Sunday, December 19th 2021
An "Audiophile Grade" SSD—Yes, You Heard That Right
A company dealing with niche audiophile-grade electronics on Audiophile Style, a popular site and marketplace for the community, conjured up an SSD that it feels offers the best possible audio. Put simply, this is an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD with a fully-independent power delivery mechanism (one that's isolated from the motherboard's power delivery), and an over-the-top discrete clock-source for its controller. The drive has its own 5 V 2-pin DC input and switching hardware onboard, including [get this] a pair of Audionote Kaisei audio-grade electrolytic capacitors in place of what should have been simple solid-state SMD capacitors that are hard to even notice on any other drive. It doesn't end there.
Most NVMe SSDs have a tiny 2 mm x 2 mm SMD oscillator that's used by the controller for clock-generation. This drive features a Crystek CCHD-957 high-grade Femto oscillator. These oscillators are found in some very high-grade production or scientific equipment, such as data-loggers. For the drive itself, you get a Realtek DRAM-less controller, and a single 1 TB TLC NAND flash chip that's forced to operate in SLC mode (333 GB). On a scale of absurdity, this drive is right up there with $10,000 HDMI cables. Digital audio is stored in ones and zeroes, and nothing is accomplished through an isolated power delivery or clock generation on the storage media. It's nice of the designers to include jumpers that let you switch between the discrete power source and motherboard power; so listeners can see the snake-oil for themselves.
Sources:
Audiophile Style, HotHardware
Most NVMe SSDs have a tiny 2 mm x 2 mm SMD oscillator that's used by the controller for clock-generation. This drive features a Crystek CCHD-957 high-grade Femto oscillator. These oscillators are found in some very high-grade production or scientific equipment, such as data-loggers. For the drive itself, you get a Realtek DRAM-less controller, and a single 1 TB TLC NAND flash chip that's forced to operate in SLC mode (333 GB). On a scale of absurdity, this drive is right up there with $10,000 HDMI cables. Digital audio is stored in ones and zeroes, and nothing is accomplished through an isolated power delivery or clock generation on the storage media. It's nice of the designers to include jumpers that let you switch between the discrete power source and motherboard power; so listeners can see the snake-oil for themselves.
160 Comments on An "Audiophile Grade" SSD—Yes, You Heard That Right
e.g. the "perfect" signal response (from an engineering point) is a flat line for all frequencies, yet its not what we use for listening to music.
if someone has the funds, why would i care if they waste it on this, definitely not gonna sour it for them.
if "cheap", i know i would get it, just for the pseudo slc stuff.
Wow, that source link is a goldmine of some grade A+ audiophoolery.
Bahahahaha
It sounds like snake oil, but even I can see and hear differences between different HDMI cables on my brand new Samsung QLED TV. I went with AOC (optical) HDMI cables in the end as it delivered a punchier, more vibrant, and smoother picture. You can say all these are waste of money, some even say it is money well spent even if the gains are small.
You obviously drank too much snake oil and there's no way to reverse the damage that has been done.
An USB cable for audio is much simpler than HDMI, I still standby that gold plated connector is complete cosmetic- the connector has nothing to do with isolation or signal integrity. A good USB cable may use copper conductors for power, for high current(power) application, with sufficient EMI shielding, but audiophile USB cables is just snake oil pricing on a otherwise just “good USB cable”. I would check my own PSU for EMI shielding before suspecting a cabling, unless my setup is riddled with cables everywhere.
You can post reviews as a user so if you want to show that difference, you can very well use cameras to make image comparison, and ask manufacturers what they did(I.e) image processing, that makes a perceived difference, if there is any. I don’t think there is anything that they can explain, that anybody would be unable to understand.
I have to unplug my hdmi from the PC to remove subwoofer humming.
The sad thing is, I would consider myself an audiophile (I do enjoy a good set of headphones) were it not for BS like this...HDMI audio is digital, ie doesn't work like that. It's more likely something analog in your woofer picking it up.
Also, this will require a specialized heatsink due to the caps, crystal and barrel plug. This is all without mentioning the exploitative and stupid idea behind the product, what a mess. I didn't know the world had enough snakes for all that oil
www.zzyzxphile.com/eng/products/revelation_audio_ssd/
then how can wapping out HDMI (1.4) cable on device that acted up (BD player)/not respond to remote commands,
with a 2.0 cable make a difference?
cables i tried (1.4) were working on other things, so i know the only difference is certification.
nand flash goes like this
SLC = 1 bit per cell and is the fastest for read and write and is also the most expensive
MLC = 2 bits per cell not quite as fat as SLC but close
TLC = 3 bits per cell and again much slower than SLC
QLC = 4 bits per cell and has a very fast read speed but quite slow write speed
If the audiophile marketing label were removed, and replaced with 'Minimal EMI Design' would y'all calm down?
At least some of the 'advertised improvements' are worthwhile in specific applications. (beyond the 'audiophile').
Home/DIY Lab work and device development come to mind. HAMs have had to go to extreme lengths to silence interference as well*.
*You remember Linksys getting in trouble with the FCC for the WRT54 series? It was the HAM operator community that brought the complaints. You'd think the Wi-Fi radio was the issue, right? While it was exceeding power limits, largely the circuits for the wired leads were broadcasting the interference.
You buy stuff like this either as an example of having more $ than mind, *or* you have an identifiable need, which otherwise might point you towards even less available and more expensive components.Every thing you mentioned (except MAYBE the HDMI perceived change*) can be tested and reproduced. (You'd need test equipment and sensors across several 'disciplines') Even the capacitance of a shielding layer, or static-buildup can have a definable effect in seemingly unrelated or disconnected systems.
"Digital" is almost always communicated using high frequency analog waveforms and differential signalling.
That said, expensive audiophile and professional studio media production cabling has less to do with signal integrity and more rejection of EMI/RFI, reducing ground loops, and dampening electromechanical-source 'noise'.
Every time I hear/read the phrase "Digital works, or it doesn't", I think about my experience with HDMI cables that would crash displays and occasionally a PC when you walked by them.
I've also experienced digital links 'malfunctioning' rather than 'work, or doesn't'.
*An HDMI link that is the source of inducting EMI into the TV or a lossy link with error correction theoretically might cause such changes in perception. The amount of postprocessing done inside 'the black box' of The Scaler/Image Processor could make errors appear as changes in the image. I used to have an HDTV that would store a frame and slowly start to 'overwrite' the live input, altering color, etc. By all means, it shouldn't have been possible, but it happened every day I used it as a PC display.
If snake-oil makes a profit, then good for them I say. How idiots throw their money away is none of my business.
Not going to buy it mind ,ever.