After 8 years of not owning records or a turntable, I found myself in possesion of a record and aware that many great jazz albums never made it to cd and iTunes aint got em yet. Denon has a usb turntable for $250. The salesman at the high end store and I both tried to find out how many bits the analog to digital converter is on Denon's website to no avail. I want to make sure it's at least 24, preferably 32 bits and 96 KHz or better. Anyone have a clue about this? Any info on any TTs with 24+ bits and 96+ KHz will be appreciated. Also, I need to be able to use a jump drive rather than connecting the TT directly to the pc. Thanks!
A jump drive directly to the TT? That's not going to work, to the best of my knowledge. There aren't any programs on a jump drive to allow you to do anything other than store stuff. You need to be able to record, edit, etc.
The majority of the USB TTs are junk IMO. I haven't heard the Pro-Ject Debut USB nor the Denon, so take that as you will. The Debut is a great TT for the money, but there's far better for a little more.
I'd buy a decent TT and an ADC. You'd need a phono stage if you don't have one as well. My integrated has an internal phono stage and record outs, so it made that easy and took the volume control out of the equation.
I bought a Cakewalk UG-1A ADC. It does 24/196 IIRC, or one step below that. It's in a box along with my TT at the moment because I don't have a place to set them up in my new apartment. I paid $100 for the Cakewalk on Amazon. Cakewalk is made by Roland. It can also be found under the name Edirol. They have higher end ones, but I'm not sure if they're the same core components with added features or not.
I use that with Audacity, which is a free recording and editing software. It took me a few times to get my human error out of it, but afterward my recordings sound excellent. I have no way to play back high res, so I made a copy and converted it to 16/44.1 Apple Lossless. I made two digital files from LPs that I also have on CD - Nirvana's In Utero and Cream's Disreali Gears. The digitized LPs sound a bit better than the CD versions - a bit warmer, smoother, and better air and space. Not a big enough difference that I'd contemplate buying all vinyl and ripping it, but enough to tell the difference. The only down side is you can't get rid of all the pops and clicks without butchering the recording. I can live with that, as most of my vinyl is very clean.
If your budget can swing it and you have enough albums you're interested in recording, I'd strongly consider a TT and ADC. If it's for a few albums, the cost may not justify it. I got into ripping vinyl after a friend gave me about 300 LPs, of which I had very few on CD. Figuring it would cost $10 on average to buy each CD I don't have, I broke even on the Cakewalk after 10 albums. Not too shabby. One of these days I'm going to take the TT out and rip some more. Maybe when I've got a break during the summer.
Thanks Stu! The Denon TT and accompanying jump drive are designed for recording to jump drive, then transfering to iTunes or other music prgm. I think your idea is better though. My receiver has a phono stage and rec outs, so I'll probably see what I can work out there. Thanks again!
If it's made to record directly to a jump drive, then I guess it makes sense. Transferring directly to iTunes raises some questions though. How do you seperate tracks, normalize (adjust the sound level), and all that stuff? What is the bit rate, file type (mp3, WAV, ALAC), etc.?
The way I've done it answers all these questions. I'm not saying my way is best, but I had control over all that stuff. It's the way most people I've spoken to have done it.
Yeah, I think I'll do it your way. I've noticed that Denon and other companies only put usb ports on their cheaper TTs. That says a lot right there, like usb probably is not the best way. I'll probably wait till after I move and have the pc in the same room with the system. This'll happen around March. I'd get the 100 yr anniv model if I had an extra $2500 laying around.
I don't think USB itself is the problem. The Cakewalk unit I bough has a USB output. Its RCA in, and USB out.
You're right in that the problem is the TTs IMO. The highest end one I've seen is the Pro-Ject Debut. Its a good starter deck, but there's far better for a few bucks more. If I was archiving vinyl, I wouldn't want the Debut to be reading the vinyl.
The USB TTs are a convenience thing IMO. If you've only got a couple LPs and/or don't care that much about the sound quality, they're fine. If not, they're sub par.
Yeah, I meant usb ports in the tt are not best route, my bad. I figured your ADC had a usb output or otherwise getting music onto your pc would a problem unless both the converter and computer were both equiped with either digital coax (ADC out to pc in) or optical. Sorry, sometimes I'm not real clear.
I agree with you on all counts.
I was given a Fisher TT in NJ. It was decent. I only had a handful of records of my own, then I inheireted my grandparents' collection. Then I moved to TX only to realize I'd left all of the records behind. So, I gave the TT away. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I entered a drawing for a Peachtree system at the local high end store. Instead of that, I won a record called "A Bend in the River" (some artist I never heard of) I got to hear some of the songs at the demo and I like them, but now I have this record, no TT and no ADC.....