interesting hard drive, uptick in SQ

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 374 times.

Monad

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 23
interesting hard drive, uptick in SQ
« on: 23 Sep 2022, 04:54 pm »
so, i'm 100% digital right now, got frustrated w TT and decided, a while back, to focus on my lossless digital chain..

Current system:
Naim Uniti Nova
Tannoy Berkeley
DH Labs Q10 cables
DH Labs Red Wave PC
Furman 1800 PFR something

the start: I was feeding lossless files to my Nova directly, using a Western Digital 8TB hard drive, connected via their proprietary plug to USB A.  Access to the files was fast and playback, instantaneous but with some perceived lower SQ than my recent separates, I'm transitioning from.

I picked up a La Cie (Seagate parent co.) Rugged 5tb hard drive recently for a back up, with plans to move the WD HD elsewhere.  the La Cie unit I purchased was the USB C connect version and I 'thought' it came with a USB C to A adapter but misread some marketing data or a review somewhere.  The unit only came with a thick .3 meter USB C to C cable, so I picked up a Belkin USB C to A cable, with a 10mbps throughput.  USB A has far lower throughput but at least, I figured the cable wouldn't be a bottleneck, or less of one due to lower than 'audiophile' cabling.  I can hear the groans now but carry on if you can stomach.

The Western Digital HD has a wall wart plug in, which I had plugged into a Furman conditioner, with filtering that I'm guessing helped some but still possibly a source of issue.  Normally in a digital chain, and with my last separates set up, I was able to filter out any issues with the dirty power source, via a Streamer and DDC, but since the Nova is an all in one.. no such option.

The La Cie HD is powered via the USB cable, without an external power supply.

Long story- shortened- when I plugged in the La Cie, I perceived an immediate uptick in SQ, added detail, resolution that I had lost moving from my separates, I blamed on the Naim.  The boost was a similar uptick that adding a DDC into my separates chain, i.e. blacker background, lower noise floor, more detail.

I listened to several reference tracks, then plugged the WD back in and listened again.  This is all feelie emotive response but what I heard when the WD HD was back in, was a declination of SQ, that returned with the La Cie HD re-insertion.

Speculation-
1. the Belkin data cable is thicker and assumptively better than the stock one, included in the WD HD, with their funny mega USB micro plug on the HD side, which was meant to store data but not to do anything special for audio, video or data transfer.

2. the wall wart and pinner cabling that connects it to the WD HD had some filtering from the Furman unit, but still passed durty durty current into my source ingest.

3. the La Cie HD has a better build construction, with higher quality parts, delivering a cleaner signal to the Nova

4. some combination of the above, or purely imagined, wishful uptick in SQ

5. lamp cord rules, I'm wasting my time, bleating like a marketing mouthed, gullible sheep, into the audio abyss

Speculating on the differences, if you're using a powered WD or similar hard drive, directly into your ingest, without a DDC (or God forbid, without a Streamer) directly into your DAC, a non-powered HD, like the La Cie, may be a better option.  Also using a high data throughput cable to connect the HD, as opposed to a proprietary WD type cable, may also deliver better performance.

Anyway, that's my story and I was seriously considering moving back to separates when my preamp gets back from warranty service but now IDK... going to AB and see.