HDX with 'full' SSD soon?

500 GB SSD drive is 2200 USD.

HDX uses mirroring which doubles the price.

Whatever is placed in Naim box is doubled again.

So we are talking about 8000 USD machine + 8800 USD  storage which will be overflown after one year flirting with HDTracks.

We don't have any plans to produce such a unit at this time ...

... such a unit would (practically speaking) have too little storage - something that was levelled at the original 400 or 500Gb units - and would therefore entail the use of an external NAS unit still. 

Cheers

Phil

The HDXs no longer have mirrored drives - the NS0x NaimNet servers for the custom install environment do but the feedback from end users regarding the HDX was that they wanted to have the storage space for CDs (and be allowed to make their own choices on backup) rather than be "forced" to have backed up data. (This also applies to the UnitiServe too - that is a single drive unit.)

Cheers

Phil

In Germany a 320 GB SSD costs 800 EUR, so 500 GB would cost around 1.000 EUR. That would IMO be an acceptable extra charge for a 6.500 EUR device in respect of the mechanical improvement.

Hi Phil, on 500GB you can store about 1.600 CDs in flac or 800 CDs in wav format. Don't you think that this may be enough for the majority of your customers? My present collection has around 100 GB. OK, some have much bigger collections but they would still have the option to use external NAS or USB storage.

We rip as WAV though ... and have already produced a 500Gb HDX variant (as a hard disc based unit) so have already had the feedback about requiring more storage space. The price premium on such an SSD based unit would make it impractical.

Cheers

Phil

The computer industry is moving towards SSD storage, prices are coming down already and will come down fast over the next few years. IMHO it is only a question of time until Naim will offer a full SSD HDX, 500GB, 1TB, etc. But there is no reason why you should not be able to convert a current HDX to an SSD version in future. In fact Naim already offer it for the newer units at a cost of £600 or thereabouts....

Yes there is now a proliferation of SSD drives, but you still ignore the fact that prices are sky-high which will make HDX prices, as Phil says, unreasonable.

That would be a nice service indeed. Why not offer an optional HDX upgrade to a 400 Gb SSD. Technically that should be no problem. I would go for it immediately. Naim has many customers who pay 20.000 Euros or more for their gear, so a premium of say 1.000 to 1.500 euro for a full SSD should not be too shocking.

Once you've ripped out to NAS and got used to such a set up, any on board storage offered by the HDX becomes moot. Far better to have an off board library than have to submit it to HQ to recover your collection. At some point I may go to SSD storage but it will be on NAS, which is not only mirrored but can be backed up externally. This potentially puts you in a good position for the day when something is launched which supersedes/considerably improves on the box you currently have, be it HDX, Serve, whatever. Or possibly if you jump ship.

There is no logic what so ever to paying out £1k for a 500gig ssd drive, to do so makes you a moron.

Put a 10gig ssd in the hdx and buy a NAS, you must have a network in order to have a HDX so plug said nas into network in a cupboard some where and bang 4 2tb drives in on raid 5 will give 6tb of usable apace which the HDX can enjoy. This should cost no more than 600 quid.

Personally I don't want to connect a high end player with an SMPS driven device like a NAS. My experience is that it worsens sound quality. And other than the NDX, the HDX seems to have no galvanic isolation of the ethernet port, at least the white paper doesn't mention it. I know you can buy an external galvanic isolator but for some reason (which I don't understand) these filters worsen sound quality too.

Thanks Gary thats a nice way to communicate.

Simple server - low cost storage - spend the money on renderer/streamer/dac/amplification

Simples

Tog

PS @ Harry - SSD in a NAS .... No

Don't see the point of going back to a smaller drive. For use as a standalone 1000+ CD changer, as I use it, the size of the hard disk matters and 1TB is OK although would prefer even slightly bigger. As cool as it would be to have a safe SSD drive, storage comes first.

Cheers,

EJ

Remember that no matter how big the drives (HDD or SSD) that Naim puts into these units, there will always be a moment when you run out of space.

Therefore the NAS route will give you unlimited storage capacity...

Regards,

Michel

Whereas for me there was no difference. It just goes to show how many variables bounce off each other, cancel out, achieve synergism, oppose, balance......... No two systems are exactly the same even if they appear to be so. Part of the fascination and the frustration.

Haven't ignored anything, you obviously only read half of what I wrote. I said over the next few years, never said now or this year or even next but in a few years time SSD will be as cheap as HDD is now.

Matter of fact, without shades of grey? I would think this ultimately depends on a number of things such as people's music collection and how many HD tracks one has in future, etc. I for one would be quite content with a 1TB SSD HDX or UServe.... Might be an odd one out but don't think so...

Apart from all cost issues, do we know if ssd storage sound better? Olix2 reminds us of the lack of vibrations. But, lack of mechanical parts does not mean being free of all vibrations. All electronic circuits (so, also ssd drives) emit electromagnetic pulses that resonate throughout the device and add an electronic haze to the sound. Whether ssd or conventional, it is essential to employ measures to dissipate or drain vibrations off a NAS to get the best possible sound. Moreover, I have read a review of some ssd nas, and the data transfer speed was not as high as expected. So there are many factors. Having said these, I still find Olix2's question interesting, and I would be willing to give £1k extra if ssd drives prove to sound significantly better, without fearing to be called a moron by garyi. The question was obviously about sound quality considerations, not about how much data capacity you can buy with certain money.

I would also expect Phil reply with some information about if they experimented with ssd drives, and if he could imagine any sonic advantage with ssd in the future etc. Being a music lover he is, and not a purchase manager, he is more in the position to offer such information, not price data. I am also curious why Naim used ssd drives for the no-on-board-storage versions of HDX and UnitiServe. Thanks Phil for replies!