USB Turntables??? (LP to CD)

[garyk]

In my never ending quest to drag my wonderful analog LPs into the OK-computer digital age I've discovered they now offer consumer priced USB output turntables.

The reviews seem mixed with half saying they suck and the other half reading like paid shills. "cakewalk pyro" software looks like the dominant choice for folks not employed by an IT department.

So, anybody tried to rip their classic Nazareth LP to cd with one of these machines?

[41houndhunter]

My wife has one and loves the thing.She has done probably 75 lps onto cd. I don't know anything about the contraption myself though.

[MER]

I just listened to No Mean City this weekend at an old buddys house. I haven't heard that for at least 15 years, He has a nice stack of Nazareth LPs we were just talking about converting. I just put a CD player in my truck 6 months ago and haven't been able to keep anything in it but Naz. I try but I always go back.

I'm going to be keeping an eye on this thread, I've got several good LPs I need to listen to.

By the way a coworker converted a Buzz Martin LP for me and it sounds pretty good (for a ooold record)

anybody still listening to him?

[bladehorn]

I know I read an article in the paper last week Fred Meyer is going to start carrying vinyl again and turntables with usb ports. It seems they stumbled into selling vinyl due to a buyers error when they bought REM's boxed set in vinyl and it sold very fast at the stores that actually put it on the floor to sell. I'm looking forward to getting a new turntable so I can put all of my vinyl onto cd and or save it to my computer at an affordable price.

[Headhunter]

There is nothing better that "Love Hurts" on 8-track man. And duuuuude don't bogart, pass it along.

Whoa....that must have been an acid flashback.

LP to CD you lose the sound quality of a CD. For most people while there are good songs on an LP, most folks only listen to a few songs on the album. Download digitally remastered files of the songs you really want and rip them to a CD. On iTunes you can get a song for .99 Now you can do whatever you want with the tunes like put it on your MP3 player (very cheap these days) or iPod when you eventually get one. By the time you buy a USB turntable for $150 you could have 151 songs, more if you can find the song you want for free off the web or some of the upstart music portals. In 10 years CD's will be a thing of the past. Digital download is a much more efficient distribution method.

[garyk]

Originally Posted by 41houndhunter

My wife has one and loves the thing.She has done probably 75 lps onto cd. I don't know anything about the contraption myself though.

Wondering which unit and software she's using?

[wishin]

garyk,

I am wondering if a good pre-amp combined with your old turntable might be a better idea. I have made successful recordings in this manner by plugging into the audio inputs on the audio card. Hard to know if the new usb units can match the fidelity of our trustworthy old turntables. The usb units seem kind of counter to the concept of capturing the warmth and feel of vinyl played on a conventional turntable. Let us know how it turns out.

Mike

[garyk]

Originally Posted by wishin

garyk,
I am wondering if a good pre-amp combined with your old turntable might be a better idea. I have made successful recordings in this manner by plugging into the audio inputs on the audio card. Hard to know if the new usb units can match the fidelity of our trustworthy old turntables. The usb units seem kind of counter to the concept of capturing the warmth and feel of vinyl played on a conventional turntable. Let us know how it turns out.Mike

Mike, I hear ya. I'm sure the $150 USB turntable won't have as good a stylus as my turntable with it's $100 Shure, (and I don't know if you can even swap out the stylus on the new USB units?).

I was just looking for something easy since I got rid of my NAD pre-amp and don't know anything about what parameters are needed for the PC's audio card to do this task well.

Everything's a tradeoff................

Including ITunes. Good for the mass produced music, but I checked and lot's of my LPs are not available, and the bootlegs I have never will be!

[oregun_webfoot]

I was just on-line at costco and they have the turn table with $30 off for a total of $100. The next step up runs I think $219 with headphones and other bells and whistles. Another cool thing they have on the same page is the usb cassette for $129 I think. Convert all of your cassettes to mp3.....How many of us have thrown out boxes of these? time to hit the yard sales!

[41houndhunter]

I'll ask her,she was going to run it tonite when she gets home.