Digital Turntables

Sheryl

Sheryl

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Apr 6, 2004
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1,463
Does anyone have any experience with these? It seems they are primarily designed with DJ'ing, "scratching" and "mixing" in mind (all things that were after my time) but also have the capability of transferring our tons of vinyl to digital files.

Anyone tried it?
 
Sheryl said:
Does anyone have any experience with these? It seems they are primarily designed with DJ'ing, "scratching" and "mixing" in mind (all things that were after my time) but also have the capability of transferring our tons of vinyl to digital files.

Anyone tried it?
Click to expand...

I have a friend who has one. for him it was worth because he too had tons of vinyl to transfer that he actually listens to still. bottom line it's worth it
if you *really* will listen to all that old vinyl with some frequency. if not
don't bother. just re purchase what you really want (that you can find)
on cd new.

that said, the quality stays reasonably close to the original vinyl quality.

You can also run the the digitized stuff through software that cleans up the sound which sometimes is worth it w/ less than stellar quality vinyl.
 
Thanks for the info mh. We do still like to listen to the vinyl. Up until about a year ago, when the turntable crapped out, we really enjoyed listening to the music of our youth ;).

Since we have a small house I am also thinking it would be nice to get the square footage back. Between the two of us there are probably 300 albums.
 
there is lots of software that lets you convert your vinyl to cd. i still love my hi-end turntable and vinyl but i use the software to put my albums on cd
 
Digital turntable seems like an oxymoron.

try to pick-up a used high-end analog turntable (cheap). Buy a high-end cartridge (a new one may be a little pricey) The cartridge (needle) is one of the most important parts. You should be able covert them to the format you need via the analog output into an analog input into your existing hi-fi or a ard on your computer.
 
even today hi end tables are alot. a rega is around the cheapest entry at about 750.00 i used to be a linnie. a linn today is thousands
 
Given that many of my vinyls were played on BSR mini-changers with nickels taped to the tonearm for ballast, me thinks a high-end turntable would be overkill...

My "Early Steppenwolf" album is 40 yo this year!

And sounds like it... ::)
 
Sheryl said:
Does anyone have any experience with these? It seems they are primarily designed with DJ'ing, "scratching" and "mixing" in mind (all things that were after my time) but also have the capability of transferring our tons of vinyl to digital files.
Click to expand...
There's plenty of website info on using an "analogue" turntable's output to a computer to record MP3s & burn audio CDs.

But spouse pointed out that for the time & effort it'd take we'd be better off through Limewire, iTunes, or (*gasp*) retail prices at the "record" store. I'd even pay our kid for her effort of going through our old albums and finding the digital tracks.

Do you notice that you hardly ever hear about anyone trying to convert their eight-track cassettes to CDs?

I've been thinking that it's time to eBay the ol' LPs. Declutter!
 
HFWR said:
Given that many of my vinyls were played on BSR mini-changers with nickels taped to the tonearm for ballast, me thinks a high-end turntable would be overkill...

My "Early Steppenwolf" album is 40 yo this year!

And sounds like it... ::)
Click to expand...

Good point. DW has many albums that were played (worn) to death. Although they still sound OK. My albums were played less since I recorded them on cassette. Many are still in pretty good shape.

Amazingly, I have some cassette tapes that I recorded when I was in the Marine Corp back in the late 70's... They still sound very good for 30 year old cassettes. Recorded them on Maxell and TDK Chrome tapes.
 
Yeah, our albums have seen better days. The thing that is a bummer is we just bought a brand new cartridge for the turntable and then the belt went. So we were trying to repair or get it repaired first. When we couldn't find a shop that would fix it, SO took it apart and went at it himself. That didn't work either.

So then we tried to find another used turntable that we could put the cartridge on - THAT was more expensive than it was worth....

So I guess we'll end up buying a new one... after he built the special pull-out shelf for the turntable in the entertainment center...

Thanks for all the ideas.
 
Won't do much for the serious audiophile out there, but you can usually find a good-enough turntable at thrift stores. I got some really sweet audio equipment when I worked for Habitat for Humanity. The wealthy retirees would finally bite the bullet and upgrade their 1970s era hi-fis and donate the old stuff. I got a fantastic (and fantastically heavy) Sony solid state receiver that pumps as well as a mint condition and very serviceable Sony turntable. Worth checking at thrift stores near nice areas (and especially Habitat stores, as they don't deal in clothing.
I used Magix recording software to migrate my albums to mp3s, but I still listen to the albums all the time and when we have parties, you know everyone wants to dance to Little Feat's Fat Man in the Bathtub on vinyl!

:D Sarah
 
http://www.amazon.com/Ion-iTTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO

Lots of good reviews. From what i've heard, you may get better results using an existing high end turntable and plugging the line out into the line in on a good quality sound card. Unfortunately most PC's dont have a good quality sound card for input recording and adding one in can be an expensive proposition. Especially for a laptop.
 
Cute Fuzzy Bunny said:
http://www.amazon.com/Ion-iTTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO

Lots of good reviews. From what i've heard, you may get better results using an existing high end turntable and plugging the line out into the line in on a good quality sound card. Unfortunately most PC's dont have a good quality sound card for input recording and adding one in can be an expensive proposition. Especially for a laptop.
Click to expand...

Here is a cheap option - I've heard and read good things about it, but never used it myself. It is an external device - just plugs into the USB port of any Mac/Windows computer. $35 ~ $40 - and comes with a bunch of SW for tweaking the vinyl recordings. No phono pre-amp required.

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/

http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-iMic-External-Sound/dp/B00006BALQ

-ERD50
 
Sheryl-If you still need a belt go to LPGear.com. I just got one from them a few months ago. Great selection.

Sheryl said:
Yeah, our albums have seen better days. The thing that is a bummer is we just bought a brand new cartridge for the turntable and then the belt went. So we were trying to repair or get it repaired first. When we couldn't find a shop that would fix it, SO took it apart and went at it himself. That didn't work either.

So then we tried to find another used turntable that we could put the cartridge on - THAT was more expensive than it was worth....

So I guess we'll end up buying a new one... after he built the special pull-out shelf for the turntable in the entertainment center...

Thanks for all the ideas.
Click to expand...
 
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