SD Cards?
Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 03 June 2009
The other day I played a film off an SD card with the VLC replay software I use on my PC, getting some of the best video results I have ever seen ...
The software is robust, and will play anything from WAV to MP3 in audio and in video would work on DIVX, and does work splendidly on DVDs, so I guessed that whatever format the film on the SD card would work well, and it did.
Don't ask the technical stuff, as I just dopn't know. I did not transfer the film.
But it got me thinking along the lines of solid state file storage for music.
The SD card did none of the usual spinning disc things that DVDs do such as momentary frame freeze and so on.
Would WAVs stored on SD cards be a viable method of storage for recorded music files, specifically CDs ripped and thus stored?
I ask because it seems to me that Hard Drives of the conventional sort are more or less horrible in every way, and somehow if one could transfer CDs to the higher capacity cards then one could say have a card with a Beethoven Piano Sonatra Cycle on, or another with Bach's Organ Music on, another for Mozart Operas [etc]. - so reducing the count by perhaps a factor of twenty - for me something like reducing the 400 plus CD count to 20 or so SD cards for prime use plus eventually at least one complete back-up copy set?
A most simple PC could be arranged with the lightest possible software platform and OS but with an excellent digital out to feed my Lavry D10 ...
This could be cheaper than I thought, and eventually the rips stored on the SD cards could be housed in solid state hard drives when such become possible, good, and affordable ...
Only an idea?
What does anyone think?
ATB from George
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by fixedwheel
I thought I'd seen the cabinet before, (Mini-ITX cluster project) but was mistaken.
Is that a v1 TeraStation Pro? 4x250?
I believe, but haven't tried, that you can go up to 2Tb with 4x500Gb.
TTFN
John
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by james n
Very neat Dave - who's going to start the Storage system pics 2009 thread
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by DaveBk
Yes, a V1 Terastation pro, but with modified firmware to add a ssh server. I use this to shut it down cleanly in the event of a power failure. The APC monitoring s/w on the PC Server runs a script that ssh's onto the Terastation and runs shutdown, it then shuts down the server itself.
It can be extended to 2Tb as you say, but I don't need it yet.
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by DaveBk
quote:
Originally posted by james n:
Very neat Dave - who's going to start the Storage system pics 2009 thread
I've posted this pic somewhere else on the forum, but Adam pointed out it's a hifi forum not a computer nerds paradise!
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by james n
quote:
it's a hifi forum not a computer nerds paradise!
Looking at some of the analy retentive ripping threads i have my doubts...
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by pcstockton
James,
are you referring to the HDX White Paper?
If someone wrote their method out, and called it "Mr. X's Ripping White Paper", would it then cease to be "anally retentive"?
Just wondering why people (you) have a problem with others making as close as possible to a perfect rip, and then helping others to do so.
When Naim does it and sells it with a shit CD drive and a couple $40 hard drives, it is the bees knees.
I laughed my ASS off when I read the HDX ripping paper after getting shit from everyone for giving a crap beyond simply using iTunes for a rip.
It is EAC, almost exactly, but not as powerful or thorough.
Anally Yours,
Patrick
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by pcstockton
quote:
Originally posted by fixedwheel:
I think you mean NEAR silent Even the manufacturers don't claim to be totally silent.
John
John,
Well considering that nothing is silent (due to molecular movement) unless at true absolute zero, yes it makes a sound. Although it is not perceivable to me. Therefore in my/our sloppy language I call it silent.
Meaning solid state storage is also equally NON-silent.
Thus this is all a NON-point.
I seriously have held it to my ear when working and cannot even hear a hum.
To his point, a library of little flash drives could be a cool alternative. Especially considering all of my points above re: portability, noise, ubiquity etc....
Though I would assume one who would do something like this would not have any kind of access to a computer in their home, and use them with something like an HDX, Uniti or future Naim DAC. Otherwise they should simply stream to their kit via one of the many ways to do so.
-patrick
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by js
SD cards aren't as fast as drives and are more likely to have dead bits. No real advantage other than noise and shock resistance at this time. VLC is a nice vid player but not so much for music. You can get windows media player to do almost all the same files (except REAL I think)by loading some codecs but VLC is much less bulky and a easier on the memory. Got a nice simple vid and audio adjust for poor transfers etc.
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by Patrick F
just so you know it's not a cd drive it's a DVD drive.
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by Guido Fawkes
quote:
Originally posted by pcstockton:
quote:
Originally posted by GFFJ:
Only an idea?
What does anyone think?
ATB from George
I think it is a fantastic idea. But I would go with USB sticks/flash drive. You could use them on anything. Whereas with the SD, miniSD, microSD etc, you never know when one will be obsoleted, or what machine actually accept them, and then which ones?
You could use these it appears with an HDX, and Naim DAC if you were to ever get one. .....
-Patrick
I agree 100%, I detest hard disk drives. The NaimUniti can play files from a USB stick so there is no need for hard drives.
The other idea I like is the iPod Nano/iTransport to feed the NaimUniti.
So watch out for a new thread - can you hear the difference between standard and audiophile USB sticks?
I'm looking forward to the Naim Air-Plug USB stick.
ATB Rotf
Posted on: 03 June 2009 by pcstockton
quote:
Originally posted by ROTF:
So watch out for a new thread - can you hear the difference between standard and audiophile USB sticks?
I will vomit blood from my eyes... and participate nevertheless.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by james n
quote:
Just wondering why people (you) have a problem with others making as close as possible to a perfect rip, and then helping others to do so.
Not at all - i just don't see what all the fuss is about - Linn dont worry about it. I can't here a difference between an EAC rips and my iTunes rip and can't hear a difference between those rips and CD quality downloads of the same music from the Naim site.
I'd love to do a non biased comparison of various rips but i dont think thats going to happen. The Naim white paper on ripping - an interesting read but the proof is in the listening.
Yours (less acurately ripped)
James
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by goldfinch
quote:
Originally posted by GFFJ:
it got me thinking along the lines of solid state file storage for music.
What does anyone think?
ATB from George
SSD are getting cheaper every day, I haven't tested them but some report better sound performance in some setups (and of course, less noise),
The advantages can come from faster access to data,less cpu usage and less power demand from psu. I think this is another step to make a computer a "perfect" transport.
I think the DAC is still the keypoint in the computer audio chain but it seems there are some factors (and their interaction) affecting to the digital audio stream quality coming from a computer:Audio device, data storage, power supply, OS, player software, CPU usage...
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by garyi
George if you play thisgame with any kind of seriousness then you will need a NAS or 'off site computer'
My storage lives in the garage. I figure in the even of a house fire the garage will *possibly* escape as the loft space is not in any way connected with the house. Thats my thoughts anyway. The consequence of being in the garage is it can be a bloody noisey as it likes.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by james n
quote:
affecting to the digital audio stream quality coming from a computer:Audio device, data storage, power supply, OS, player software, CPU usage...
Some of these are less important though depending on the interface to the DAC.
James
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by goldfinch
That's why some of us are very interested in knowing which inputs will have the forthcoming Naim DAC!
It is curious to see how many different approaches are used to build computer-based music servers, sometimes leading to very different solutions. I chose the HTPC route, choosing the less noisy components and expending most of the budget on the sound card. It is still an standard PC, so the conversion of the data into a digital audio signal might be affected by those factors.
I fancy the idea of a basic PC or laptop connected via USB or firewire to the right DAC, but even in this case the usually poor quality USB computer devices and the way music is stored could affect neggatively to the DAC conversion.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by pcstockton
quote:
Originally posted by james n:
Linn dont worry about it. I can't here a difference between an EAC rips and my iTunes rip
Oh yes they do!!!!! They endorse EAC, and have developed specific settings for rips.
And you would hear a difference if you burned a disc of your rip!!! at least... No cue file.
Or if you have pre-gap tracks/information, which I do in many discs, you will not hear it in an iTunes rip.
-patrick
iTunes is unique in that it "de-emphasizes" CDs with Pre-Emphasis on the fly. One of its only useful features for me, and a worthy one.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by mikeeschman
quote:
Originally posted by GFFJ:
But at most I would only want about 500 CDs' worth of music stored.
A CD ripped into a wav file is ~ 600Meg.
So 500 of these come in at about 300Gig.
That's less than a third of a terabyte.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by Fraser Hadden
Hang on a mo....
SD cards have a failure-rate too. Not only can they fail, in whole or in part, in much the same way as any other form of storage, but their connectors can strip too - leaving the data irrecoverable.
Would CF card storage be better? At least if a CF card goes to war with a card reader, it wins. It damages the reader's pins and necessitates the reader's repair/replacement but doesn't hazard the data.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by pcstockton
Fraser,
That is why i suggest flash drives. I have NEVER had one fail, although I lose them all of the time.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by u5227470736789439
Dear Patrick,
Could you post a link to some Flash drives so I can have a look and a think about this.
I like the idea of the music being split into about twenty sections [as suggested earlier], because failures are possible, and loosing them is possible ...
I am sensible enough to be able to select the drive that has Bach Brandenburg concertos [currently four complete sets and some isolated individual recordings], or Bach Organ-works, or say Beethoven String Quartets [I would transsfer the Budapest and the Busch recordings amounting to about 16 CDs] and then use the navigation to play a complete work from the selected USB drive.
I would not transfer every CD I have. Some only stay as being part of a boxed set, and some are kept for perhaps only one piece of music - perhaps only five minutes - in the otherwise un-desired rest.
Of course the original CDs would stay as the ultimate back-stop, but using this would mean the only thing I would need to do is get a finer break-out feed to my DAC, and find workable softeware for playback, at least in the short run.
Of course if a future Naim DAC had a USB input for Flash sticks, then I could dispense with the need for a PC at all in the playback loop. That would be absolutely superb in my view.
Simple, almost elegant, and pressumably potentially of the first possible quality ....
ATB from George
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by pcstockton
quote:
Originally posted by GFFJ:
Of course if a future Naim DAC had a USB input for Flash sticks, then I could dispense with the need for a PC at all in the playback loop. That would be absolutely superb in my view.
It looks fairly certain at least one Naim DAC will have USB connectivity. And the HDX and Uniti do now.
And yes that would be a great solution to use Naim DAC and sticks without a puter.
It would be PERFECT for you and how you like to listen.
I would simply Google search for whatever size flash drive you are looking for.
Here is one I found easily. Buy.com i think is a reputable company.
http://www.buy.com/retail/prod...32452229&dcaid=17902$7.19 (plus shipping) Surely it will be economical to order a bunch at once as the shipping on one unit will most likely equal the price of the drive itself.
Or go by a local compute supply store. I have one in the area that is a wholesaler. The sell bits and cases, cables, drvies, motherboards etc.... like a warehouse for techies building their own kits or an IT guy taking care of a fleet of computers at a company.
Their external drives are not any less than Best Buy. But their USB sticks are dirt cheap..... no shipping if you can find something around you.
My buddy picked up a 16GB there the other day for under $20.
Let us know how you get on.
And lets get EAC up and running for you to rip with.
you can use Foobar in the meantime for a player until you get the Naim DAC.
-patrick
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by u5227470736789439
Lots to think about, but if Naim have a USB input on their DAC in time which allows direct access to the music on a USB Flash stick, then for me at least this becomes the best of all choices.
I think I should contact Naim directly to find out what is going on with this!
I would keep the other DAC for second system duties and connectiontoa PC for ripping and auditioning of the said rips ...
ATB from George
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by pcstockton
quote:
Originally posted by GFFJ:
Lots to think about,
ATB from George
Not really
You are now on the path.... Naim DAC with sticks, Lavry in 2nd system.
DONE.
Posted on: 04 June 2009 by pcstockton
George,
I am sure you know this, but the Lavry could also double as a decent headphone preamp, when you get the Naim DAC.
-p
