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

korps said:
Seems obvious to me that the performance of a memory card could affect audio playback.
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Why ? Even the slowest cards (usually writing) have more than enough speed for hires audio.
For stereo 24/192 1MB/s is required, even class 2 (2MB/s) is enough.
Picking any 'video' card (class 6 or higher) will be more than enough for any audio need.
It just might take a long time writing lots of songs on such a card (due to the internal writing structure)
Besides, cards in players/phones are not read in real time, read data is buffered in RAM and clocked out when needed determined by the internal clock.

korps said:
Or are you saying that the wattage of an amp is irrelevant when driving a set of speakers?
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What is the analogy here ?
Higher speed is higher sound quality ?

I would recommend to only use reputable brand cards that test good enough and stay away from the cheaper cards/memory sticks anyway.
 
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boxerfan88 said:
And why would a memory card (typically not used as root drive) transfer error/issue cause the computer to crash? Hmm…

I have encountered flaky card occasionally, my computer never crashed because of flaky card. All I see are disk retries then error. No crash. No BSOD. No PANIC.

I must have been super duper lucky. Maybe you’re unlucky to encounter computer crash because of bad memory card.
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But they are used as root drive - and you don't get regular crashes. Or at least if you do, you need to replace the SSD.

And even non root drives errors will cause crashes if they are loading apps, or if the bad data loaded by an app causes the app to crash.

Nor are your spreadsheets or documents regularly getting corrupted as a result of bad data from a drive. Etc etc.

Sure we should always have backups because failures happen - but these are rare failures, not the routine way an SSD operates with a continual error rate which may be better or worse due to the quality of the drive.

But the main point is - SSD's are used as the root drive in every modern computer. Yet they are not falling over regularly as a result of root drive data errors. And SSD's are not marketed as "these are error free so suitable for your root drive - but these ones error all the time, so only use them for audio"

Are they?
 
antcollinet said:
But they are used as root drive - and you don't get regular crashes. Or at least if you do, you need to replace the SSD.

And even non root drives errors will cause crashes if they are loading apps, or if the bad data loaded by an app causes the app to crash.

Nor are your spreadsheets or documents regularly getting corrupted as a result of bad data from a drive. Etc etc.

Sure we should always have backups because failures happen - but these are rare failures, not the routine way an SSD operates with a continual error rate which may be better or worse due to the quality of the drive.

But the main point is - SSD's are used as the root drive in every modern computer. Yet they are not falling over regularly as a result of root drive data errors. And SSD's are not marketed as "these are error free so suitable for your root drive - but these ones error all the time, so only use them for audio"

Are they?
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OP posted about "playing from card memory on a DAP", not about SSD, not about root drive.
My post was about my experience with memory card (music data storage not OS/app storage), aligned with OP's topic.

Not sure where you're going with the SSD/boot-drive topic.
Chicken and duck are both birds, yet they are not the same.
 
Kremmen said:
My experience of SanDisk's warranty is poor.

I bought 2x 200GB Micro SD cards quite a few years ago with very long warranties. They cost £70 each new directly from Amazon for use in two identical MP3 players. After a couple of years one card was barely functioning and produced lots of errors and failed transfers.

Not to worry I thought, I've got a really good warranty on this. I entered the serial number into SanDisk's online RMA form only to be told that the card was an OEM version and I would be getting sweet FA. The fact that it came in a standard, fully sealed, retail blister pack with the warranty information plastered all over it meant nothing. I thought Amazon was an authorised retailer of SanDisk products so I wasn't sure what was going on.

Anyway, to counter this nonsense I try to be very careful when buying cards. I've just purchased three 512GB industrial Micro SD cards (on sale at £33 each) straight from Viofo for my new Viofo dash cams and I feel much better buying direct from the manufacturer.

BTW, I'm sure there are many happy SanDisk customers out there, but I'm not one of them!

Samsung are now my preferred brand and their Micro SD cards in particular have been rock solid, especially the Pro Endurance ones I've been using for many years in my old dash cams.
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The problem there wasn't the warranty. ;)
 
mhardy6647 said:
The problem there wasn't the warranty. ;)
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I wish I knew what the problem was then! It's still under warranty sat right next to me and still barely functions in it's crippled state. I certainly wouldn't turn down a replacement.

I reckon one possibility is that these two SanDisk cards (and many more I expect) that I bought directly from Amazon were fake and used OEM serial numbers that someone ripped off. Such is life.
 
boxerfan88 said:
OP posted about "playing from card memory on a DAP", not about SSD, not about root drive.
My post was about my experience with memory card (music data storage not OS/app storage), aligned with OP's topic.

Not sure where you're going with the SSD/boot-drive topic.
Chicken and duck are both birds, yet they are not the same.
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Similarly - such memory cards can be used as root drives. I use them regularly on a raspberry pi for example. - no crashes due to data errors.

They are also used for file storage - no regular corruption of files on them.


In terms of read error rates, the technology is similar to SSD's in any case - they simply don't have a significant error rate - imagine all the corrupted photos on digital cameras if they dd. Billions of images currently all over the net would simply not exist.

And even if they did have an error rate - it would not result in a "reduction in sound quality" except in the form of dropouts, pops clicks etc.

This talk of some cards "sounding better" is utter nonsense.
 
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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Here is the original claim that started this thread:
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.
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This claim is not about reliability or competent design of a memory card - and you know it. It's a claim that some unidentified quality of one brand of memory card produces superior fidelity in an analogue sort of way - I translate "más redondo o completo" as "rounder" aka "warmer," and "fuller."

If you are claiming that something like the electrical noise level of an SD card can produce a more or less "warm" or "full" frequency balance to the sound, say so. If not, then your point is irrelevant and your analogies are both snide and meaningless.
 
Nango said:
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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Didn't we already roll opamps and swap tubes! :rolleyes:

OT: "Samsung EV+ microSD/XC1 - Made in Taiwan" branded 128GB card I had purchased was later found to be a knock-off and all I got back was Samsung thanking me for bringing the clone to their attention that they were aware of.
Another "Lexar 633x microSD/XC1 - Made in Taiwan" branded 256GB ended up being clone that had R/W rates below 1MB/s.
Kingston/Patriot/SanDisk have been about the most reliable and speedy memory cards I've owned. They are used for DAP portable music away from home.
 
antcollinet said:
Similarly - such memory cards can be used as root drives. I use them regularly on a raspberry pi for example. - no crashes due to data errors.
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What has RPi got to do with DAP? Chicken & Duck.
Your post #59 talk about crashes, now you say no crashes. Hmm... ownself contradict ownself.

antcollinet said:
They are also used for file storage - no regular corruption of files on them.


In terms of read error rates, the technology is similar to SSD's in any case - they simply don't have a significant error rate - imagine all the corrupted photos on digital cameras if they dd. Billions of images currently all over the net would simply not exist.

And even if they did have an error rate - it would not result in a "reduction in sound quality" except in the form of dropouts, pops clicks etc.

This talk of some cards "sounding better" is utter nonsense.
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I wonder if I said otherwise ... let me re-quote portions of my post...

boxerfan88 said:
, not sure how the different type of SD card can affect sound quality,
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:facepalm:

/
 
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