Attached link from many years ago 
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/audiophile-hard-drive.194098/
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/audiophile-hard-drive.194098/
There isn't a significant difference. I have been doing this since about 2005. My music library is approximately 2TB of ripped CDs (as FLAC) and SACDs (dsf files in the main music folder and the backup ISOs on another HDD) on a 3TB HDD as a network shared folder on a Windows 10 desktop. So it is technically a NAS. The library doesn't change much, so I think a RAID is overkill. It's easy enough to manually backup the library to other PCs. The same Windows 10 PC also has video files on other HDDs, which are also shared on the same network. I think HDDs need to be in a proper environment with continuous airflow for adequate cooling for longevity. I use well designed PC gaming cases with excellent airflow. They are online 24/7. You don't want a HDD in the listening environment. No fans or spinning drives that make noise. In my experience, properly treated HDDs are extremely reliable, but definitely have backups.
Hello members
My very old latest updated external hard drive for studio work (pic attached) was using esata connection these days USB 3 seems more then quick enough plus we also have USB 3.1
this drive is 4 TB .. remote triggered via the master pc (12v trigger) and has been in service for many years
the bottom unit is a preamp made by custom maker jamesfeline
My very old latest updated external hard drive for studio work (pic attached) was using esata connection these days USB 3 seems more then quick enough plus we also have USB 3.1
this drive is 4 TB .. remote triggered via the master pc (12v trigger) and has been in service for many years
the bottom unit is a preamp made by custom maker jamesfeline
Attachments
Be careful with using SD cards as they can be prone to corruption. It's a good idea to back up to a stable media first and then make working copies on the SD cards. If they get corrupted, no drama just make a new copy.
Has anyone detected any sound quality differences between using a local HDD/SSD vs a network drive? I am using RPi and Moode, and the network data is transferred to a RAM buffer before it is sent over USB or I2S to the DAC. When using a local USB HDD/SSD, data is moved into the same buffer. So assuming there are no buffer underflow issues, both methods should be identical.
The only time I've had underflows is using a DVD drive (or using a low memory bandwidth RPI with audio processing switched on). The unofficial CD playback code keeps sensing the drive and causes the drive to initialise whilst playing, as long as the playback buffer is large enough it won't have a problem. You can also cache ahead which would also help smooth over any latency issues.
If you have time to waste, you will find all sorts of claims like that here on diyAudio and elsewhere. Almost all of them make no sense and fail to understand how digital playback works. Hint: Buffers
Being rather ignorant on the subject ( and not particularly computer savvy ) I was thinking of getting a USB CD drive, ripping them on my works laptop, Bluetoothing the files to my phone and then to a cheep " music only " phone with a large capacity sd card, and using the cheep phone to select tracks and Bluetooth them to my hifi. This would have the advantage of being useable " off grid " ( battery powered amp ). But I have no idea if there is a major floor in this.
Thats a smart system. It looks convenient and secure as long s one of the backup external HD is kept off site.
What's the purchase cost for the NAS + 2 x HD's?
How often would it need to be updated to stay reliable? Every three years?
I think data retention for a HDD is 10-20 years. My personal experience is 20 years. 20 years is a very long time in this age, and at that point, you have a bigger and better replacement drive to transfer the files. SSD retention is not nearly as long.
Bluetooth isn't lossless, so there's that. You can send lossless audio over Wi-Fi using things like the (discontinued) Chromecast Audio. If the phone supports USB OTG, you can plug in a USB audio interface, some of which include S/PDIF digital outputs to send audio to a DAC or A/V receiver. Headphone jack quality may be good enough, very likely better than Bluetooth. There are a bunch of Android audio players, most support lossless and some do high-resolution (though that will depend on the audio interface).
i use my (android) phone with a 250gb M'SD via OTG to my DAC. i also use my phone as a DAP. i use HiByPlayer as the software as its bit perfect playback (takes a bit of configuration). i have a USB card reader dongle that i use to rip my CD's to directly using my PC using EAC into WAV i then use MP3Tag to tag the WAV as EAC is pish at doing that. yes i have to remove and install the card on my phone every time i rip a CD to it but i know that the card has no errors due to transfer from other devices (the less there is in the chain the less errors you will get). if you use ipish then your on your own. if EAC would let me rip directly to the M'SD card on my phone i would be even happier.
i dont use any form of wifi, Bluetooth, Wired networking. i can understand why people would use it for very large music collections but i dont like some genres so i only have about 200cd's of music i actually listen to not collect and listen to only once.
I store my music on an external Thunderbolt drive (DAC is USB, i used a USB drive when i had a FireWire DAC). The song is sucked into RAM by the playe rso there should be no difference where the music is stored.
Do note that 10k full rez AIFFs take up about a half-terabyte,
dave
Do note that 10k full rez AIFFs take up about a half-terabyte,
dave