Best Way to burn vinyl to mp3?

[Guinness6]

Hi All,

I'm still a few months out from purchasing a record player, but I'd like to get some opinions with the best route to take. (Player with USB? Preamp with Phono? What?)

I'd like to be able to rip albums & maintain a decent sound, but I'm not looking for perfection (read = major expense) either. That being said, if The Perfect Way exists & is worth it, I'd definitely save up for it.

So, what do you use/what do you recommend?

Thanks!

 

[highfigh]

Hi All,

I'm still a few months out from purchasing a record player, but I'd like to get some opinions with the best route to take. (Player with USB? Preamp with Phono? What?)

I'd like to be able to rip albums & maintain a decent sound, but I'm not looking for perfection (read = major expense) either. That being said, if The Perfect Way exists & is worth it, I'd definitely save up for it.

So, what do you use/what do you recommend?

Thanks!

I haven't seen a USB turntable that was worth bothering with. The base is usually garbage, the tonearm is usually trash and the cartridge often can't be upgraded to something decent. If you want something nice, look on ebay, Craig's List, the classifieds here or some other audio forum. If you don't have a receiver or integrated amp that has a phono preamp, you can get one at a fairly reasonable price and some recommendations have been made here in other threads. Audacity is good software and it's free.

What's your price range? Indicate the best case and worst case.

 

[Whitey80]

There's the Sony LX300, or the ION TTusb, both come in at about $100. Neither are an amazing unit, but since you're compressing to MP3 anyways, sound quality isn't a massive factor.

The Grace Vinyl Writer is even cheaper and is just plug and play, has all the conversion software internal to it.

 

[Guinness6]

I've been thinking about the Pro-Ject Debut, but haven't tested it or heard it yet. Something in the $400ish range, I think....

 

[ratso]

just concentrate on getting a vinyl setup you are happy with (table, cart, phonostage if needed). once you have that set up, i would contact needledoctor.com for info on what cables you need for your setup to convert it to a wav file (and yes, if you're serious about this, the LAST thing you want to do is use MP3 - i would be thinking in flac or apple lossless). as someone already mentioned, audacity will work great for the software and it's free.

here ya go:

http://www.needledoctor.com/FAQs/Archiving-FAQs

 

[highfigh]

I've been thinking about the Pro-Ject Debut, but haven't tested it or heard it yet. Something in the $400ish range, I think....

That's a nice turntable.

 

[highfigh]

There's the Sony LX300, or the ION TTusb, both come in at about $100. Neither are an amazing unit, but since you're compressing to MP3 anyways, sound quality isn't a massive factor.

The Grace Vinyl Writer is even cheaper and is just plug and play, has all the conversion software internal to it.

There's no reason to go that cheap. At least with a decent turntable, it will have the benefit of decent sound at the beginning. If the MP3 files are at 312K, they'll still sound pretty good.

 

[skizzerflake]

Just get the analog setup you like and use the preamp-outs to the stereo input on the PC. As mentioned, Audacity, which is free, is an excellent program. USB outs from turntables use a little cheesy preamp and equalizer, which are probably not as good as any analog setup you would own.

 

[3db]

The ProJect Debut is your best bet for a turntable if you want the USB connections. Its lwagues better than Ion and similar stuff. Its good enough to be a solid everyday table.

 

[Guinness6]

Thanks for your input, guys. I appreciate it.

I'm kind of thinking about the Debut turntable w/o the USB, from what I've read its not worth the extra $100.

How do you even judge a turntable? Do dealers typically have a few set up to listen to? Or do you just kind of have to go by the reviews?

 

[3db]

Thanks for your input, guys. I appreciate it.

I'm kind of thinking about the Debut turntable w/o the USB, from what I've read its not worth the extra $100.

How do you even judge a turntable? Do dealers typically have a few set up to listen to? Or do you just kind of have to go by the reviews?

The audio dealers who carry turntables should have more thna few set up for auditioning purposes. However, they may have them hooked up to different pieces of equipment so it makes comparing appples to apples almost impossible. I guess the best way to audition them is have albums that are fairly dense with music such as orchestras under full boil to see if you can make out the individual instruments clearly..and some quiet pieces of music to see if you can hear background turntable noise and wow and flutter (pitch changes due to poor speed control) .