foodfiend

Buffalo have a patent on controlling current draw from the SSD. This is used DELA, as well as some high-end Japanese music servers/players. Patent on SSD

Upgraded to Amarra Luxe 4.2.401-166. For the first time, I could scan my entire music collection of 120k + songs at one go. For just this one, I am very happy that I don't need to spend days scanning my music collection to load it into the system. Listing of the albums and artistes is much better too, with songs within compilations appearing under artiste view too. I have yet to spend enough time listening to the system to be able to tell whether SQ is better, but at least the interface has drastically improved.

Take a look at Buffalo's audio-grade SSDs. They have an active patent in force in Japan. Toshiba has a similar patent in force for the US, but I am not sure if they have an audio-product on sale.

HDDs induce significant electrical noise due to the current fluctuations, especially during spin-up/spin-down. This was why some initially speculated that SSDs, with their lack of moving parts, would fare better. However, SSDs themselves suffer from current fluctuations, hence some companies have patented technologies to smooth out the changes in current draw, so as to lessen electrical noise. You are quite right that it is more about the power supply, and being able to control the electrical noise, that ultimately impacts the SQ.

Still have all my CDs, stored inside custom drawers. In my country, personal back-ups and rips are still deemed illegal, so I am breaking the law by dabbling in computer audio...

Ralph, That is good to hear that Sonic Studio is trying to fix the loading of libraries. I will definitely be very happy if that were to work.

I think all of us with sizeable music collections are suffering from the long loads and exits. Each subsequent addition only means a longer load/exit.

I think most of us would support that statement!

Actually, I have noticed that iTunes does strange things to my file names when I use it to import my music (ripped on XLD). Some times, it takes away the disc number at random, so my folder gets jumbled up.

Thanks for your pointers, and I do wish that it were as "simple" as a corrupted file. In that case, I would have done what you have suggested, and taken the "offending" file out of the library and scan the library again. Meanwhile, I would rip another copy of any "offending" files from the physical CD using XLD.

I am living with the quirks of Amarra 4 Luxe, but I do understand the frustration of the less-than-satisfactory library management on Amarra at the moment. When you are reduced to loading about 100 songs at a time, to prevent Amarra 4 from crashing, and have more than 100k songs in your library, I do understand if you would give up and ask for iTunes integration.

For me, I use Artiste/Album/Disc Number-Track Number-Composer-Song Title.

I don't think it has to do with file corruption, since these albums load into the library, if I add them individually.

To be exact, I use Artiste/Album/Disc Number-Track Number-Song Title.

Mark, While I agree that running Amarra without iTunes running in parallel produces better sound, many of us are also struggling with the "library management" of Amarra. Amarra crashes if I attempt to load my entire music library at one go, so many of us have our workarounds. This is why some are calling for the return of iTunes integration.

Welcome to the club! I have always suffered problems with importing my entire music library (>100k songs) at one go, ever since I moved to Amarra 4 and the Luxe version. My music library also sits on an external HDD (via Thunderbolt 2) and is in AIFF format. I have resorted to building the library by importing music a few artistes at a time. Not really sure what causes Amarra to crash when importing music, but it seems to be linked to the number of songs it imports at once (but not exactly, since sometimes I have trouble importing just a single album). Would really like to understand what to avoid.

I too have IRC Measure 1.2.4.8519. I bought my license recently, when they had a special discount around the time of the Amarra 4 Luxe launch.

The filing system of Artist/Album/Song is functional enough, and is what I use. The only weakness is for the filing of compilations, since all would seem to come under "Various Artistes", and can come to many entries in just one folder.

I agree with miguelito, that you need to be more specific about problems. Having used Macs since the late 80s, and using music playing software from the earliest days (SoundJam, for example), I guess that I have been through many ups and downs. Yes, there are quirks about various software, and some from the version of OS that is installed. However, I still find that using a Mac for music replay has been great over all. Yes, there are solutions that are "neater", such as the Aurender, Melco, Auralic and Naim, but I guess I like the flexibility of using various software for playback (available on the Mac).

That is why there have been patents and applications on controlling electrical noise from SSDs: US 9553483 B2 (for Toshiba) and JP2012016139A and CN102315762A and TW201230605A (for Buffalo/Melco). This is how some companies claim to have audio-optimised SSDs.

Ralph, Is there a way of increasing the memory allocation (by user) for Amarra 4 Luxe, so that those of us with bigger libraries (> 100k tracks) will not run into problems loading our libraries? Thanks!

@agladstone I do understand the SACD-ISO and DSF file storage. Not so convinced about the AIFF and FLAC duplication, especially when you can actually create FLAC files with zero compression. WAV files can also store meta-data, by the way, although many players do not seem to retrieve this data properly. As for Synology CloudSync back-up to Google Drive, are you problems related to the CloudSync app, or has it got to do with the Google Drive end? Have no experience with back-up to Google Drive, so I am interested to hear from you.

@agladstone Is there a reason for you to maintain separate FLAC and AIFF libraries, and separate DSD and SACD-ISO ones too? I have converted all my PCM files to AIFF, and all my DSD to DSF. Not sure if I may live to regret it, but I would like to understand your rationale.

@agladstone If you are only going to back-up your music (and nothing else), then the NAS and external RAID box are going to be similar in implementation. That said, I think that the NAS implementation might be cheaper, since it is quite a hotly contested market, compared with a DAS RAID box. Of your first 3 options, the first of using multiple external drives is going to be the cheapest to implement, but probably the most messy. If you format the lot as JBOD, then you risk your entire data set going up in smoke if one HDD goes belly up. If you use them as separate independent drives, then you have the problem of keeping track where each file is stored (which drive). Not ideal for a big music collection. Option 3, running a NAS, is probably next up in terms of cost. NAS boxes are like small computers running as servers, and can have many uses. If you are not going to use the other functions, then it might be a waste of the NAS' capabilities. Many can enable streaming of music over your network, for example. Also good about NASes is the in-built software suite (unless you are custom-building one from scratch), which may help in your back-up functions. Option 2, is a DAS RAID box. There are some cheaper DAS RAID boxes, but they are limited by the variations of RAID that they run. Many of the more expensive versions have their own hardware RAID controllers. The advantage of using a DAS, is that you needn't load your home network with all this data. Considering these 3 options, I think the NAS option is the most painless and cost competitive. As for the off-site back-up, you could run a NAS at another location, but the back-up speed would depend on what your ISP offers. Of course, this is less of a pain, because you can preload the NAS with your first back-up, and all it needs to do is to keep up with the changes (new added files). I have yet to find a cloud provider that is not going to charge an arm and a leg for backing up TBs of data. Some may offer cheap rates, but may throttle your speed, or do not give you immediate access to the files. Others offer cheap rates to attract you, and then increase the charges once you are "hooked". I like neither, and so I would stick to a NAS for now, until the Cloud back-up solutions become more settled. For the off-site back-up, of course you could also use a set of HDDs to back-up, and then lock them away in a safety deposit box, for example. The hassle is that you would have to retrieve the HDDs on a periodic basis to add to the back-up. The longer the period between fetching your drives to back-up, the more vulnerable information sits at home. Hope this helps...

I think all of us who continue to use Amarra 4, use it accepting its quirks and have various workarounds to cope with them. Library management has never been a strong suit, for example. If you are not prepared for that, my advice is to steer clear.