Can the Read Speed of Micro SD effect Audio Quality?

[H20Fidelity]

Hello friends.

On my merry audio adventures I have a new question to ask and that is... could the read speed of microsd effect audio quality? I ask this because my Colorfly CK4+ sounds different between it's internal and external memory.

The cards I am using are Sandisk Class 4 atm, I just don't know the answer to this question or how demanding a device like this could be. I know about the players reader itself could be effecting this but I want to know if it's worth trying a Class 10 card. My albums are all FLAC 16/44. I can find heaps of info about write speeds for digital Cameras which can matter, but not much regarding read speeds for audio

See post.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/564517/colorfly-ck4-first-review/135#post_8932947

Thanks

 

[Achmedisdead]

I can watch a 1080p video from a Class 4 Sandisk card in my Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. So I would think most any audio file should play just fine.....

 

[NZtechfreak]

I don't think the read speed will matter, even on FLAC files. Class 4 reads at least at 4MB/s, which is more than enough for any FLAC file (and Sandisk cards usually outperform their stated class). Try CrystalDiskMark and benchmark your card to confirm the read speed.

 

[H20Fidelity]

Yeah, I've never had a problem before, which makes me wonder if the player is at fault or it's reader. Half of me says it's not possible, then another half says...hang on. I will try a Class 10 to confirm this, there's no doubt about that.

But if anyone's got any info bring please tell your thoughts

 

[skamp]

Either your memory device is fast enough, and your music will play back 100% fine, or it's not fast enough, and you will hear drop-outs. Nothing subtle about it, there's no in-between. Any card will be fast enough though: even uncompressed CD audio (16/44.1 WAV) has a bitrate of only 176.4 kilobytes per second, which is probably at least 10 times lower than what your slowest SD card can provide.

 

[H20Fidelity]

Thanks for the detailed reply skamp, never having any problems before it makes sense the unit itself is causing the problem.

I have one other option of updating the firmware of CK4+.which I'll do soon.

 

[Nagasaki_Kid]

Most media players buffer to ram first, so it mostly doesn't matter.

 

[Ari33]

I dont think it has anything to do with Card speed. The difference between reading from internal Flash memory and from an SD card is that reading from an SD card will add another layer of jitter... or simply jitter created by the additional current used or surges when reading from the SD card?
 
Ie; From the design/build blog for the Altman Tera player.
 
 
 
""It turned out that the problem was the flash-card. While reading from the SDHC-card, every time I jumped to the FAT in order to look where the next cluster of data would be, there was a huge current surge from the supply. As the FAT has to be looked up regularly there was a very bad jitter correlation.
I learned that this was not only a problem for the one card I was using, but it is a problem inherent in all SD-cards. Whenever you have to change the reading location (i.e. jump to FAT) there will be a jerk in the supply, causing a significant and badly correlated amount of jitter.
So flash storage, just because there are no moving parts, does not mean that you will not have jitter
The mess you see below the SD-card socket on the following pic shows my attempt to smooth out the power supply of the flash card, using a simple R-C-R-C-R-C chain.
 
While the filter chain reduced the jitter, this was not a complete solution. I had to come up with something better ...
Then I had the idea, that if I could reduce the number of FAT reads per time, I would be able to break the jitter correlation.
Up to know I was jumping to the FAT for each and every cluster. That gave me a constant jitter frequency that was very audible also dependent on the sample-rate of the wav file.
The solution was the introduction of a continuity counter. While running through the FAT, I would count the number of clusters that are linearly allocated without fragmentation. This way I only need to jump to the FAT again when the continuous cluster chain is running out.
 
With the continuity counter the number of power supply jerks that are caused during each FAT read, were reduced from a couple of times per second to about 1x per minute.
This completely solved the SD-card jitter problem."

 

[rudi0504]

These are two best sound quality from my memory card :

Left is my 1st best sounding and right is second best my memory from sandisk :



This is my best sound quality flash disk :

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

These are two best sound quality from my memory card :
Left is my 1st best sounding and right is second best my memory from sandisk :

This is my best sound quality flash disk :
 

Are you trying to say you get different sound quality from different memory cards? 

 

[Ari33]

How is this even possible? This is quite incredible if true... a very important and unexplored area in the audiophile world.
 
How can there be a difference and why? Error prone faulty nand?
I've never noticed any difference in any devices I've used but maybe I just haven't listened for it. Kudos to the OP for noticing a difference and asking the question.
 
Maybe there is some milage in this... I found an interesting thread on SD card hiss differences in Zoom recording devices.- 
 
http://zoomforum.us/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13188

 

[rudi0504]

Are you trying to say you get different sound quality from different memory cards? :blink:

Yes it is

The left ones for android is my best micro sd card

This micro sd card is more open , better speed , better clarity and has better bass impact too .

You must try with the same songs .

 

[rudi0504]

How is this even possible? This is quite incredible if true... a very important and unexplored area in the audiophile world.

How can there be a difference and why? Error prone faulty nand?
I've never noticed any difference in any devices I've used but maybe I just haven't listened for it. Kudos to the OP for noticing a difference and asking the question.

Maybe there is some milage in this... I found an interesting thread on SD card hiss differences in Zoom recording devices.- 

http://zoomforum.us/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13188

I do not know why the sound quality is different ?
Maybe This android memori card has Better read and write data Speed .?


Note : please buy the memory card from any brand that has own
Factory .
My experience before I bought sandisk , the shops from my friend
Let me try from 20 memory card only 4 has very good Sound quality.
The test 16 was not so good.
This true Story , any brand if they do not own faktory to produce their own
Memory Card , they Bought from many another supplier .
And than they put their own sticker / label .
Because these memori Cards come from many supplier , their Quality are
Not The same.

You can try to buy very cheap memori card, they put The brand name Only With sticker.
If You find Only With sticker , You can try to compare .
They can Be has different Sound Quality .

 

[wuwhere]

There are differences in flash memory technology.
 
http://www.oempcworld.com/support/SLC_vs_MLC.htm

 

[tds101]

The only difference is read/write speed when connected to a computer. Claiming you hear a difference in sq is placebo effect,...and claiming otherwise is bs. I've used class 4 & class 10 sd & micro sd cards, and both sound exactly the same.

Oh, and it can make a difference when taking pictures with a camera. It means nothing as far as audio sq is concerned: http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1996/~/difference-between-speed-class,-uhs-speed-class,-and-speed-ratings