External HDD for jukebox (Off Topic)

by PeterSt. , Netherlands, Sunday, July 16, 2006, 18:23 (6487 days ago) @ DeMarko

Hi again,

First of all, this was about avoiding your noise, as you talked about. That should differ now ... (?).

Secondly, Wifi is very slow (say 54Mbit max (but often 11) opposed to the internal harddisk or even USB 2.0), and also the ethernet cable is 100Mbit only. I'm not sure how you play, but without buffer (!) and gapless, I think it can be so that there's no gap between songs because Foobar arranges for that. When you play via a buffer however, the next song is loaded when the first is finished, and *then* you have to wait (longer now !).

Personally I wouldn't use USB because the DAC is USB connected.
OTOH, I wouldn't even use the USB connection, but that can be achieved only when you have a setup like I have (external soundcard etc. etc.). The fun is, *then* you are allowed to use USB for the HDD again ...

I also wouldn't use the ethernet network connection (Wifi or Cable) because it's slow. Also I'm not sure what happens to jitter then, though some like the jitter induced by ethernet.

Although I didn't think it would be true, I experienced at Bert's place that a USB cable by itself can make a huge difference. So from that follows that a hub will influence as well (and probably not for the better ).
For Firewire that's probably the same, although I didn't experience that so far (I have a 10m Firewire el cheapo cable to the soundcard).

Lastly about playing via the internal HDD ... what to say. I too now play via the memory (the buffer, NOT the ramdisk, which just introcuses an extra step !!), and so far I'd say it's better.

Dmitry, all is very complex, and in fact so much related to "a" system, that it's hard to give a good advise, and in fact wrong to just try to copy one's setup. The fact that I don't use the TwinDAC's USB input already makes a large difference (for the possibilities of the other setup stuff).

Peter

Thank you very very much, Peter!

I have just done it via wireless connection. I have two computers
connected to the Internet via a router.

Anyway, I now can play files from the other computer via wireless. My
first impression is that there aren't much difference between playing from
the internal notebook drive and the external computer (or even external HDD
connected via USB2.0 to this external computer). This is the first
impression however.

BUT! It takes a long time / pause between songs to buffer the entire song
into Foobar via the wireless. I presume this is not the problem if you
connect via a network cable???
Also, would there be noticeable difference between wireless and network
cable connection??? Any thoughts or experience with this?

If anyone has experimented with different connections, please comment.
Would be interesting to know differences between:
- internal HDD
- external HDD connected via USB 2.0
- network connection described above
- wireless connection described above

- Also do USB hubs degrade the sound??

Thank you,
Dmitry.

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