External HD VS Flash Drive Sound Quality Question

While I don't know for certain which physical differences would cause what sound differences, in the world of cd there are HUGE difference both between standalone cd transports, digital cables, & at least some of us hear differences between power cables (I certainly do, though I don't understand why).

Taking that comparison here (both the Flash drive & the hard drive are filling the same role as the standalone cd transport); on the one hand we have a solid state device with no power, no cable & no moving parts.

On the other hand, we have a spinning disc, a $2.00 digital cable, a $5 cable including a power supply (the power supply alone in my Esoteric cd transport is probably a $100 part), & who knows what inside the box connecting the hd to the USB enclosure.

As I mentioned in one of the posts above, I can also only check the polarity in 1 position at this time on the drive due to the physical set up of my power conditioner.

All that said, I'm still not 100% certain that the Flash Drives sound better; I can only say with certainty the flash sounded much better on a solo Piano album. I just haven't had the time to do more comparisons. I will admit I developed a bias from the one comparison, but I do plan to check a few more albums when I can.

For complete transparency, the comparison I made on the Jarrett is between a Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB STCA2000100 USB 3.0 HD & an Adata C008 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash.

Thanks for your viewpoint Krikdf, but it has turned out pretty often that things that shouldn't affect sound quality do, at least for some people. Have you compared high res files on flash drives to the same files on your your SSD into your Oppo?

I don't have an SSD.

Hi Moomoo, my question was for Kriskdf. I hope he will compare flash drives to his SSD and tell us what he hears.

I can try to give it a try today (my wife is out of the house for a bit :) ), but I don't expect much difference. The SSD is basically a large flash drive, with some subtle differences. It is powered by the USB directly just as the flash drive (not even requiring the extra USB pigtail that can be used to power spinning disks). If I were to predict any differences from different sources, I would suspect they would come from big spinning HD and power differences there (besides...I really do hear the clicks and spinning of some disks. Some are quieter, but some annoy me). Also, some other comments:

* I am using hdmi out of the Oppo (it is the 103 not 105, so I don't gain a lot by going analog out). So my expectation is the same bits are streamed to the DAC and any interference introduced would actually need to be in another component a foot away.
* Speakers are B & W CM9 powered by Emotiva XPA-5 and a Denon receiver, so not the highest-fi, but not too bad.

BTW, most of my comments earlier about the drive transfer stuff is in agreement with Almarg that comparing this to CD players digital connections are not appropriate. Thus, whether the files are in the root or a sub-folder are really irrelevant unless Oppo has totally screwed something up. The files either transfer off the disk fast enough or they don't. Oppo also doesn't know if they are SSD or HDD connected. To quote Almarg's key point: "None of those factors have any relevance to transmission of digital data from a USB hard drive to your Oppo, as long as nothing involved is defective. The technical considerations are completely different, and vastly less critical with respect to their potential effect on sonics."

While i'm doing this test, I may try to compare to a hard wired network cable too instead of the free wifi connector that Oppo provided. My SSD is starting to get full. I just added some Stanley Clarke after seeing him live last night. I've got room for about 8 more albums before I need another bigger SSD. I'd rather stream it if I can since the server is in another room and has a lot more storage.