but this one totally died. Windows couldn't read it, & neither could my Oppo.
The moral of the story: ALWAYS back up ANY music file (burned cdr, dvdr or file) that you can't easily replace.
Hopefully this one will last longer than the three weeks I got from the last one........
I mention counterfeit above as I ordered 2 Sandisks a few months back from I Offer (the net's fav boot auction site) not knowing they were from China. They were worthless. The seller refused to do anything; Pay Pal refunded my money with no requirement to ship back to China |
It's been a bit frustrating how long it's taking me to do a series of comparisons. Combination of life, & I'm also a movie fan. While my main system is optimized for music (& is stereo, NOT 5.1); I also use it for film. For the sake of these comparisons, system is stock Oppo BDP-95 with an after market power cord that I don't currently remember the name of (it was recommended her), connected by Tara Pandora to a Mod Squad Line Drive Deluxe (same electronics are the first McCormick model), which is connected by Tara Analog standard to a McCormick DNA 1 Mod 12 (mod done by Conrad Johnson); connected by Tara Omni bi wired speaker wire to a pair of NHT 2.5 I's (IMO the system's weak point).
Did another brief comparison tonight; the 1st 2 tracks from Peter Gebriel's Scratch My back (Heroes & Boy In The Bubble) in 24/48.
Tonight I intentionally played them through the Seagate first. Sounded quite nice; I was thinking there was no way the Flash drive would be better.
I was wrong. The Adata Flash had a slightly bette sense of midrange liquidity, sound staging & air.
I'm still not finished; but am continuing to come to the conclusion that the HD is much more convienient; and that in my system the Adata (which I've done all comparisons on so far) is slightly better.
As the weak point in my system (imo) is a lack of detail in the NHT's, I'm guessing in a system with a higher level of resolution the differences would be more pronounced.
I'm still not feeling this is definitive, though.
For times where listening isn't the #1 focus, if it wasn't for the bloody 1-2 second gap the Oppo's flac decoder puts between tracks (wav's also), I would probably be ripping & selling most of my cd's. The HD is certainly good enough for 99% of 44/16 cd's. Of course an option is to edit certain tracks together, but there is only so much time in this life!
One other issue with that idea; as far as I can tell, with 44/16 the Oppo only sees HDCD on real discs, not in files (again both flac & wav). |
Yes, both are connected to the front jack. The back is used for the hardware region free hack. |
I apologize that I've neglected this thread & the testing. I just haven't had the time to do it thoroughly; while I live in a house my neighbors are quite close & the best time for me is late night when I can't crank it up because of the neighbors.
That said, my current INCOMPLETE conclusion is that for unknown reasons the Flash Drives do sound a bit better than the hard drive; though 96/24 on the Hard Drive still beats the heck out of 44/16 on a cd.
For specifics please see my earlier posts. I will still try to flesh this out eventually.
On the other hand, i am starting to see Flash Drive quality go downhill; especially Lexar which used to be my go to brand. I've had 3 recent manufacture Lexars fail in the last month; & the latest I bought a series new to me called the S23 is the flimsiest Flash drive I have ever seen, though so far it works perfectly.
So far I've never had a bad Adata, nor a bad Sandisk (other than 2 obvious Chinese counterfeit Sandisks I bought on Ioffer). I own around 50 Flash drives; the only total failures have been the 3 Lexars, the 2 fake Sandisks & a no name 64 gb drive that a friend loaned me last year. I've also found HP to be very flaky, but never had a total failure.
I do practice redundant backups on all hi-res music just to make sure. Most of my hi res stuff is on either disc or Flash; + 2-3 external hard drives in addition. |
Especially in different systems. Though something interesting: The other night I got the chance to compare on my system (Oppo 95 McCormack Line Drive Deluxe, MoCormack DNA 1 ("mod 1" done by CJ), NHT 2.5-I's & old style Quality Aara Cables (Omni, Pandora, Super Analog, add on power cords (can't remember he brands right now, & 2 Adcom power conditioners) the new 96/24 vs 192/24 HD Tracks Gratefuk Dead studio remasters (on the Flash Drive only (Lexar) in the front USB port. I hear a bigger difference between the Flash vs HD I did between the 96 & 192.
When originally writing about this on another board, I also acknowledged that my system & or ears may just not be good enough to hear some of the subtle differences. I heard some small differences between the 96 & 192 but they were nowhere near as dramatic as i expected. I especially expected a much wider sound stage at 192 that at 96; that was not the case. Main differences were more bass at 192 (actually too much with the NHT's, a bit more detail & the 192 was subjectively louder (Foobar's DR meter does not show any DR difference); compared to a BIT more analog ease at 96.
Other than again my againg ears (mid 50's) & or entry level high end system without enough resolution I don't have any other ideas why I heard what I did. Supposedly the original hi def mastering was at 192 & than down sampled to 96 for the lower price point.
As far as not getting more done in the testing, I do feel a bit bad as I brought up the issue. |
"Aara" should have read "Tara"; I spent 10 minutes proofing hat post but it wasn't enough.......... |
I learned last night that the 95 will not play raw dsf files (I dl'd a couple free samples from Bluecoast & the BDP-95 wouldn't even acknowledge their existence on the flash drive). It will play them after they've been converted by Foobar, but wondering if there is a loss of quality? I don't have the fancy software that the folks distributing the SACD'R iso's do.
AP did tel me that the 103 & 105 will natively play the various raw DSD files, though. |
This is slightly off topic, but I din;t want to start a new thread.
I just discovered a frustrating issue with my 95 -it wont recognize USB hard drives over 2 TB.
Also discovered it's not real happy with some Kingston & Sandisk USB drives that Amazon has been blowing out lately (blu-rays on the drives won't won't load & 192/24 glitches). It's only these 2 crummy drives. The real surprising thing is the Kingston is USB 3.0. The Flash issue isn't the Oppo, as all my older drives still work fine; including those with full Blu-rays on them. |
