 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
104.175.177.184
When describing their expensive servers, manufacturers often claim that they reviewed many different parts, i.e. motherboards, processors and such to find that special synergy between the components for the best sound possible. I'm not a computer expert, but I know that, for example, music reproduction doesn't require a particularly fast processor. So, surely, it's not the processor's speed they're talking about. I know that different OS may produce different sounds which is probably comparable to different sonic signatures produced by different coupling caps in a power amplifier. Alright, so Lynux may sound different then another program. But hardware? Anybody care to shed some light over this?
Follow Ups:
EVERYTHING makes a difference - wish it was not so, but it is.
One of the truisms generated through 40+ years of active involvement in this wonderful pursuit
EVERYTHING makes a difference...Which is a wonderful thing for 'high end' manufacturers as it allows them to hype marketing spin on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they sell.
There's at least one manufacturer that uses 'audio optimized' SSDs in their products. Says something to that effect right on the label. Funny thing is, there is no such thing. There are only a very small handful of manufacturers who make the flash memory for SSDs and none of them has any interest in making 'audio optimized' SSD for the 'high-end' audio niche. ;-)
Edits: 12/07/15 12/07/15
I also noticed that when manufacturers offer SSD instead of a HD, say 1 TB, the price can easily go up by as much as $1000. And that's while 1 TB SSD sells for about $320 and I'm sure manufacturers don't pay retail.
I talked candidly to a music server guy once. He used a small internal SSD, but only for "spooling" of the track to be played from the SSD via copy from the HD from a hard drive where it was actually stored. The reason: noise. But, it was not electrical noise or sonics per se. He did not think it made a sonic difference. It was only about minimizing the acoustic noise in the room during playback, since his compact server was assumed to be placed in the listening room. SSD's are silent during playback, unlike HD's.
Not saying computer hardware makes no sonic difference in the signal path. But, the origins of specialized computers for audio started with "quiet" PCs designed to eliminate fan noise, drive noise, etc. in the listening room. That has morphed into claims that they use specialized internal components that sound better, too. Do they really? Maybe, maybe not.
Incidentally, I solved the acoustic noise problems by putting my PC and NAS in the next room. There is nothing special about my hardware, but I am quite happy with my sound. It is really outstanding. I do not have the motivation to start fiddling with this or that internal hardware for "better sound." I think it impossible to do a meaningful A vs. B comparison for most internal hardware swaps in the same PC. They take too long. I would not trust my own ears, let alone someone else's, to evaluate sonic differences under those conditions.
Those guys may claim their specialized stuff sounds better, but they offer little in the way of evidence, like how they tested, measurements, etc. So, it comes down to faith and belief. Unless you can do a side by side, quick switching A vs. B omparison, preferably blind or double blind, I do not think you can know for sure, even if legions of posters swear it make a meaningful positive difference.
I'm also pretty sure you've never managed an electronics hardware business and had to worry about gross margins and P and L.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
you're absolutely right. But I'm somewhat familiar with general principles of marketing. You can't explain with cost differential why a unit equipped with 1Tb SSD instead of a 1 Tb HD should cost about a grand more. This is pure marketing.
No, it's not pure marketing. Pure marketing might be necessary to collect that extra $1,000. If you were not able to collect this money, then your business might have to close its doors when you ran out of money. All of this becomes crystal clear if one is responsible for the business model for a product and has P/L responsibility. It will not be clear if one hasn't had this personal experience.
More specifically, that 1 TB SSD costs several times more than a 1 TB HD. Both store the same information. If there were no other funcational differences, or perceived functional differences, between these two devices then it would require extremely skillful marketing to persuade customers that there was a difference in value to be had for having the more expensive device.
Personally, I have a couple of computers that boot and run off of SSDs, but the largest has only 500 GB of SSD and is used to run a web server and a database server. All of my audio files reside on spinning rust, but this rust doesn't have to spin when I am listening to music as I operate purely out of RAM memory. In a few years, the economics may switch, but this is what makes sense to me just now, as I am not prepared to store multiple TB of music files on solid state disks, which have only recently appeared to have credible reliability, among other reasons.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
Alright. We kind of digressed from the topic with this marketing argument. My background is really in speaker design and building. Mostly horns - I spend couple decades assisting Dr. Bruce Edgar in his shop and picked up a lot of knowledge from him. Computer based music servers are rather new to me. In speakers, wiring, capacitors and such all may have their own sonic signatures and sound. And a lot of it makes sense: paper in oil sounds different from mylar film or copper foil. I also understand that power supply may have a great impact on the sound.The job of a computer, on the other hand, is to process a digital stream - o-1-o-1-0-1-0-1-0-1 and so on. And in this I don't see any parameters other then speed and perhaps jitter. So when I read hi-end manufacturers claims that they spent countless hours listening to different motherboards and processors, and how some hardware works better with this component and not so good with that, now, this just doesn't make sense to me. Am I missing something? Do MB have their own sound? Do they sound different if connected with different processors, RAM chips?
Do MB have their own sound? Do they sound different if connected with different processors, RAM chips?
Some inmates seem to think so and it may be true to their ears. However, I would argue that any differences are so system specific with too many variables for anyone to suggest "better sounding" computer components for another person's system. I would also argue that any differences are so minuscule compared to the DAC and player software that I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. But some do and that's their choice.
Post a Followup:
| FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
