Need advice on what to purchase to hold 1TB of music and connect to my new Innuos Pulsar.


I just need 1TB of file space and won’t ever need more.  I am most interested in sound quality and staying under $500. The less money the better - if possible.    It will be hooked up to an Innuos Pulsar that has no internal storage.  The Pulsar is streamer only. My music, only 1100 CDs, is already stored on a Raid and I will only use this Raid for backup. 
 

No idea what I need. Don’t think I need a NAS, but may. Do I just buy a 1TB SSD drive? Which one? Connectivity? This is not an area I am well versed on as in the past I have always owned servers which had on board storage ( Innuos Zenith 3).  
 

I am a little lost here fellow Agoners. Thanks for your help.  Bill 
 

 

128x128grannyring

@grannyring 

That’s a shame that Pulsar won’t support playback from a portable SSD drive via one of the USB ports. A glaring oversight that they better address soon. 

@lalitk : it depends on how one looks at the situation. For obvious reasons, Innuos would love the Pulse to be part of its echo system that would also include an Innuos server like ZEN series. The Endpoint mode. On the other hand, in standalone mode, nowadays most people just use Tidal or Qobuz. And for those with a library of ripped CDs, a NAS is a common feature to have in the house, or if not, fairly easy to add, not expensive, with added benefit for other usage in the house, not just music storage 

no direct storage allowed”

@thyname

My criticism may seems bit harsh but It was quite surprising to see a player costing $7K, doesn’t offer such a simple functionality. At the end of the day, it’s not a deal breaker for anyone who loves the sound of Innuos.

Beware of buying an SSD that is running USB 3.0. it may be incompatible with your system if it's running USB 2.0. 

I initially bought a Samsung 2TB SSD. It was not compatible with with my Marantz or Cambridge units. A NAS is overkill in my opinion just adds cost and setup complexity. I ended up getting an external 5TB HDD that uses USB 2.0 and connect that directly to my Cambridge CXN V2. Search and playback are very quick. No delay. Back up is done via my laptop using the Samsung SSD as the backup.

Why only 1TB?

If you're going to go through the routine of setting it in place, I'd opt for 2; better 5.

As per Devo, "Duty Now, For the Future"...

And TB drives and SSD prices continue to drop....