From The Absolute Sound Issue 177 December 2007

“Do Hard-Disk Drives Sound Better than CD?”
Robert Harley

There’s been much discussion about the sound quality of CD vs. files made from that CD played back from a hard-disk drive. Many contend that hard-disk drives sound better, much as CD-Rs sound better than the source CD from which the CD-R was made.

I compared the sound of Sooloos (above, left) and Qsonix (above, right) against a state-of-the-art CD transport (the Esoteric P-03) by alternately feeding the music server under evaluation and the CD transport to an Esoteric D-03 digital-to-analog converter through the same digital interconnect.

Listening to music from Sooloos and from the same CD that I had just imported, I heard a subtle, but noticeable improvement in sound quality from Sooloos. I heard more space, air, bloom, and soundstage depth when the audio data were read from a hard drive rather than from a CD. The hard-drive-sourced sound had better resolution of low-level detail, particularly reverb decay, which is why the presentation sounded more airy and spacious.

The presentation was gentler, a little more laid-back, relaxed, and had a greater sense of ease. The upper midrange and treble were smoother and more “organic” sounding when the data feeding the DAC was sourced from Sooloos’ hard-disk drive.

I repeated this comparison with the Qsonix system and heard a similar increase in resolution, greater sense of space and depth, smoother textures, and a more relaxed presentation. In fact, the two music servers sounded very much alike.

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