Audio File Sound Quality Questions

[TLS80]

Hi... Recently I began converting my CD collection to HD storage. I used the latest version of XLD, converting the CD's to 96 X 24 aiff's onto a 1 TB Seagate Backup Plus USB drive that I have owned for a number of years. I also have a 3 TB WD MyBook. I decided to transfer my music files to the 3 TB MyBook to avoid space limitations as time goes on. I noticed immediately upon beginning to use the MyBook for playback that music coming through my system sounded noticeably and unacceptably worse. Among the symptoms, too numerous to mention fully,  were a collapse of the soundstage and beaming of the midrange. I disconnected the MyBook and plugged the Seagate into my player, and sound quality deterioration disappeared. 

 

I don't know what the cause of this could be. The two HD's were plugged into the same USB port on my player. The Seagate is formatted NTFS. The MyBook is formatted ExFAT. The files themselves were copied from the Seagate to the MyBook. I checked file sizes on the two drives, and they are identical. The Seagate is powered via the USB port. The MyBook has its own 12V wall wart power supply. The Seagate is a 2.5" spinning disk. The MyBook is a 3.5" spinning disk, as far as I can tell.

 

My player will accept an internal SSD such as the Samsung 850Pro. Drobo (and others) sell DAS and NAS systems that are attractive because of their expandability and reliability. I am a little hesitant, however, to spend $500 - $1000 on media, only to discover that sound quality is unacceptable. I can always stick with the Seagate. I know that everything in a system makes a difference. I never thought that there would be such a night-and-day difference between two simple disc systems.

 

Has anyone here encountered and solved this problem? Are SSD's known to be superior in SQ to spinning discs? Is there a DAS system that is recommended commonly for best SQ? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

Tim

[kumakuma]

 

11 minutes ago, TLS80 said:

Hi... Recently I began converting my CD collection to HD storage. I used the latest version of XLD, converting the CD's to 96 X 24 aiff's onto a 1 TB Seagate Backup Plus USB drive that I have owned for a number of years. I also have a 3 TB WD MyBook. I decided to transfer my music files to the 3 TB MyBook to avoid space limitations as time goes on. I noticed immediately upon beginning to use the MyBook for playback that music coming through my system sounded noticeably and unacceptably worse. Among the symptoms, too numerous to mention fully,  were a collapse of the soundstage and beaming of the midrange. I disconnected the MyBook and plugged the Seagate into my player, and sound quality deterioration disappeared. 

 

I don't know what the cause of this could be. The two HD's were plugged into the same USB port on my player. The Seagate is formatted NTFS. The MyBook is formatted ExFAT. The files themselves were copied from the Seagate to the MyBook. I checked file sizes on the two drives, and they are identical. The Seagate is powered via the USB port. The MyBook has its own 12V wall wart power supply. The Seagate is a 2.5" spinning disk. The MyBook is a 3.5" spinning disk, as far as I can tell.

 

My player will accept an internal SSD such as the Samsung 850Pro. Drobo (and others) sell DAS and NAS systems that are attractive because of their expandability and reliability. I am a little hesitant, however, to spend $500 - $1000 on media, only to discover that sound quality is unacceptable. I can always stick with the Seagate. I know that everything in a system makes a difference. I never thought that there would be such a night-and-day difference between two simple disc systems.

 

Has anyone here encountered and solved this problem? Are SSD's known to be superior in SQ to spinning discs? Is there a DAS system that is recommended commonly for best SQ? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

Tim

 

It would probably be useful if you could tell everyone what your player is.

 

Also this isn't directly related to your questions but why are you converting your CDs to 24/96 files? The audio information on CDs is limited to 16/44.1 so you are creating unnecessarily large files.

[sandyk]

TLS80

 

See also my reply at the link.

Alex

 

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/37393-can-computers-influence-sq/

 

[TLS80]

Hi,  Tom and Alex...

 

Thanks for your responses.

My player is an Auralic Aries Mini powered by an iFi iPower 15v.

The reason I chose 96 X 24 is that it's the highest rate at which my DAC - Monarchy NM24 - will run. Initially my player was Amarra 4 Luxe running on a 10 year-old Macbook pro. During this initial proof-of-concept phase, I noticed that the DAC would unlock briefly when there was a sampling rate change between files of dissimilar rates. This resulted in a loud bleat emanating from my speakers. Therefore, I chose 96 X 24 as a single standard for my library. My rationalization is that disc space is cheap, and preferable to loud noises. I realize that resolution that isn't there to begin with cannot be synthesized and that disc space is being wasted.

 

Alex... I read the link above. I did notice overall fuzziness on all material when I was using the Macbook/ Amarra system. I solved this issue by placing an iFi SPDIF iPurifier on the input of my DAC. ( Optical sounds less grainy  to me than electrical/coax.) I preferred the sonic result of this change even to the sound of the Aries Mini without the iFi PS. That system sounded very sweet and clear once the iPurufuer was installed. I prefer the Aries with the iFi PS to the Amarra/Macbook. The PS change increased the bass ' presence dramatically. Overall, everything has more of a sense of "immediacy" and accuracy of both placement and tonality.

 

( BTW, i purchased  the Aries because the old Macbook's fan started running on "high" at all times. I figured it wasn't going to last much longer. The reason I copied the audio library to the 3 TB MyBook is that I had intended to do a TimeMachine backup of the 160 GB Mac HD to the 1 TB Seagate. Much less wasted disc space. ) Hope that's not TMI.

 

The sonic issues with the MyBook weren't related to specific files. Everything I played over a period of several days sounded narrow and "honky" in the midrange.

 

Thanks for your time and interest and responses.

 

Tim