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External HD VS Flash Drive Sound Quality Question

Hi have an Oppo BDP-95. I am up to around 25 Flash drives which is getting ridiculous.

2 questions (hoping for folks who know the definitive answers; I have my own guesses, bu that's all they are.)

1. HD Tracks has written that the Flash drives sound better than any spinning disc or drive due to lack of jitter from lack of a spinning disc. Is that accurate?

2. I have noticed a new generation of external hd's that get all there power through the USB port, & do not require an out board power supply.

A. Would there be any detectable sonic difference either way? If so, which is better: the cheap wall wort power supplies or getting power solely through the USB line?

B. The Western Digital USB drives with no power supply have a proprietary cable that looks quite cheap. Would the lack of an audiophile USB cable be sonically problematic?

I'm basically trying to decide whether to ditch the lash drives or a USB hard drive; & if so whether to go with a powered or unpowered drive. A couple +'s re the new WD's: they are teeny & they run cooler than the Seagates I've used.
moomoo
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,597 posts
 
I have read a number of times people saying that the difference between 96 and 192 is subtle in most cases. Some people say that 96 sounds better than 192.

I think that for many people the differences between 96 and 192 or between thumb drive and HD are not significant. Sometimes these differences are different but not better or worse. I think that we would often be better off just enjoying what we have rather than trying to chase down a small improvement in sound quality.

If eventually you come to the conclusion that hard drives sound better than thumb drives or vice versa, then great, start using hard drives or thumb drives exclusively.

So don't worry about this thread and let us know if you do come to a conclusion one day. Then be ready for someone to disagree with you.

By the way, Sony is gearing up to sell DSD downloads and gear to play them starting in November. I'll be interested to see what becomes of that. I do like the sound of SACDs. Check out their website:

http://discover.store.sony.com/High-Resolution-Audio/
moomoo OP
81 posts
 
I learned last night that the 95 will not play raw dsf files (I dl'd a couple free samples from Bluecoast & the BDP-95 wouldn't even acknowledge their existence on the flash drive). It will play them after they've been converted by Foobar, but wondering if there is a loss of quality? I don't have the fancy software that the folks distributing the SACD'R iso's do.

AP did tel me that the 103 & 105 will natively play the various raw DSD files, though.
moomoo OP
81 posts
 
This is slightly off topic, but I din;t want to start a new thread.

I just discovered a frustrating issue with my 95 -it wont recognize USB hard drives over 2 TB.

Also discovered it's not real happy with some Kingston & Sandisk USB drives that Amazon has been blowing out lately (blu-rays on the drives won't won't load & 192/24 glitches). It's only these 2 crummy drives. The real surprising thing is the Kingston is USB 3.0. The Flash issue isn't the Oppo, as all my older drives still work fine; including those with full Blu-rays on them.
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