Lewinskih01... Zoot 45

DAC has nothing to do with storing digital music.

Zoot,

The DAC's USB is an input intended to receive a stream of data from the computer. You connect the computer to the DAC through that USB connector.

If the laptop has a large enough HDD you can store the music inside the laptop. Otherwise you need an external drive and the most widely spread type of connection between external HDD and computer is USB. But if your laptop happens to have another type of connector, such as firewire, eSATA, or Thunderbolt, you could buy an external HDD with that type of connection and be done. But again, using a USB HDD will work too; my point is another type of connection for the HDD will just sound better.

I hope this is clearer. If not, keep asking!

Cheers!

Type of interface should not matter since HD stores data and not the music stream.

Kijanki,

What you say is true. However, it is my understanding the data retrieval from the HD affects the sound quality because of the serial nature of USB and the real-time nature of streaming.

Frankly, I never had a computer/HDD that allowed for this comparison to be experienced first-hand. But it's a commonly accepted "fact" by those who claim they did try it. So in the case of someone who is to buy a HDD for this application, like Zoot45, I try and steer them in that direction. In my system I do abide by this, but can't say I campared it to a USB HDD.