Flash storage and reading of audio files

[tinpanalley]

I'm going to use some microSD cards that haven't seen any use lately for storage of music in a media player.
It occurs to me that there must be a way to determine if the card reads fast enough for music. Even if it's obvious that any relatively recent card will read fast enough, I was wondering...
What exactly is the spec I need to measure to see if my music files will be on flash storage that allows them to be read fast enough. I just want to know what the scientific test is and what the maths involved are.

Thanks!

 

[hojnikb]

Perform sequential read test.

Although i doubt you'll find sd cards slow enough for music playback not to work. MP3s run at like 320Kbit (thats 40KB/s) and even FLAC is usually around 1Mbit mark.

Even the most crapshot sd card will handle that.

 

[corkyg]

Agree with hojnikb. The main problem with SD cards for that purpose is they are just not designed for sustained use. But if you have all of the music backed up on more permanent media, go ahead. You've nothing to lose.

 

[tinpanalley]

Agree with hojnikb. The main problem with SD cards for that purpose is they are just not designed for sustained use. But if you have all of the music backed up on more permanent media, go ahead. You've nothing to lose.

It's just to put into the old phone to listen on the go instead of buying a whole media device. My music is about 40%CDs, 40%LP, and the remaining 20% on digital files. These are on 2X backed up HDDs. I just want to throw a few albums at a time on something that can get around town with me.
If microSD isn't good for sustained use why do so many media players provide a microSD option for your music? Seems dumb of them.

 

[corkyg]

Probably because "on the go" is not really sustained use. For your purposes, SD should be OK..

 

[tinpanalley]

Probably because "on the go" is not really sustained use. For your purposes, SD should be OK..

Cool. Thanks.
Only other thing I'm noticing is that these SanDisk cards I've had sitting around copy music soooo slllllloooowwly. Maybe I should get new cards just so they have better write speeds. Any preference between Samsung EVO and SanDisk Extreme? Or something else? I'd prefer to keep it cheap.