Which external SSD for music streaming?
My new music streamer has a USB socket to connect an external Solid State Drive. I am thinking of getting one with 2 or 4 TB storage capacity to store my whole CD collection on it. What I don't know is how fast such an SSD needs to be. I was thinking of a Crucial X6 (up to 800 MB/s), or X9 (up to 1050MB/s). Or is any SSD fast enough to stream music smoothly? Thanks
@audioman58 You mean the USB cable from SSD to streamer? |
I too recommend a known brand-but-cheaper format of SSD (“longevity” generally relates to rewrite-ability of a drive before it risks corruption/failure and so as already mentioned, won’t apply to a read-only drive for a CD collection) e.g. QVO Samsung. For sake of comparison, Samsung’s EVO and PRO options are unnecessary in your case as the benefits relate to rewrite-ability (not applicable to a read-only drive) and read/write speed (only important for heavy tasks on a traditional computer, although moving a large music collection onto said drive may show you a one-time slight uptick in convenience; hardly worth the additional premium IMO). I suggest you disregard recommendation for “upgrading” the USB cable between external drive and streamer. There is no evidence of these being a bottleneck for sound quality, and notice how there is never mention of any SATA-to-USB or NVME-to-USB adapter chipset being the compromise in that part of the “chain” since apparently no hifi company offers a bespoke external USB case (yet…?). Money more effectively spent on more drive storage capacity. It is generally recommended to back up a SSD’s data on a traditional HDD (instead of an identical SSD) - magnetic (HDD) drives have more reliable lifespans when unplugged/unpowered for long periods. That said, I’ve had large capacity SSD’s (4 & 8 TB) show no signs of data corruption after 2+ years unpowered. YMMV, of course. |
What kind of USB protocol does your streamer use? Is it 2.0 or 3.0 or 3.2? I would confirm what USB protocol the streamer uses and check that against the SSD drive you intend to buy. I made the mistake of buying a Samsung external SSD that uses the USB 3.2 protocol and my Cambridge CXN V2 uses a 2.0 protocol which meant it couldn't read the SSD. So I ended up getting a 2TB HDD and instead use that as my primary drive for my digital collection. The portable SSD is my back-up drive so if something happens I won't lose all my music. |
