Hard drive vs cd player sound quality ..

sucks2beme

A few dollars??????
I just loaded up my whole music collection on a lenovo t400 laptop with docking station
that I used at the North Texas meet. Total cost-$125. That leaves a whole lot of extra
cash for upgrading everything else. I'm sure that an industrial pc (fanless) can do the
same job a lot cheaper. Most issues on pc playback are caused by windows(thanks Bill Gates)
and issues with USB. Granted, the fans in a pc are definately a distraction.

falconcry72

Agree with some of the others that saying HDD vs. CD is like saying CD vs. vinyl... meaning there are way too many variables for direct comparison. HDD, CD, and vinyl can all be excellent and can all be terrible.

One key difference I make, though, is that I would consider the HDD (or SDD) to be the media, not the source.

For HDD-based systems, I think the term "source" is better defined as the device that is doing the rendering rather than the device that is doing the storage; i.e., the HDD is the media (like a CD), and the PC, Blu-Ray player, TV, AVR, SqueezeBox etc. is the renderer (like a CD transport).


There are a lot of ways to get music out of a HDD, including many different types of renderers (sources):

- USB A-Type: The renderer is the PC, Mac, or other computer in combination with its media player and the configuration thereof.
- HDMI, SPDIF or other directly out of a PC: The renderer is the PC, Mac, or other computer in combination with its media player and the configuration thereof.
- USB B-Type: The renderer would be the BluRay player, TV, or other media player like the Bryston BDP that can play files directly off a thumb drive or external hard drive.
- Wireless: The format could DLNA, AirPlay, or other, but the renderer would be the device that is accepting the signal; i.e., a Squeezebox, BluRay Player, TV, AVR, etc.


In the simplistic view of Source > Preamp > Amp, my Source is the following:

- PC > foobar 2000 in ASIO > usb cable > Stello U3 USB to SPDIF converter > AES/EBU Cable > Audio GD DAC

kappclark

Face wrote: »

With HDD's, you can back up your data and keep it offsite. So even if you lose your home, you will still have your music collection.

Have started using Google Play -- only 1200 songs uploaded so far, but the limit for free is 20,000 I believe .. But for backups I use an external USB which gets stored in a different location .. no need for a single point of failure ..

kappclark

EndersShadow wrote: »

For me my DacMagic has stopped my need for that "next" DAC. Its the Bee's knee's for me, and at the pricepoint I got it at was a STEAL. Plus just like CDP's older REALLY GOOD DAC's are coming down in price as the digital market keeps exploding and coming up with newer and better things by the month.

Good to know about DacMagic -- where is the best place to pick this up ?? Right now, I am using the audio out from the computer but I do not know what DAC is being used in there.

BlueFox

kappclark wrote: »

Have started using Google Play -- only 1200 songs uploaded so far, but the limit for free is 20,000 I believe .. But for backups I use an external USB which gets stored in a different location .. no need for a single point of failure ..

Doesn't that only allow MP3 files to be saved?

Hofy

The only problem I have with streaming from a HDD is reliability. It is sad to see so many people buying Western Digital drives and experiencing anywhere from a 25-50% failure rate. Their red label drives are the worst and they are suppose to be the ones to use for and always on NAS. If you go with a HDD based system make sure you use Enterprise class drives and backup, backup, backup! When I was still doing computer work I dont know how many times I would have to look at a system or server with crashed drives and someone whining that I "had" to save their data. Not my fault they didnt backup.

kappclark

Hofy wrote: »

The only problem I have with streaming from a HDD is reliability. It is sad to see so many people buying Western Digital drives and experiencing anywhere from a 25-50% failure rate. Their red label drives are the worst and they are suppose to be the ones to use for and always on NAS. If you go with a HDD based system make sure you use Enterprise class drives and backup, backup, backup! When I was still doing computer work I dont know how many times I would have to look at a system or server with crashed drives and someone whining that I "had" to save their data. Not my fault they didnt backup.

+1 -- besides hardware quality, Look at the damage some viruses and malware can do -- Just imagine that Cryptovirus gets ahold of your files (music, pictures, docs ... ) rendering them inaccessible ...even the best drive can get compromised, so backup regardless ...assume the worst and plan...basic D.R.

tonyb

My cd collection, that stuff you actually own, is my backup. Doesn't cost a thing either. I only have a few downloaded files, everything else is rented by way of music services. So if I lost everything, not a biggie.

Obviously that scenario doesn't work for those downloading files, especially hi-rez files that cost some. Then the word is "backup". If you have a lot of files, storage devices are so cheap these days you can back up on 2 devices and keep one unplugged and stored away....just in case.

erniejade

I dj and the last 11+ years I have used a pc. The way to keep a computer virus free, don't surf the web. My dj rigs do not go on the internet. My music rig for home outside of hd tracks does not surf the web. Heck I don't even let windows update run. My old ibm t23 still runs my dj software and never had an issue.

erniejade

I forgot to mention, fully agree with the back up. Nas are cheap and you can set the backup software to automatically back itself up.

Face

Hofy wrote: »

The only problem I have with streaming from a HDD is reliability. It is sad to see so many people buying Western Digital drives and experiencing anywhere from a 25-50% failure rate. Their red label drives are the worst and they are suppose to be the ones to use for and always on NAS. If you go with a HDD based system make sure you use Enterprise class drives and backup, backup, backup! When I was still doing computer work I dont know how many times I would have to look at a system or server with crashed drives and someone whining that I "had" to save their data. Not my fault they didnt backup.

The black series are the ones to pick up, never had an issue.

sucks2beme

My music pc doesn't do other things. I only hook it up to the network for upddates and to cruise "last FM"
once in a while.

steveinaz

I find HDD music to be slightest bit "smoother" overall; I contend (and have in the past) that it relates to the same things that people find when they re-burn a CD, many times it sounds better. I believe it has something to do with the absence of needing a laser to pull the data from "pits" and have to interpret this data when pits aren't cleanly made. With a hard drive, it truly is 1's and 0's, without any interpretation needed. Just my opinion.

tonyb

erniejade wrote: »

The way to keep a computer virus free, don't surf the web.

Very good point....and that's what older computers are good for, basic music servers that you can pick up for a song.

CoolJazz

One of the things I've read that has made a difference in digital audio is the attention to circulating currents in the grounds. This is the reason they long ago started having an almost stupid count of seperate supplies in DAC's and players. Ground is zero volts but each and every ground buss is carrying the same current back as is being carried on the voltage busses. So rather than just the trace going to the ground buss and the designer washing his hands of it at that point, they had to start thinking in a different way at the time of design.

So to relate it to the difference between the spinning disc and the playback from a USB SS device, you now don't have the motor spinning the disc, the servo's constantly moving the head and moving to focus. All these creating noise back on the supplies are gone. Not to mention the clearing of vibrational and radiated noise issues.

So depending on design complexity, some are going to do better than others at the removal of these "potential" noise sources.

CJ

erniejade

But, then you have the issue of noisy power supplies in desktops or the crappy power supplies in laptops and if you use an external hard drive, that power supply wall wart as well. My external drive between songs i can hear spinning not to mention fan noise from the computer itself. So it brings a different noise anyway. BUT, then again, most people including myself have the heat on or air on so you have that noise as well LOL.

I am not saying one is better then the other but, all has some kind of noise unless your in a recording studio.

steveinaz

Some perspective; my views are drawn from "streaming;" not from using the PC's internal sound card/DAC....

kappclark

sick at home today -- spent some time listening (again) to flacs of some Telarc classical recordings ... very listenable through the Monitor 60's ... no fatigue at all...everything seemed to be "there" with an effortless quality..this is quite a thread, and I will be sure to follow up with comments about the DAC when it is connected..

jscyrus

Came across this thread just as I am trying to work out which direction to go!

I have the following set up

Cyrus DAC XP+, Cyrus CD7Q, Cyrus FMX,2 x Cyrus Smartpower Power Amps, Dynaudio Contour 1.3 MkII Speakers

This set up give excellent sound from both the Analogue FM Radio and the CD Player

I have just bought a Samsung Blu-Ray PVR which has a 2tb Hard Drive if I play a FLAC file from there taking the Digital output from the Samsung and feeding to the DAC XP+ the sound seems as good if not better than the CD player (feeding the Digital output from the CD into the DAC XP+).

To me it seems an obvious route to go to rip all my CD's to lossless FLAC and play them from the Samsung - (I recognise that I will need backups). If I go this route surely I must get as ggod a result or better than I get from the CD player

J

nspindel

I've been using flac for 10 years now, and have fed numerous dacs with cd and file-based digital. At the end of the day, there should be zero difference. If you have a quality cd player as your transport, and a low-jitter dac, you should be feeding exactly the same pcm stream into the same dac.

tonyb

nspindel wrote: »

I've been using flac for 10 years now, and have fed numerous dacs with cd and file-based digital. At the end of the day, there should be zero difference. If you have a quality cd player as your transport, and a low-jitter dac, you should be feeding exactly the same pcm stream into the same dac.

A good dac and pre amp is key imho if your going to compare to a GOOD cdp. A good cdp usually has a good dac in it already and a good analog output stage to boot. Good cdp's these days can be had on the cheap, though you'll miss the convenience of digital. Everything in comparing a good cdp to computer music is relative to the gear used. Will flac files played into a 150 buck dac sound like a Jolida 100 cdp......uh...no. Will it sound as good as your Sony dvd player you use to spin cd's....maybe, maybe not still, depends.

evilgenius68

I Still haven't the heart to stop using my Yamaha cdx-910 cdp..it's 30 years old and it still sounds sweet to me.lol..but I agree on the HD comments .convenience and storage is definitely the way to go.I run mine as simple as possible,compared to you folks I'm tin - can and string. Lol