Thread: What Solid State Drives (SSD) are Audiosharks using in their digital network transports?

I'm in the process of adding storage to our Aurender N20 digital network transport and was hoping to learn from the experiences of others.

Aurender "recommends Samsung QVO or EVO series, Western Digital or Seagate internal SSD drives." on the support section of the website. After doing some additional research I was leaning towards the Samsung EVO series.

Anyone have experience with adding SSD capacity to their digital network transport (whether Aurender or another brand)?

Any recommendations from Aurender users?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Happy Holidays

I used the Samsung drives.

I use this in my Aurender N20. One year old and no problems.

SAMSUNG 870 QVO SATA III SSD 1TB 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive.

I also have two Samsung Portable SSD T7s that work with no problems. One is my external music backup and one is connected to a DVR. The one connected to a DVR gets a lot of use and so far it has worked perfectly.

1.

Western Digital sued over SanDisk SSD data-loss claims • The Register

2. EVO is preferred to QVO

Originally Posted by nicoff

I have used different brands in the past... but Samsung Electronics is regarded by many as the world leader in SSD technology. They cost a bit more, but are known for high-performance and reliable SSDs for both consumer and enterprise markets. And since Aurender gave you the model/series that they recommend, I would assume that Aurender uses them for testing/development with that product. If I were you, Samsung is what I would buy.

After more due diligence it was apparent, aside from the price, why most everyone has recommended the EVO over the QVO series. I believe the performance differential is minimal in this application but the reliability of the EVO trumps the slightly higher price AFAIC. Thanks

Originally Posted by M1k3

Yes, steer clear of SanDisk. Stick to Samsung. I can confirm data loss on a 2021 2TB SanDisk Extreme. A Samsung Evo 512MB from 2012 is still going strong.

That is quite a testimonial to the reliability of the Samsung EVO SSD, Thanks

Samsung EVO SSD

Originally Posted by CPP

Samsung EVO SSD

Thanks to everyone for responding. I appreciate this community and the members willingness to share insight and experiences. Huge thumbs up

I'm picking up a 4T Samsung 870 EVO SSD later today. Looking forward to installing in the Aurender N20 tonight and listening to some HiRes files I purchased from HDtracks. It will be interesting to compare the same music on 3 different formats (streaming, CD and HiRes file).

It will be my maiden voyage with HiRes files in this system and hope to eventually rip all my CDs to SSD. Now that's my idea of downsizing.

Samsung 870 EVO in my Antipodes EX. Before that, a Samsung external SSD with a Bryston BDP-2. No problems experienced with either.

Originally Posted by Mrppv

Samsung 870 EVO in my Antipodes EX. Before that, a Samsung external SSD with a Bryston BDP-2. No problems experienced with either.

Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of an external SSD for backups and archiving/recovery. I will look into that once I get my feet wet with the N20's internal drive(s).

Perhaps too late to be of any influence for you, but I've been using the Crucial MX500 in my Aurender. At the time it was considerably less expensive than the Samsung; today that doesn't seem to be the case in the 4Tb size (though it is 20+% cheaper in smaller sizes). 2.5" SATA SSDs all have roughly the same performance - the interface is a bottleneck to what the SSD technology is capable of, so even a poorly implemented 2.5" device will essentially max-out the throughput. And for audio purposes, our bandwidth needs are generally far far less than what even a SATA drive can provide. Remember that your Aurender has a separate caching SSD that's used for actual playback, which makes throughput even less of a consideration. Arguably using an SSD for storage obviates the benefits of the caching SSD , but it won't hurt anything either. I believe Aurender uses Samsung drives for the caching SSD. If prices are roughly equal, I see no reason to choose anything other than the Samsung 870 EVO you've already settled on.

Originally Posted by mxk116

Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of an external SSD for backups and archiving/recovery. I will look into that once I get my feet wet with the N20's internal drive(s).

An external SSD is also useful for transferring files from another machine or to copy CDs to before loading on the Aurender. I wish Aurender offered CD copying capabilities via an external optical drive. When I purchase a new CD I have to use separate machines to copy the CD and then transfer the file to my N20.

TL;DR

Both Samsung QVO and EVO drives are great drives and are basicly bulletproof.

*****

EVO drives offer even longer lifespan than their QVO counterparts*, but are more expensive.

*the lifespan of an SSD is measured in terabytes written (TBW), which tells you how many terabytes of data you can write to the SSD before it reaches the end of its lifespan and eventually breaks down.

That said, since all SSDs are write limited (not read limited) and TBW in most server applications is basicly zero (you write sth once or twice and then listen to it over and over again), the TBW doesn't really matter and both drives should be good for years (they are rated at 1.5MHR - Million Hours Reliability - which is sth like 170 years...).

As a system SSD in a PC I would recommend the EVO over the QVO. However, as a music storage drive - QVO will be just as good.

Originally Posted by 2FlyingYorkies

Perhaps too late to be of any influence for you, but I've been using the Crucial MX500 in my Aurender. At the time it was considerably less expensive than the Samsung; today that doesn't seem to be the case in the 4Tb size (though it is 20+% cheaper in smaller sizes). 2.5" SATA SSDs all have roughly the same performance - the interface is a bottleneck to what the SSD technology is capable of, so even a poorly implemented 2.5" device will essentially max-out the throughput. And for audio purposes, our bandwidth needs are generally far far less than what even a SATA drive can provide. Remember that your Aurender has a separate caching SSD that's used for actual playback, which makes throughput even less of a consideration. Arguably using an SSD for storage obviates the benefits of the caching SSD , but it won't hurt anything either. I believe Aurender uses Samsung drives for the caching SSD. If prices are roughly equal, I see no reason to choose anything other than the Samsung 870 EVO you've already settled on.

Last night I installed and mounted the new 4T Samsung 870 EVO SSD to the MUSIC1 slot on the Aurender N20. Once the MUSIC1 SSD was mounted it was a simple task to transfer (copy and paste) from any Mac on our local area network. I was enjoying music in short order.

As a heads up to those like me that need to muddle through this sort of thing only on occasion while it was a straightforward process, the steps in the "How to" guides provided by Aurender in the support section of the website differed significantly from the actual process using the current Mac OS (I'm using Sonoma 14.1.1) and latest Aurender Conductor app. It's probably an impossible task to update the website for every change to the Mac OS or the Aurender Conductor app (not to mention the Windows, Android,... etc alternatives) but until Aurender makes the instructions more contemporaneous, as long as I took my time, and wasn't slavish to the Aurender "How to" guide, I was able to understand how the process worked and take the necessary steps to connect the proverbial “dots.”

Thanks for all the input. My only regret is that I did not do this sooner.

The improvement is SQ varies with the recording but it is apparent to me that the downloaded files provide more low level information making instruments and voices more "complete" for lack of a better word. Leading transients are cleaner and in complex densely arranged recordings (for example the tracks "On Day One" or "Rise Up" on the Pat Metheny Unity Group recording Kin) each instrument remains more coherent and retains its tonal variety and dynamics within the performance. The result is one can concentrate on a single element or take in the entirety of the music in a more effortless manner.

Put simply the playback is more musical and engaging (again with the caveat that the recording must be up to the task). Very happy with the results.

Originally Posted by mxk116

Last night I installed and mounted the new 4T Samsung 870 EVO SSD to the MUSIC1 slot on the Aurender N20. Once the MUSIC1 SSD was mounted it was a simple task to transfer (copy and paste) from any Mac on our local area network. I was enjoying music in short order.

As a heads up to those like me that need to muddle through this sort of thing only on occasion while it was a straightforward process, the steps in the "How to" guides provided by Aurender in the support section of the website differed significantly from the actual process using the current Mac OS (I'm using Sonoma 14.1.1) and latest Aurender Conductor app. It's probably an impossible task to update the website for every change to the Mac OS or the Aurender Conductor app (not to mention the Windows, Android,... etc alternatives) but until Aurender makes the instructions more contemporaneous, as long as I took my time, and wasn't slavish to the Aurender "How to" guide, I was able to understand how the process worked and take the necessary steps to connect the proverbial “dots.”

Thanks for all the input. My only regret is that I did not do this sooner.

Yep, I understand your experience. Something I've found really helpful (and that Aurender should provide) for performing these tasks is a process map.

Also, not sure that every update to the Mac OS or the Aurender Conductor app would necessitate a new process map; regardless, many folks find that a graphical representation is easier and more effective to follow than a set of written-out instructions.

I just bought a samsung 512gig usb drivee with no thought to would one sound better than the other.

I have bought one PM893 once to try ... I couldn't tell the difference.

It certainly helps Antipodes to create an unique selling point for their products (which may be one of the reasony they use it).

YMMV.

I thought PM893 might be more expensive than 870 EVO, but this seems to be not true for 3.8TB / 4TB at the time of this post. If the prices are similar, PM893 is better on specs.

I uses several Samsung 970 and 870 SSD's and M.2 1TB drives in my music server and 1 as an external portable drive and have had no issues. I also own a couple of PNY SSD's that I put in my laptops. All work great. Been using them for a few years.

My own private nuc runs audiolinux with Roon on a datacenter SSD, the Micron 7450

Crucial and Samsung are both reliable brands, but for own use I prefer this datacenter SSD instead of consumer market SSD's.

You can buy the SSD cloner device and clone your SSD.

Once SSD is cloned nad your server opened, it literally takes 5 sec to change the cables to switch between the drive A and B (plus the time to power up and shut down the system, so probably another 20-30s or so).