PS3 for music storage and replay

[stereo coffee]

Sony PS3 presents itself as a interesting choice for music storage, and replay. The topic will hopefully explore sound quality, -can it be taken seriously ?  How much storage is permissible and the many options (as well as lack of some too )  for recording and replay Sony make available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[liquid12]

PS3's were noisy machines on release (spinning rust for storage, noisy fans) and most would have only gotten worse since as thermal paste dries out requiring the fan to run more, fan bearing lube dries out making the fan noisier again.

 

I did a late life refresh on mine about 5 years ago, SSD, new thermal paste and lubed fan and still remember it being a noisy beast.

[bob_m_54]

I agree with @liquid12 way too noisy if it is located in the listening area. The other thing is they don't support flac files. I think AAC, ATRAC and MP3 are the only formats they support.

 

Edit: To be honest, I think the old original XBox was a better music server, using XBMC (now known as Kodi)

Edited April 25, 2023 by bob_m_54
more info

[stereo coffee]

6 minutes ago, liquid12 said:

PS3's were noisy machines on release (spinning rust for storage, noisy fans) and most would have only gotten worse since as thermal paste dries out requiring the fan to run more, fan bearing lube dries out making the fan noisier again.

 

I did a late life refresh on mine about 5 years ago, SSD, new thermal paste and lubed fan and still remember it being a noisy beast.

Mechanical fan noise, Yes might a issue, and wondering if SSD might make this less, or tolerable ? . Also turning off features that are unrelated to music recording or replay. There appears less noise on mine when other features are selected off.   Currently assessing if other features off assists music reproduction.

 

and @bob_m_54 , totally agree lack of Flac is deplorable. 

 

In contrast the enormous effort Sony go to make ATRAC and WMA available by suggesting you need to authenticate each, could easily be FLAC instead not requiring any such authentication, Most users would be thankful I think  to have FLAC available... and not have the others , we remain in hopefully not eternal hope with Sonys updates to correct the lack of FLAC .  

[muon*]

Much better things available for replay.

[stereo coffee]

27 minutes ago, muon* said:

Much better things available for replay.

Yes agree, I have many examples of better replay.  The PS3 is though still a option and  interesting device for music storage.

 

Good features are relatively  low in cost, easy to import ,display and arrange long playback for, and is recycling older gear, that still receives updates.

 

My best sound quality settings at the moment are: 

Internet Off

Bitmapping Off

Audio multi output Off

Optical output ON

Recording AAC 256Kb

 

I will be trying the HDMI output to RCA. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by stereo coffee

[stereo coffee]

I have tried ATRAC enabled and selected at 256kb in Music settings Import, and it's a big step above the other codecs for sound quality.

 

My notes so far are AAC at 256Kb had an annoying artificial sound like bloom added to it, which became tiresome. MP3 at 256Kb was slightly better but still not acceptable at all , as it was adding and changing the presentation.  I normally listen to CD  using a Pioneer PDS 904 , or for longer replay my Yamaha CDRHD1500 players.

 

ATRAC  though is a different beast altogether to the other codecs using 256kb for recording, it is very audio quality capable, and even more so at 352Kb, where it rivals if not preferences my Yamaha hard disc recorders. 

The PS3 recording being able to slightly better locate and portray instruments. ( Miroslav Vitous Universal Syncopations ECM ) 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by stereo coffee

[stereo coffee]

When importing Cd's there is no longer support for automatic download of artist name and track information on the Ps3 , but you can still manually type in  the artist name and album name, which happens to be quite easy 

[stereo coffee]

Now three weeks in,. I am very impressed with sound quality of the PS3 when selected with ATRAC highest bit rate recording. Sony did a update at the beginning of the year to improve system performance,update 4.90  and it shows.   I changed my hard drives for solid state types. The videos to do this on you tube lead you in the wrong direction as the ability to format is already within Sonys hardware and software. I will provide the steps if any one is interested.

 

I now have massive storage capability via solid state drives, with highly enjoyable ability to select playback with playlists all for under $200.00.  I also enjoy my CD players Pioneer PDS 904 in particular  , but it is great to have a such lovely ability to store music, and play it back as I want to, with such high quality.

[stereo coffee]

Sony have provided a what appears another annual update to software as Version 4.91, for 2024 ,

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/ps3/system-software/

 

 "This system software update improves system performance" 

 

 

[BigPete1983mok]

On 25/4/2023 at 2:07 AM, bob_m_54 said:

I agree with @liquid12 way too noisy if it is located in the listening area. The other thing is they don't support flac files. I think AAC, ATRAC and MP3 are the only formats they support.

 

Edit: To be honest, I think the old original XBox was a better music server, using XBMC (now known as Kodi)

PS3 also supports WAV files.

[BigPete1983mok]

On 25/4/2023 at 1:29 AM, stereo coffee said:

Sony PS3 presents itself as a interesting choice for music storage, and replay. The topic will hopefully explore sound quality, -can it be taken seriously ?  How much storage is permissible and the many options (as well as lack of some too )  for recording and replay Sony make available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS3 supports max 1TB internal storage and max 2TB external storage. 

[bob_m_54]

5 hours ago, BigPete1983mok said:

PS3 also supports WAV files.

That's Ok if you want to store your music in wav format. I prefer flac myself.. But unless you can throttle down the fan, they are still too noisy.

[BigPete1983mok]

13 hours ago, bob_m_54 said:

That's Ok if you want to store your music in wav format. I prefer flac myself.. But unless you can throttle down the fan, they are still too noisy.

Unfortunately PS3 doesn’t support FLAC files unless you use a streaming option which requires another device to be turned on, but for me and probably many others this will be an overkill. So for me the only way to go is WAV. I upgraded internal hdd on my PS3 to 1TB which allows me to store all my 600+ cd’s without compromising quality with 530gb of free space left to use in the future. The fan noise? After replacing thermal paste on my slim model is not a huge problem anymore, I believe the fat one ps3 models have suffered the most from fan noise. I listen my music loud so any background fan noise is not a big issue. For me ps3 is still really impressive multimedia device even in 2024. PS3 as a budget music hub in 2024? Personally? I highly recommend. Peace

Edited September 26, 2024 by BigPete1983mok

[bob_m_54]

5 hours ago, BigPete1983mok said:

Unfortunately PS3 doesn’t support FLAC files unless you use a streaming option which requires another device to be turned on, but for me and probably many others this will be an overkill. So for me the only way to go is WAV. I upgraded internal hdd on my PS3 to 1TB which allows me to store all my 600+ cd’s without compromising quality with 530gb of free space left to use in the future. The fan noise? After replacing thermal paste on my slim model is not a huge problem anymore, I believe the fat one ps3 models have suffered the most from fan noise. I listen my music loud so any background fan noise is not a big issue. For me ps3 is still really impressive multimedia device even in 2024. PS3 as a budget music hub in 2024? Personally? I highly recommend. Peace

Yes, if it does the job for you, then great. I wish it did work as well for me too, I have 3 PS3 here at home, just for LAN gaming with the grandkids. But I have all of my (2,000 plus) ripped CDs stored on a NAS, plus nearly that many again "acquired" CDs stored in flac format, "without compromising quality" along with my videos and photos, and still about 8TB left for future expansion. I stream my music either via a couple of Raspberry Pis or via a couple of Yamaha WXC-50 streamers, to four different locations, at the same time if required. Yes I could do the same with the PS3s too, but I hate the interface on the PS3 anyway, and it's much less convenient than using either the laptop I'm using, or my phone to queue music to play.

 

Anyway, each to their own. eh...