jump/thumb/flash/USB/cruz/romantic-moonlight drives for SACD - basics?

Next comes backing-up the SACD collection (also the DVD-A and Blu-Ray's as well, let's not get ahead of ourselves). For a newb dipping his toe in with an Oppo 103D, I'm delighted to begin facing the trudge through the re-starts, the problem-solving, and the inevitable woulda/coulda/shoulda/yadda/yadda.

I anticipate starting out with a handful of gaily-colored usb drives in various lengths, perfectly-ready for some poindexter to pipe-up three weeks into it: "you shoulda started with 16g/32g/64g/8g drives and saved yourself the trouble...". Is it better to start with trying to fill up a drive and make it only halfway through the third disc, or just get the shortest ones possible and put only one disc onto it? What have you found to be the most ergonomic solution? Hefty thumbdrives or dinky flashdrives?

I mean, we all know the files are eventually gonna go onto a bigger storage anyway, so one can conveniently mesh his D-V Mancini quads with his Beck blu-ray rips, eh? But as I understand it, some things plug into the Oppo on the front, and others plug in through the back and then refuse to play gaplessly. And that all depends on whether you have a UDP-205 or a BDP-103, or DSD files, or .dsf files, .ISO containers or little teensy FLAC notes stuffed into Tupperwear. And if it's a Sony Discman, fuggedaboudit.

So, let's just start with the gaily-colored handful of thumb-y, jump-y, cruise-y USBeezy drives, so at the end of the first day I can see a little handfull of SuperAudio sitting in a pile on the television tray before I go to bed. What size?

 

What?!

 

I'm with Dan Steely.

As someone who actually has their SACDs backed up, I have no idea why you are even suggesting a jump drive is the starting point. It isn't. SACD are very large. They range from 1.6 GB (single layer DSD stereo) to over 6 GB (Hybrid Stereo/Multi-Channel). If you have a modest collection, a 2 TB portable hard drive is where you should begin. I'm not sure how you ripping you SACDs. I use a PS3 with an upgraded HD. I think it's 500MB. The files are transferred to portable 2TB HD. The PS3 can only support FAT32, so rips have to be less than 4GB otherwise, the files are split. You use HJSplit to stitch the files together.

If you are suggesting that you use a thumb drive to rip the files with an Oppo 103D, then an 8GB stick would probably work. I'm only familiar with the PS3 method. I don't know if the ripping program is on the USB Stick, but I wouldn't think it's all that big of a file. I don't know of any SACDs that are above 7 GB. I just know, you aren't going to leave your rip on the stick, so it shouldn't matter. You can find 8GB sticks sold in packs. They are giveaways today. If it were me, I'd find a cheap pack with a few of them. This will allow you keep ripping discs. You could swap out the thumb drives with each SACD. This will allow you to rip while you use another thumb drive to do any post processing and transferring to files to you final storage.

 

Make certain you understand and can setup the ripping process 1st before you pick out your drive color scheme.

 

Good comment. Helpful, too.

For one, I own two Oppo's, a 203 yet to install, and a 103, which I intend bringing back into my compyooter office/studio setup. I'm assuming neither of them will treat a SACD rip the same, but it is my hope I can rip them all to reside on a NAS server connected via ethernet. In the case one of them will only play the multichannel files from a stick stuck in the front, I want to have those around, should the hard connection to a NAS server, not allow for gapless play. Yes, I have a little reading and research to do.

I also don't know which machines will require the information in FLAC containers, TOS containers or DSD or .dsf or DDT, or whether I can count on only the stereo SACD layer or the surround SACD layer or the stereo redbook layer for best performance. So yes, I have a little reading and research to do.

I also intend to burn separate multichannel files into compilations onto DVD-A's, I can play back on an older Pioneer multiplayer, which will not have access to the NAS server. So yes, I have a little reading and research to do.

Before all or any of this actually happens, I want to have a few thumbflashcruzjumpusb drives on hand, with enough space in case I decide I want to do a little more reading and research to know if I need more than one configuration of file formats on what will temporarily do as a master copy until such time as I know what I need to do to configure my NAS server for multichannel and/or hi-res play over an ethernet.

Surprisingly, there are other things going on in my life, slowing this project down. So, instead of just dragging it into a much larger clukster-fnork of a more massive project, I just thought I'd start with a thread on the basics of having an oppo on the shelf, a SACD in the drawer, and a USB drive in my hand, then go from there. Hence, the term, "Basics" in the title...so as to astonish dudes from The Netherlands as to my foolhardiness that I should dare attempt such folderol without even awareness of whether I need a flash drive or a jump drive or a canned food drive.

Hope this clarifies, as well as bringing you geniuses some levity.

 

I'd just buy a portable 500Gb or 1Tb drive (<$50) and avoid juggling USB sticks.

 

Indeed. You cannot rip SACDs on a 203. Playback is not much different.

I do not understand what you are talking about. Both will play dsf/dff files from USB-attached drives. No containers required. Both can be used as DACs/network players.

I can help with that but I cannot parse that sentence.

Both, actually.

 

Never said I was trying to rip on the 203, only that I had one (I at least know I need the 103 for that). My understanding was though, the differences in the firmware of the two, meant one might perform differently than the other, with slightly differing capabilities. Reading too much without actually trying it, has, as for many others as well, confused me I suspect.

I have also seen chat about people giving advice as to why they feel you need stuff in a TOC file, or play multichannel out of a FLAC file on other players, and I have also read just enough to not know the difference between .dsf and .dff files; only that apparently I haven't read enough to know why I need to know the difference, which for many others as well, confused me I suspect.

I have also read that one can back up SACD information using a thumb(pick your own other definition) drive into an oppo, and others have said you should back it up in a TOC file, and others have suggested just the files themselves, and others have suggested the oppo's different firmware will require specific types of files, as opposed to the ones suggested by a post directly preceeding it on whatever board I might be reading at the time. Again, many others as well, have been confused on this, I suspect.

But, I'm only trying to ask questions so I don't have to go back onto the wide wooly net all alone, and come back with more tidbits of conflicting but intentionally-helpful information. In case you haven't gotten it by now, I suspect others have also been confused by all this information floating around in various order and levels of significance, and all you need to do to understand this, is to pretend you're like me, don't already know your specific questions...and just do a general search all over the net to find as much conflicting and compounding tips and advice as you need to know, you can problably do it...you just can't get a straight answer.

 

Ah but your sentence did not make that distinction and, yes, they are different machines but, at this point, I would not make an issue of it.

Get started and then ask questions. You can't get a straight answer if you don't ask a straight question.

 

Does it see the SACD as one big file or a number of separate files in a folder (in this case)?

 

Yes. That is true and annoying. That is why doing the ripping over the LAN, which is not subject to that limitation, is vastly preferable to ripping to USB sticks.

One big one or one that is arbitrarily split in 2 and they need to be concatenated.

 

Firstly, read this thread: SACD ripping, Mac/Oppo. How, exactly?

Secondly, forget USB sticks, if you are going to rip using the 103, you should attach large (multi-TByte) drives to your computer (either directly or NAS). You only need a small USB stick to hold the necessary code to allow the 103 to rip. You should think of having several drives, firstly to back-up your data, and secondly to keep the ISO files created by the ripping software as well as the .dsf files created by a utility like ISO2DSD.

Thirdly, use playback software like JRiver or Foobar to ensure gapless playback.