Jesus H Christ man, you need to stay the fuck away from these misguided people. I know audiophiles can be full of bullshit at the best of times but these guys are really special.
It worries me that you think a change in the data connection protocol will somehow make anything sound better, or that faster hard drives = more sonic quality.
This isn't a subjective thing - it's binary data, 1's and 0's. This does not change based on the speed or type of drive. End of discussion.
Unless the DAC used is different or the actual transmission protocol (i.e. AES vs SPDIF) used chages for the test, it is physically impossible for there to be any change in audio quality of the perceived signal. Whether you stream the same binary info from an SD card, a USB drive or OCW/Samsung SSD, the data is the same, and it is being processed by the same DAC.
Go again and read that thread - they are not comparing apples to apples (no pun intended) and many of the people commenting completely miss this fact and agreeing that using different drives affect the audio quality which is pure group reinforced placebo.
The guy that actually lists his hardware used is doing a terrible job of explaining that his process uses a different DAC for the output stages (built in USB vs the devices own DAC).
There are two ONLY possible differences outside of this:
1,possibility of electrical ground noise in different systems when comparing USB vs Thunderbolt, but that chances of that happening in a pro system with power conditioners, isolated mains etc is infinitesimally small but then again, these guys can hear differences between drives
2, Ambient noise (from real magentic hard drives) in your studio affecting your perception of signal output. By this, I mean your computer in your studio making more noise without an SSD can affect your perceived noise floor and thus make you think that SSD's (lowering the ambient noise of your studio) have somehow improved audio quality.
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