Al, I am using a powered Seagate. I believe I stated that above. My original question did reference underpowered WD's which I would have preferred to avoid the power quality issue); but the price on the Seagate was too good to pass up.
Does anyone know if Robert Harley has written on these issues? In the past I found that I often heard similar to how he did (he also recommended my SUPERB PS Audio SL3 DA during an in store many years ago; which was the only blind mail order purchase II ever made before the Oppo.