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Snakeoil Alert: One memory card better than others ......?

I've had memory cards go bad, both permanently and intermittently, but not in a long time and I was using them intensively for coding. There is a limit to the number of writes, and it varies by the card technology. I suspect there's also a difference in quality of different manufacturers.
 
Speakers are snake oil. Just hum the song you want to listen to.
 
Seems obvious to me that the performance of a memory card could affect audio playback. Or are you saying that the wattage of an amp is irrelevant when driving a set of speakers? You can't paint a fence with a crayon.
 
Nango said:
Just reading on a serious big aficionados forum from a very very most senior member that certain memory card is "clearly" way better than other well known brand ("es un poco más redondo o completo") with sound being "more accomplished or succeeded and deeper" when playing from card memory on a DAP.

Anyway think we need again @amirm to put light into this. Stop pls testing cables Vs each other and grab a SanDisk Vs Kioxia memory cards and proceed with the test suite. Don't think I've ever seen tests like this.
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My understanding is that data from a memory card are read into RAM and then clocked out for playback. So long s there are no errors in the data on the card, there can be no difference in sound quality among different cards, or any other digital storage medium.
 
No less a player than Sony once marketed "audiophile" SD cards:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/20...ible-hd-audio-memory-card_n_6719114.html?amp=
References can still be found on Sony.jp, here's a translation of the relevant bits:
forte
Reduced electrical noise
The faint electrical noise generated when reading files from a microSD memory card can adversely affect the components and circuitry of the audio playback device, depending on the structure of the audio-playing device, and may cause poor sound quality. This product has succeeded in reducing the electrical noise generated by microSD memory cards by adjusting the electrical circuit and controlling the factors that generate electrical noise while maintaining the specifications of microSD memory cards Class 10.

* This card does not have the ability to convert data to high-quality audio. In addition, we do not guarantee that any audio playback device will achieve or feel the sound quality enhancement effect. Equipment used for verification: Walkman(R) NW-ZX2 and NW-A10 series
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Heck of a disclaimer!
 

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korps said:
Seems obvious to me that the performance of a memory card could affect audio playback. Or are you saying that the wattage of an amp is irrelevant when driving a set of speakers? You can't paint a fence with a crayon.
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In what way does it seem obvious that audio playback can be affected?

Can you be more specific?

Edit: Just seen your post above at the same time.
So, in the spirit of this site, has it ever been measured? If so, is any measurement difference audible?
 
egellings said:
My understanding is that data from a memory card are read into RAM and then clocked out for playback. So long s there are no errors in the data on the card, there can be no difference in sound quality among different cards, or any other digital storage medium.
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Yep. Speed is really the big difference. Any competent functioning product will sound the same.

Playing a CD quality .Wav file takes about 2000B/s if it is not in memory cache.

Switching to a non-sequential song in another file can skyrocket the data usage up to a whopping 12,288 B/s momentarily!:eek:

From resource monitor:
1755359323456.png


A slow hard drive made 20+ years ago can handle this kind of data transfer. It may take a full second(or 2) pause in between songs, but the quality will be exactly the same as they play.

Some measurements I did with CrystalDiskMark:

15+ year old external hard drive connected by USB 2.0 technology. Random read 0.61 MB/s (likely 4800rpm?,) Sequential read 80MB/s
~10 year old external hard drive connected by USB 2.0 technology. Random Read 0.72 MB/s (likely 5400rpm?,) Sequential read 118MB/s
~15 year old USB 2.0 flash drive. Random Read 6.2 MB/s, Sequential Read 32MB/s
~ 1 year old pcie 4.0 SSD. Random read 78 MB/s, Sequential read (roughly) 7700MB/s

As you see from the speeds, you can easily play music from any of these sources; with the caveat that old slow hard drives can be used for only that purpose. You don't want to run an operating system on those old hard drives, believe me.

With how stored data works (sequences of zeros and ones as us humans interpret it) if the sound changes between drives then something is malfunctioning or corrupted. A faulty connection comes to mind as an example.
 
korps said:
I'm talking about bad-quality cards.
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Throw those away: Good quality from brands like Samsung, Sandisk and Transcend can be had at modest price via reputable sellers. No need for pricier UHS-II for most audio applications. As counterfeits exist, I don't buy from random Amazon merchants.
 
korps said:
True

False
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As far as audio is concerned, the only effect a memory card can have is from data corruption. I suppose there can be buffering concerns from a damaged card so medium corruption can be a factor. If a card is working properly, like any other storage medium, the data that comes out is the data that was stored. Well, that means that the data that was stored has to be correct.
 
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