USB hard drive music storage
Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: Digital Audio
Forum Name: Computer Audio
Forum Description: Is computer audio here to stay or is it just another flavour of the month?
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2044
Printed Date: 27 Mar 2026 at 6:08am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: USB hard drive music storage
Posted By: RichW
Subject: USB hard drive music storage
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2013 at 1:57pm
|
Hi,
I'd like to get going with PC audio, probably with a Bitzie, & wonder if anyone could advise
on music file storage.
Read somewhere that it's not a good idea to use the USB bus to simultaneously read files from a storage device & send it to a USB DAC - to avoid 'synchronous conflict'.
 Is this really a problem in practice or is it best to play music direct from the computer's hard drive
& just use an external USB drive for backup.
Apologies if this has been covered before.
Any advice appreciated.
Cheers.
------------- Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC. |
Replies:
Posted By: Humboldt
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2013 at 7:17pm
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Hi! There is a lot of writings on the internet about how more or less everything you do on a computer while playing your music, or anything the computer do in the background, will degrade audio quality. My conclusion is this. Either am I on my way going deaf, or are my different computers I have used over the years of outstanding quality, or is this talk about sound degradation just rubbish. I have never heard any difference due to what ever the computer have been doing besides playing music. When I am traveling, I store my music on an USB hard drive, and plug it into my laptop, and it is sounding just the same as when I play music over the network from my home server. However, since I have found it a little unpractical with the USB harddisc, i have recently started to store music on small SD-cards instead. I do not store the music on my laptops internal harddisc due to the great amount of music I own. If you are concerned anyway, try the latest version of JRiver. Imt now has a function where it first decode the files, and then store it in RAM. That way there is no data transfer between harddisc and computer at all during playback. |
Posted By: discrete badger
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2013 at 7:47pm
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This matches my experience. The only difference I can hear as the computer gets busy is the fan noise! |
Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2013 at 8:39am
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The USB conflict warning appears to be misinformation then.
Will investigate the SD card option.
Thanks.
 ------------- Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC. |
Posted By: tg [RIP]
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2013 at 10:58am
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IMV it not so much a misinformation as a potential issue that does not often manifest. Rather than a degradation in perceived SQ the effect could be dropouts or glitches in replay. Should that be a problem, there are, as Humboldt notes, many ways of eliminating that issue. Sometimes just using a different USB port for one of the devices will do the trick, eg on a newer machine put the drive on a USB3 port and the DAC on a USB2 port. An SD card is a good option for taking some of your collection when away from home with the added bonus, if your phone is compatible, of using it with that as well. ------------- Tony G |
Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2013 at 2:21pm
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That's useful info - thanks.
So the specs to look for in a PC for hifi are USB 3.0 & 2.0 ports & preferably an integrated
SD card reader.
Is the processor type & speed important & the amount of RAM installed?
Thanks.
------------- Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC. |
Posted By: tg [RIP]
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2013 at 3:39pm
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Rich, I really think you should be fine with any recent machine. If you want a more complete answer I can dig out an 11 year old laptop and run some tests. But, TBPH, if the Bitzie runs fine from a Samsung S3 phone as users have found, I think you may be making it more complex for yourself than you need. There is a list of tested hardware and Operating systems on the Bitzie info http://www.gspaudio.co.uk/bitzie-usb-dac-external-soundcard.htm - pages , some of those systems and hardware are hardly SOTA and have not been for 15 years. Why not just PM Jon (Fatmangolf) and arrange a loan of a Bitzie for yourself and try it with what you already have. ------------- Tony G |
Posted By: Humboldt
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2013 at 3:58pm
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One argument I have read about is that procesor load should increase jitter, but I have never seen any solid data confirming this. Playing music is not at all a demanding task for a computer. Even a very modest processor will do the job. You will hardly run into any problems, even if your computer is a several year old model. Both Windows and Mac OSX comes with a small program which can show you processor load. Turning music playback on and of will hardly result in any noticeably change in processor load at all. And when turning on relly significant programs, ie processorheavy programs, while playing music, do not change sound quality at all. Perhaps it could lead to hangupps if your computer is not able to handle heavy programs, but you do not need a powerfull processor just to play music.It might - however - be a good idea to have a not to small amount of RAM. |
Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2013 at 4:25pm
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My current computer is an old & noisy desktop & so a new laptop will be bought & used mainly
for playing music through the hifi.
Thanks for your all your input - I now know that a fairly basic laptop will be good enough
for the job.
 ------------- Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC. |
Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2013 at 9:42pm
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If it helps I was running my squeezebox Server off a cheap netbook pulling the data off a (noisy) NAS drive. Combining the system into my main PC with a soundproofed hard disk and quieter CPU cooling eliminated most of the ambient noise, otherwise the music sounded pretty similar. ------------- Jon Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC. |
Posted By: RichW
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2013 at 11:59am
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That could be an option Jon - installing a quiet CPU cooler in the desktop and hiding the ugly thing out of sight in the listening room.
Worth looking into & could be a good way of getting started.
------------- Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC. |