I just ordered a BDP-Pi from Audio Advisor and will receive it in a few days. I've poured over the instruction manual on the Bryston website and I am confused about the type of storage drive that is acceptable to feed music files to the player. The manual seems to be a little contradictory:
*The BDP-Pi also requires that you store and organize your music library on a connected USB drive and/or via network attached storage. Thus, the minimum hookup requirements include attaching a music storage device like a *portable* hard drive (emphasis mine)
*Your BDP-Pi can accept most USB storage media including thumb drives, buss-powered hard drives, and self-powered hard drives. Available current to power buss-powered drives depends on load from the BDP-Pi processor. Therefore, Bryston recommends connecting only one USB buss powered drive. Please check the literature that came with your hard drive to determine its power requirements if you have trouble with your drive. Self-powered drives and thumb drives draw very little current so several can be connected at once.
*When using USB storage, note that the available total output power from the power supply is limited. Buss powered storage such as *portable* hard drives consume available current. Self powered hard drives and powered USB DACs will have little impact on total current.
So, it is not clear to me what all my options are. Portable hard drives don't typically publish their power requirements. On the one hand, the manual seems to say using one bus-powered drive is ok (bus-powered meaning that the drive gets its power through its USB connection to the computer, the case with portable hard drives and flash drives). On the other, it warns that this consumes power from the BDP-Pi. It sounds like a powered drive is the better choice. I purchased a Western Digital My Book 3TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive for $77 at Best Buy. That's pretty cheap, and it runs under its own power via an AC adapter that plugs into an outlet. However I didn't know about these so-called "personal cloud" hard drives like the WD My Cloud. This would seem to be a better choice as apparently I could easily upload new music files. With the My Book, I'll have to detach it from the BDP, unplug it from its power source, carry it over to my computer, attach it, upload the files, then reinstall it to the BDP. Not an enormous hassle, and considering I got the thing for 77 bucks, perhaps a bargain. But I think I should have gotten the My Cloud, but I didn't know anything about such devices.
Does using a bus powered drive of any kind compromise performance? What do you know about these personal cloud things?