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Title: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: boleary on November 11, 2013, 01:28:02 pm Hi Peter, the quotes below are from your recent post about SQ of 8.1:
Quote For the last many months I play with the music on a LAN connection somewhere; This was not setup for this 8.1 setup since 8.1 was upgraded from a native W8 (so, not from my normally used OS install - actually a fresh one though with basic normal settings (like you would use them). Music was on the OS disk and all sounded OK. Quote From there I reasoned I would need the RAMDisk so I installed that. Just from MinOS while I thought it needed NormalOS ? anyway it worked. Set back the SFS to 4 and through the RAMDisk as Playback Drive (too) now all sounded on par with the playback through the OS disk as how it was at first. I'm assuming that, "...how it was at first." refers to when you initially played 8.1 with the music directly on the OS drive and not the external disc. Because my music collection (mostly 16/44 wave files) is relatively small, about 900 gigs, I have been storing and playing music on a UEFI formatted, 3 TB OS disc since I put the computer together in the spring of 2012. When I put the computer together I tried every possible playback drive, except RAMDisc, and nothing sounded as good as music directly on the OS hard drive. Even creating a partition on the OS drive for music didn't sound as good as storing the music directly on the OS "C" drive in a "Music" folder. Anyway, I have so far resisted creating RAMDiscs for XX and playback drive because things have sounded so good here for a long time. Your experience, described in your quotes above, seems to confirm my "intuition" that I don't need RAMDiscs. Assuming I read your quotes correctly, do you think it would be worth trying RAMDiscs in my configuration? Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: PeterSt on November 11, 2013, 02:13:43 pm Hi there Brian,
This is a bit hard to tell for me because in my normal "chain" of the music PC the RAMDisk is a technical necessity (this is related to playing from LAN connected storage). In the mean time my first attempts for Playback through W8.1 indeed were from the OS disk and OS partition and I found that playing well; only the RAMDisk with the USB connected disk "mimiced" that sound, although I am almost sure that this (RAMDIsk as Playback Drive) added some necessary snap (which remember, is less in 8.1 compared to 8 anyway). But a. why change when you are satisfied anyway; b. why not just try it through the RAMDisk. Both are contradictionary of course. I must add to it that for me playing through the OS Disk (and partition) never has been an option (too much music data) and I am so that I better not try things which can't work out anyway. Still I sure know that this is your best found option (including direct ripping to that OS disk/partition). On the other hand, when you never tried the RAMDisk yourself, how can you know it really is. Haha. Peter Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: boleary on November 11, 2013, 03:18:36 pm Thanks Peter. Of course I should just give it a try but I'm getting more and more lazy as time passes! Several years ago I tried RAMDisc and it was an improvement at the time, but I was also using an external drive for music storage.
I guess i was hoping you might have a "technical" response like, "Absolutely, no need to try RAMDisc......." :) Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: PeterSt on November 11, 2013, 03:40:31 pm Okay, here's a technical answer :
Of course you should use a Playback Drive because it eliminates possible differences from either different sources (drives), different to be converted files (if so like non-WAV) and different disk locations and more. Next, any additional medium (hdd etc.) for that deteriorates (noise) while the RAMDisk does not or does the least. Lastly, running XXHighEnd itself from the RAMDisk could even be more important to SQ. Yea, that urges for a couple of beers, right ? Peter Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: boleary on November 11, 2013, 03:51:12 pm Thanks for the technical response I didn't want to hear......On my way to the fridge for those beers. Though it's only 10 a.m., I need some priming in order to thoroughly ponder the do's and dont's of RAMDisc. Glad its a holiday -- Veterans Day. :)
Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: acg on November 12, 2013, 08:17:06 am Hi boleary,
The ramdisks really made a difference for me...I would not go back. I have a single SSD with the o/s on one partition and my music on the other (1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD). Cheers, Anthony Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: boleary on November 12, 2013, 01:56:41 pm Thanks Anthony, one of these days I will get to it!
Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: Stanray on November 14, 2013, 09:52:35 am I installed Imdisk and the batch-file last night and all works beautifully.
Moreover, SQ took another leap! Most noticeable is the tighter bass and cleaner highs and all together more enjoyable and musical. Thanks Alain for the batchfile. Regards, Stanley Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: boleary on December 03, 2013, 02:20:10 pm Well, RamDiscs (OS and playback drive) don't seem to be better here. After some careful listening there is not much difference, though Ramdisc sounds just a bit louder which feels like a bit of glare that I don't have with music on "C" drive of OS disc, UEFI formatted.
Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: PeterSt on December 03, 2013, 02:29:59 pm Careful about that Brian, because by now it slowly becomes a technical necessity (speed at reading from memory is way more than from disk).
Peter Title: Re: Is RAMDisc necesary if music is in OS drive? Post by: boleary on December 03, 2013, 02:39:30 pm Of course, we will do whatever is necesary to "keep up." :)
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