Uselessoldman

Its not off topic quite the reverse since we are talking about computer components interfering and effecting the sound you hear at the other end. Yes in this instance SSDs but still there all components of a computer system. But your right in that i think another thread dedicated to the subject would be of interest I would love to pick a specific track and analyse it properly and see what if anything you can hear I can't and maybe why

OK, highstream I have read all your links and even asked a few computer/music friends just to make sure I hadn't gone completely mad after all these lockdowns. We are talking about a digital file, being transferred from a storage device to an external standalone DAC device. That chain includes multiple components, cables etc At no time is this a wav form, a sound wave its always a digital file. At no time can anything interfere with that file, at least the contents of what is being transferred only when it arrives, the timing. I would assume the user has a decent motherboard, a decent PSU and a computer setup that is fit for purpose not some junk build by some geezer they just happen to know. SO all that matters is the file is delivered complete and on time letting the DAC do its tricks. I am using a decent system, not new but when it was it was a good one, as good as you could get in the day with some upgrades along the way, but all components off the shelf. and yes I use good cables, VanDamme Neutrik etc Let me tell you this. I have pro studio gear that runs from 48 to 192kHz, I use Pro Software to record mix and mixdown music, I am running effects (plugin vsts) outboard hardware that work in milliseconds. Latency is a big issue for me, low to record high to master. I would notice anything that was out of time, without exception. SO are you trying to tell me the system I have that makes the music you listen to isn't up to the job? Not only that, but the quality of the masters I have is significantly better than the final released copy cos not only do I have the masters of tracks I have the original multi-tracks before there even mixed down. I run XLR balanced from my DAC/audio interface to my powered Studio Monitors (made by Adams by the way). All I can say is you must be hearing things we can't. We have all sorts of tools/toys to correct imperfections pitch glitches noise etc we take it seriously to get the best sound on to the final mixdown albeit at a reduced sample rate from the original master and even that is a subjective contentious debate in the music "studio" industry, 48/96/192? 24/32 floating or not. I understand the audiophile world is a commercial industry as is studio production. Everyone claims their gear is the best and better than the rest, floods youtube with dubious reviews and reviewers, If I spent what I had on the studio on my HiFi which is actually quite a decent one, it would rival most if not all. But the mixdowns are a distorted version, commercial if you like, nothing like the original masters and certainly nothing like the original recordings before we add in all the tolls and toys to fix the fixable. All this is done through a computer, we all use computers, just like you do, do we waste our time and money on them, huh no chance don't need to. SO long as its powerful enough has the memory required plenty of good fast reliable storage and decent connections to the audio interfaces its good. I am trying not be be critical but I guess that is inevitable its not a personal attack on anyone, except maybe myself since you think my system isn't up to the task and it cost shy of £5k

All your storage device does is store a digital file, all your computer does is move that file from one place to another. How why or where does that file get changed? What you store is what you retrieve and ultimately play back on what ever audio interface you have. The only item of importance to the chain is the digital converters - read below. I have studio quality gear, various audio interfaces, digital converters, I have a half decent HiFi I also have half decent Studio Monitors. From a cheaper Behringer x32 mixer to a Sapphire Liquid 56 interface and sound analysers and u telling me its my SSDs and Computer that can alter improve or degrade the sound? Seriously folks, you start with the digital converters, the pre amp out through a power amp to speakers. What else matters? The quality of the source audio track the sample bit rate. Does the cables matter, maybe but probably not. Does it matter your using phono or jacks and not XLR? Yes probably. Are you telling me if I store my tracks locally on my mixer/interface on a USB thob it would be in anyway different than a track transferred from the computer? the only thing that could make a difference is using balanced cables (XLR) from your audio interface device with the digital converters to your amps and decent proper speaker cable to your cabs (speakers) in my case, through a studio mixer if I am recording or mixing. In a recording studio they use higher sample rates to cancel out all those silly annoying noises, add in effects and then mixdown to a decent lower rate. 44 is clearly to low, 48 is good 50 would be perfect and 96 is used to mix/produce master. any higher is simply over kill. Film production will generally use a higher rate due to surround and the fact there are more streams, more info (bits) being transferred.

The Samsung T7 are really nice but I think rather expensive for what they are. £350 for 2Tb when you can buy a standard SATA6 5Tb Tosh for just over £100. Can u not buy and use an external SATA USB docking station then you could get the cheaper Samsung QVO SSDs cos there about £100 for 1Tb each and £200 for the 2Tb version or even the standard SATA6 Tosh 5Tb. I use both the Tosh 5Tb and Samsung QVOs for the sound banks for vsts on my studio computer cos I have a ton of presets and samples so cheap cheerful reliability and quality matter I do not notice any sound difference no matter what the volume

Its a digital signal and with TCP\IP there is some network error correction to make sure you get the whole file you request. The quality of the end sound depends on MANY things, the actually recording, MP3 Flac your DAC amp and speakers. Its a digital signal so your not using their sound card\DAC only the file any issues on that side will be on your side.

Having a commercial server background they will be running server farms (cluster of servers) that will link to disk arrays that can take either SAS\SATA\SSD Drives. They will also be synchronized over numerous sites for business continuity and faster local access. We are talking about a digital signal so I doubt they will care much about interference. Business cares about 2 things, reliability and cost and knowing their servers will be pretty hefty when it comes to available storage space, I would guess they will ALL use a mixture of SSD\SAS drives.

I have a few computers and just sync the drives (master and slave or main and backup what ever u want to call them) over the network. Being honest I have not added anything new to my music library for ages happy with what I have. I guess I could pull the files from another computer but I really do not take it that seriously as I dont have any issue with the quality it all sounds good to me

I store all my music (flac etc) on a hard drive cos I am a Scot and wont fork out for a supa large SSD however on my audio computer (for making music) I use M2 for OS and dlls and SSD for vsts and hard drives (quite a few of them) for Sound banks and Kontakt libraries. I also use a Fractal Design R5 XL case cos its huge silent and built to last. I do believe the case is just as important if not MORE important than the rest of the system. M2 and SSD have no moving parts so nothing to vibrate, unlike a HDD so the distance from the HDDs to the main board must have some warranty as much as how secure there bolted down. My drive trays have rubber gauntlets so that will also help

u mean samsung 860 pro?? forget it the evo is good enough or the Crucial MX range /Intel. All these will saturate the Sata transfer bus.

forget using SSD for storage complete waste of money just buy a new standard hard drive. Only use SSD for intensive access, boot drive or running virtual machines databases etc NEVER for general storage. A samsung 860 SSD 500Gb costs about £80 and for that you can get a 4 Tb drive, no brainer especially if you need more than just one. Hard drives rarely go faulty if ever unless you abuse them and stay away from energy efficient ones just stick to good old performance.

I find/think it almost unbelievable you lost hard drives due to a power surge, not impossible but highly unlikely. That said EVEN if you have they are not completely lost only the pcb board would be damaged or destroyed not the internals. Get another drive same model and swap the boards and you will find there as good as new. I talk from experience as much as 30 years plus working in IT As for a NAS, with current prices of drives I would recommend 3Tb drives and I guess since you hardly access the data (not running intensive apps) more storage of data then the cheapest the better. I see people who have wasted a fortune on hardware only to find a few years later its redundant and almost worthless. Drives get bigger and cheaper so store what you must dump the rest.

Surely the argument is how close does the sound you get from your own audio gear compare to the sound the original artist wanted you to hear? Back in the old days, good old days, all the record company cared about was when were you going to release your next vinyl, single or album. cos in the end that's what paid everyone's wages and your bills. I say that cos those were my days, Now you can create professional recordings at home on a computer, you don't need studio time in fact you don't even need recording studios anymore, erm my girlfriend might then ask why I have one in my bedroom - fun.... toys for the boys. Not only that once you have completed your track you can burn it to CD or even just upload to youtube or a more specialist music website. Considering in the 1960-80s most people first heard the track on the radio or Top of the POPs then they might buy the single to play at home on their stereo music center, few people cared about the quality............. so long as it sounded ok then those of us a little older and working could invest in something a little more fancy !! Seriously so called audiophiles take life and music to serious. They want to hear sounds that I would guess most artists THEN didn't even know existed. and from my own experience.when making music back then, we would listen (test) our music on a cheap and cheerful system since 99.9% of those who bought our records owned nothing more. Todays music audience is completely different with digital and the internet. I listen to Jimmy Page not so long ago give an interview and he said the same, todays audience want more they can hear more and better but then we dont listen to Zep on the radio anymore we own $$$$$ of audio gear that cost a bomb to hear sounds we were never intended to hear. That was never how it was supposed to sound..... and that came from the horses mouth

New vinyls are not the same as the old original vinyls, since most if not all re-released vinyls are basically taken from a digital master source. Old original 1960-80s vinyls never hit anything digital. except maybe the odd synthesizer sound, all the recording process was done in analogue. Now everything is done in digital. I have an old digital recording studio (Yamaha 01X) which I have owned from new and tried ripping vinyl and compared with CDs MP3s Flac DFF and lets say they are ALL DIFFERENT and all have their place depending on what your source media is and format. Which is best? I would suggest taking one single album and then compare all the various formats to decide. Some you simply cannot beat vinyl, others not so clean cut. But then before anyone says anything, it depends on your audio system and your EARS !! I would also argue speakers and amps made today are made for digital not analogue sound, the whole argument is one massive can of worms. I would also argue you cannot rip a vinyl and get the same reproduction recording from a digital source there after. For some reason it just never sounds quite the same. In fact I came to the conclusion you need two audio systems, one for digital and one for vinyl, I bought some newer Q Acoustic 2050i speakers with a Onkyo amp, great for digital too clean for vinyl and also use use my old NAD with my old B&W 602 speakers (revolver rebel record deck) and they sound completely different in comparison with the same source. all using QED cabling. Conclusion, NONE, but Led Zep and any heavy rock/punk/indie CAN sound crap in digital compared to analogue but you will never get 5,1 on a vinyl so digital beats the pants off vinyl for Pink Floyd since I think some recordings in 5.1 smashes stereo in SOME CASES Dark side of the Moon for example. Only conclusion is that todays audio gear is all about cleanness where as analogue is alive dirty muddy and with body, NO digital can do that it gets completely lost no matter what you use or HOW MUCH IT COSTS now for the ear bashing

REMOVE the intenal motherboard sound card from the motherboard BIOS settings usually integrated options Install card into motherboard Install all the latest drivers from MANUFACTURERS website Check Device manager to make sure everything has been recognised by your windows operating system Play a song and then go to the bottom right of your desktop and choose speaker icon or arrow pointing up and choose the speaker icon Right hand click mouse and choose playback device Left click mouse button select your music output source and set as default device and default communication device (you can then go into configure and set stereo 5.1 atmos etc) also if your using an external amp like an AV Receiver you need to go into properties Enhancements and make sure the Loudness Equalisation is ticked to get the full volume. If this does not work then you have a more serious problem