SSD & Mac Mini's

Why would there be increased musical performance?

Unless you can answer this sensibly then choose upgrades based on their purpose and not some sudo bullshit started by a hifi dealer somewhere.

A SSD has a couple of primary benefits, noise and reliability.

These should be weighed up against storage space and price.

There are no other audio considerations unless you a gullible in the extreme.

I agree but I find a lot more discussion of SSD benefits from non dealers. You only need to read this board. Even reliabilty is in question here as they haven't been around forever and there have been failures just as memory cards fail and probably more so as they need to be faster etc. It would seem that a solid state device should be be more reliable and probably will be but I'm sure that they're not as impervious to failure as many project. As they become more common, proven and cheaper, they'll be a better option but right now I'd buy a spinner.

Garyi,

Are you a Mac Mini, Amarra, SSD user?

As I stated - I'm not interested in the argument about "reliability". For or against SDD - I don't care.

In terms of noise - my question concerns the benefit that might possibly result from less mechanical vibration / reduced RF within the Mac itself on the reproduction process.

Again - I not interested in the "I can hear the disk spin" arguments. As I cannot!

James - any advice / thoughts?

Dear Paremus,

I am sure you don't require any moral support but I think your question is perfectly reasonable, and garyi's tone frankly rude.

I would agree with js that reliability is probably a moot point.

The issues you raise with respect to vibration and RF pollution are perfectly reasonable - and part of the reason why, in due course, I will be investigating SSD HDDs; when the capacities go up and the price comes down. It seems to me that the ability to increase throughput & reduce latency may well have an impact on sound quality.

You may find posting on the Audio Asylum 'Computer Audio Asylum' more productive - do some searches on cMP.

M

Mr Underhill I may have appeared rude, I find this whole 'lets make computers as anal as hifi' unbelievable.

Computers work or they do not work, its simple really. Mechanicaly noise effecting mac performance? Where do we have evidence for this? How would this effect audio, over say using a Word document or surfing the web?

If we can get to grips with this then perhaps real recommendations can be made as opposed to some 'belief' created by audiophiles because you can be damned sure no one in the 3D graphics world (for instance) is worried about the performance of vibrations.

Mr Underhill,

Thanks for the construct comments - will do.

I know some forums do advocate SSD's as do Amarra themselves. I was hoping to learn from members of this community that have tried this and can speak from experience - either way.

This as Naim community members are more likely to value the same aspects of musical reproduction as myself.


Cheers

Richard

I totally agree with js with respect to long-term reliability. SSD has just been around so it is not proven that it is durable enough to sustain 5 or 10 years of usage. I have also been recommended by an Amarra sales person to change to SSD but I would stick to my HD for now because I do not feel that the move is fully justified.

Peter,

So I'm not really concerned about reliability. An SSD would only be used for applications / OS - and should it fail - I'll simply replace it. The cost is small compared to rest of the system. However I'm fine with other people being concerned about this - its just that I'm not.

I am however interested in why Amarra are recommending the use of SSD's. Is there really a tangible improvement?

Cheers

Richard

I would not worry about the cost of replacing a faulty HD or SSD, I am mainly concerned about the hassles and the inconveniences if it happens. If SSD technology were definitely proven to be more reliable than the mechanical HD one than I would have been the first person to embrace it.

Now back to the point of better music re-production, I personally do not hear any differences.

If an SSD makes a system sound better, then there is something profoundly wrong with the rest of the system.

quote:

Originally posted by likesmusic:
If an SSD makes a system sound better, then there is something profoundly wrong with the rest of the system.

Well, it could be something wrong with my system with a loaned Mac Mini because I do not hear any difference.

Peter

Thanks! That's of interest. For reference what is your system?

Regards

Richard

quote:

Originally posted by paremus:
Peter

Thanks! That's of interest. For reference what is your system?

Regards

Richard

I have not managed to update my profile. But here is my system - Mac Mini + external Firewire Lacie HD + Amarra Mini -> Transporter (firmware 80) -> Naim 252 / NAP 500 -> Dynaudio Contour S 5.4 + JL f113 sub. Naim Fraim rack is used for all Audio components.

Hi Richard - Sonic recommended the SSD route as Amarra does a bit of swapping data between RAM and HD during playback. Pretty painless to do once the mini is in pieces. I used an OCZ Summit 64gb drive. Its not a night and day difference but along the same lines as a Ram increase when using Amarra. I only run the OS plus iTunes and Amarra (and XLD) from the internal drive. All music files are on a NAS. I came into computer audio rather sceptically (iTunes + SPDIF should be good enough) so its an interesting journey so far - JS's input has been very useful.

James

PS - Richard i think you've got my email address so drop me a mail if you need more info,.

James

Do you think the difference would have been apparent with your previous Lavry/SPDIF setup?

Cheers

Richard

Doubtful - only cause that was iTunes / SPDIF rather than Amarra and a DAC that can take advantage of it. Who knows though but at the mo i'm not sure if Amarra supports the standard toslink out on the Mac.

James

quote:

i'm not sure if Amarra supports the standard toslink out on the Mac

Who says so? Do Amarra officially or their sales people say that?

Their blurb says via firewire, no mention of SPDIF

Looks like it supports numerous onboard PCI, USB and 1394a devices. I wonder what the inclusion parameters are though I suspect not too specialized as they say most firewire and USB DACs should work.