Seeking advice from audiophiles

[expeditus]

I have a big stack of music on Vinyl I want to convert to mp3 or some other more portable digital format. Getting a new USB based turntable seems appealing. A good A/D converter feeding a digital signal directly to the PC that is ripping the music seems like a better option than messing around with audio cabling and sound cards

Comments

[gomeza]

I looked into this not so vary long ago, and found something widely recommended. At first glance, it doesn't look like what you and I were looking for, but it contains very excellent electronics and A/D converters, and will do the job. But I'll have to go home and get back to you about it, because I don't have the info here at work, and I Can't Remember Shit.

[anonymous]

The Stanton may seem like overkill, but it has the advantage of a standard magnetic cartridge for which it is possible to get a 78 stylus. 78 RPM grooves are over four times wider than LP grooves, and need a correspondingly larger stylus for proper sound. A 78 played with an LP stylus sounds pretty awful.

You should also be aware that most 78s were not made with the standard RIAA equalization curve (which came into use in 1953). Most 78s played back with the RIAA curve will sound muddy and dull. The software that comes with the Stanton turntable comes with a 7-band equalizer, which isn't really up to the job. You might want to use a different audio editor with a better equalizer. Finally, if you play back a 78 at a slower speed you should de-equalize the RIAA curve before speeding up the recording, the re-equalize it to the proper curve for the record after you speed it up.

[stickyboy]

I have yet to hear of a USB turntable that isn't utter shit. Use a standard TT and connect using decent interconnects through a phono stage to a good soundcard via a Xitel Inport. Get a warezed copy of Sony Soundforge (all over bittorrent and usenet), it has some great features for cleaning up vinyl recordings.