Just the thing, perhaps for recording LP's to computer, then burning CD's.

This is a turntable by Ion (who are they???) the iTTUSB.

Anyone know about this?

http://ion-audio.com/products/turntables/iTTUSB.html

http://ion-audio.com/products/turntables/ittusb_overview.jpg

At Circuit City these are $150:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/ION-USB-Turntable-ITTUSB-/sem/rpsm/oid/140849/catOid/-12944/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

It appears it has software for 78's. Does not mention using 78 (wide groove) stylus.

"ION has created the world’s first USB turntable allowing you to convert your old vinyl collection directly to CD or MP3 with the included recording software. (NO SPECIAL DRIVERS NEEDED).

"The ION USB turntable includes Audacity software for Mac/PC for recording as well as a trial of Bias Soundsoap 2 for cleaning and restoring vinyl.

"This turntable also has line level output for connecting to any home stereo with CD or auxiliary (AUX) inputs.

"This product is compatible with any software that supports USB audio input sound cards."

and

"33 1/3 and 45 RPM. Software allows for 78 RPM conversion"

Let's face it, the way it is going now, DJ scratching is on the way out, and we may not be able to buy turntables or stylii at all.

It looks like Ion are selling the same turntable as Numark; or they are one and the same company? Either way I'm sure you'd get better quality just plugging a regular turntable into you standard sound card input (by way of a phono stage). Definitely a sign of the times, next thing you know they'll be claiming 'CD Quality' :tears:

http://www.vinylengine.com/library_model.php?make=Numark&selected_model=TT%20USB

But if I bought the Numark wouldn't I have to learn to "scratch"?

:scratch2:

But if I bought the Numark wouldn't I have to learn to "scratch"?

:scratch2:

Yes. same for two 1200s, or the Stantons.

wiggitty-wiggity-wic! :music:

By the way, Stanton makes one with a /PDIF digital output. Here's that model-

http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/store/category.cgi?category=aud_turntable&item=s1t80eee

The proir run had a model with a built-in phono stage amp, a minidisc connection, and some other goodies. Dunno what model # it was- can't recall...

Pioneer still makes a low end table and radio shack carries a couple of real low end tables. But if you go to a real dealer like Needle doctor the list of available tables is mind boggling.

I've got a Technics tt I've had for many years that works fine, and good cartridge.

Thought the USB thing would be cool for archiving LP's.

Hi
seen this ION (or very similar) player (http://www1.conrad.de/scripts/wgate/zcop_b2c/~flNlc3Npb249UDkwV0dBVEU6Q19BR0FURTA4OjAwMDAuMDJlN i4yN2EwODI5ZiZ+aHR0cF9jb250ZW50X2NoYXJzZXQ9aXNvLTg 4NTktMSZ+U3RhdGU9Nzg5MzE2MTg5====?~template=PCAT_A REA_S_BROWSE&p_selected_area=%24ROOT&p_selected_area_fh=&perform_special_action=&glb_user_js=Y&shop=B2C&vgl_artikel_in_index=&product_show_id=&p_page_to_display=DirektSearch&~cookies=1&zhmmh_lfo=&zhmmh_area_kz=&s_haupt_kategorie=&p_searchstring=Plattenspieler&p_searchstring_artnr=&p_search_category=alle&r3_matn=&insert_kz=&area_s_url=&brand=&amount=&new_item_quantity=&area_url=&direkt_aufriss_area=&p_countdown=&p_80=&p_80_category=&p_80_article=&p_next_template_after_login=&mindestbestellwert=&login=&password=&bpemail=&bpid=&url=&show_wk=&use_search=3&p_back_template=&template=&kna_news=&p_status_scenario=&documentselector=&p_load_area=$ROOT&p_artikelbilder_mode=&p_sortopt=&page=&p_catalog_max_results=10)

here in Germany at a electronic market "Conrad", it looks and feels like crap. its around 190$ here and i guess NOT worth the half.

Helge

Thanks, I'll just stick with my present setup for archiving LP's.

Another option is to use your present turntable and run it into the Terratec Phono pre that hooks to your computer via USB.

http://www.8thstreet.com/prod.asp?pid=26024

Absolutely Numark. Looks just like my TT 200...

Ion is some made in China electronics that are flooding the market currently. They're also making a lot of car audio decks that have USB inputs as well as SD Ram card slots that are selling at Walmart and on ebay for a little over $100.

Hi
i really touched it today... German Conrad-Electronic sells for 169 Euro (190$)

I wondered that the arm tube seems to be metal. Metal is a rare component in this thingy... it has a veeery cheap feal, thea arm bearungs have mms tolerances in ALL directions...
Plastic... complete, even the platter. Wouldn't give 15$ for this junk... :thumbsdn:

Helge

Archiving vinyl on to CD?????

Why not just maintain a good turntable, stock up on spare styli, and keep those LPs clean and carefully stored.

BTW, the turntable market is less dependent than it has been on the DJ sector - there has been a growth in use as a home audio source and I believe vinyl sales are picking up too. With brands like Pro-ject, NAD, Thorens, Rega etc. all making decent tables still, the old black stuff will be with us for a good while yet. I mean, heck, you can still obtain styli for playing shellac 78s!!!

i don't particularly care about archiving, but i do like to mix up vinyl to cd compilations. i've got a billion records...well, almost, and most of the music is only available ON those records...and like the cassette mix tapers of old, i like to make these mixes, so i use a marantz cd recorder, which to me makes very high quality, fun to listen to cd's, which i can then get into my computer, and so forth....

I had a tv/vcr/microwave/tanning bed/wood chipper/particle accellerator unit, but the vcr broke, and now I can't watch movies anymore... :no:

I had a tv/vcr/microwave/tanning bed/wood chipper/particle accellerator unit, but the vcr broke, and now I can't watch movies anymore... :no:

:wtf:

I had a tv/vcr/microwave/tanning bed/wood chipper/particle accellerator unit, but the vcr broke, and now I can't watch movies anymore... :no:


You should have bought the model that I own. It is a tv/vcr/microwave/tanning bed/wood chipper/particle accellerator/cappuccino machine. At least with my model I can enjoy a cappuccino while the VCR is getting fixed.

LP's in good condition I just play. Some are very old.

Some I archive to CD are very old 78's of historical importance that require a lot of processing on the computer to clean up the pops/clicks to make them listenable.

I won't play my LP's any more than necessary.

I just picked up an Onkyo 1400a turntable. I'll change the cartridge to a Shure M97xE so that when necessary I can use the Shure N78 stylus, record to hard drive, and use a program to convert to 78 speed.

I will stick with my Technics SL-1200 that I brought for $10AUD from OP shop for all my record capturing into my computer, At least it was a decent turntable in it's day & is as heavy as to boot.

I find that when I record vinyl to CD the 'harsh edge' sound of CD is introduced, and as this is what I'm trying to escape from when playing vinyl I don't see any point in doing it. I prefer to record vinyl onto cassette tape. I have not yet tried archiving vinyl directly onto computer. Does this preserve more of the 'vinyl sound' than recording onto a CD does?

You can just buy a $5 RCA to 1/8" adapter or a $5 cable that does the same and hook the record out on a receiver or output on the phono preamp to your soundcard's line in. If you have a card like I do that has optical in/out and and a new receiver with optical out (which I don't) then you can do that also.

After saving the file as a WAV in my computer, I process it to remove pops and clicks. If the click is really loud and annoying, I edit it out (select, delete).

Pop/click filtering has to be applied judiciously. For example, Boot's Randolph's raspy attacks can be detected as pops/clicks by the program, and may be distorted. I listen carefully after each adjustment and do the best I can.

Then I "normalize" the level. The program finds peaks, average volume, and increases or decreases overall level to a certain level so that all tracks are about the same volume.

Finally I delete anything before the actual beginning of the music, and trim off the groove noise at the end of the track.

Once the tracks are cleaned up like this I burn to CD. The result is a near CD quality clean sound. I don't hear any "CD harshness".

With old 78's it is nearly impossible to get rid of all the noise, pops/clicks. But I do as well as possible without distorting the music. With these very old 78's (from the 1916-1925 era) I have found that I can filter out everything over 5 khz and below 80 hz with no harm to the music. The equipment they had simply could not go any higher or lower. This cleans up a lot of surface noise which is mostly in the 7khz-10khz range. Some application of pop/click filtering, and sometimes with a little EQ you can have a fairly listenable result. The record noise is still there, but no longer overwelming. You can just enjoy the music.

By the 30's fidelity was a lot higher. I don't do the HF filtering. I have one CD I have done from ballroom radio broadcasts that is outstanding... the sound is clean, mono, but clean. Fidelity is excellent, and the musicianship is top notch. The arrangements are hip, vocals good, the whole thing just great... Henry Busse and his Monmarte Orchestra. This was the hottest dance music from the mid 30's, driving bass lines, shuffle rhythm. This band swings. And Henry was billed as "Henry Busse, the world's greatest trumpeter featuring their hit themesong, 'Hot Lips'!" Hah! (It was claimed that "Hot Lips", a #1 jukebox hit, was the first piece recorded in shuffle rhythm, and claimed the arranger of that band originated the shuffle dance rhythm.)

And none of that was recorded after many takes in a studio. It was live, "on the air", while people danced to the music. We don't have that calibre of musicians these days.

You can just buy a $5 RCA to 1/8" adapter or a $5 cable that does the same and hook the record out on a receiver or output on the phono preamp to your soundcard's line in. If you have a card like I do that has optical in/out and and a new receiver with optical out (which I don't) then you can do that also.

This works well if your stereo gear is near your desktop computer. But that is not always the case. If you would like to record to a laptop, positioning it near your stereo gear, Ooops!!! No soundcard input!

There are mixers and other adapters with USB output to the computer. I have just ordered an iMic adapter ($40 USD). This has phono in and USB out. Then I can use my laptop.

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

http://www.griffintechnology.com/assets/images/products/imic/prod_imic_sub01b.jpg

I think that unless you have a really good soundcard that is up to the challenge, you will be disappointed with the results, if you are really going to be critically listening to the resulting wav files.

What's the general consensus on a good soundcard that is faithful to the vinyl sound we are trying to convert to files? I heard that M-Audio Audiophile 2496 is a decent card.

I've searched the forums for info about USB TT's and think this is the best place to ask these questions:

Of the 4 TT's listed below, has anyone used them?
And
Do they come with adequate software to get the job done?

Numark TT USB
AudioTechnica LP2D
Ion iTT USB (Newmark?)
Stanton T-80 TT2

I realize that I can directly interface my TT through a phono stage+receiver/amp via soundcard, and the other options posted here, but I wish to explore the USB TT option. :music:

Hi

i have touched and seen tose:
Numark TT USB
Ion iTT USB (Newmark?)
they appear with even more brands -
they are complete JUNK


I haven't touched this, but the look tells me that the
AudioTechnica LP2D is the same - JUNK
The Stanton T-80 TT2 seems to be different, i believe
it's more expensive JUNK


I realize that I can directly interface my TT through a phono stage+receiver/amp via soundcard, and the other options posted here, but I wish to explore the USB TT option

any decent Turntable is possible to connect via RIAA-Pre to a decent Soundboard. Nobody needs the above. The Players are cheapest plastic, even the Arm of the first two ist plastic, the platter is plastic, every part feels cheap. I get angry when i see such stuff.

Please buy something worth the money... :sigh:

Helge

Why not try it and let us know? I prefer to keep it analog all the way to the sound card. I find the more I archive the more demanding and critical I get. I am up to five turntables, through a mixer, then to a stereo processor (which I have yet to use), and then to the soundcard. I like options when I record because I have so many different types of records in my collection. I use Cool Edit Pro and Nero software. I have experimented with their "special effects" such as reverb but am never happy with the results. Indeed, I am appalled at how artificial they sound. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing? So I generally just clean them up and leave them the way the recording engineer intended. If I think the end result is going to be harsh as on a cd I just warm them up a bit on the graphic equlizer. As far as sound cards go I have a Soundblaster Audigy 2 but I'm not sure I like it. May have to investigate other possibilities. All the best.

Hi

Sorry, this is wasting time'n'money.
Those players aren't worth 25$

Helge

Thanks, guys, for the responses. I kinda figured that how cheap and crappy they look, they're probably not much more than childrens' toys. I wonder if it's time someone produced a stand alone unit that interfaces with a PC with good results, or if it just doesn't matter enough?

I'm not sure of how much of an issue this is with using a usb interface for recording in 2 tracks, but I've noticed most home-studio usb interfaces have problems with latency if not set up exactly right. I run out of my reciever into my Soundblaster Audiology card and into Cool Edit Pro for whatever I'm recording (LP's, old tape, radio broadcasts). If your computer isn't near your regular table, get another table and a phono pre-amp (old head amp, half-dead reciever/int amp, ACTUAL stand alone) and run the output to your soundcard. The results will be much more satisfactory than one of those all-in-one jobs with a USB cable coming out of a cheap-crap table. Just think-if the table is that crappy, so is the pre-amp and A/D converter inside. You would do MUCH better with older mid-fi stuff (Pioneer PL-12, Shure M97, any decent pre-1985 reciever/int. amp/pre-amp). Not to mention, a setup like this could be had at a total cost similar to or less than that of one of those new ION or Numark deals.

I wonder if it's time someone produced a stand alone unit that interfaces with a PC with good results, or if it just doesn't matter enough?

why should somebody when its not needed? What is the sense in converting the Signal from Analog to digital inside the Player, when the PC does it anyway? Its nothing else in that players than a cheap RIAA-Pre and a cheap DAC and a cheap USBchip.
Its just the trick to sell you additional crap you don't really need. If you have a stereo System and a Turntable, u just need a cable to connect w/soundboard.
Even if you haven't, a decend used TT and a external RIAA-Pre is the better choice. Ideally combined with a high-Quality Soundboard.

I see no sense in those players, except someone has a PC w/o soundboard and no Stereo Equipment and likes crappy gear.

Helge

I run out of my reciever into my Soundblaster Audiology card and into Cool Edit Pro for whatever I'm recording (LP's, old tape, radio broadcasts).


Dyna&Sansui, Do your Clip indicators light up when overmodulated? Since I have installed Sound Blaster Audigy 2 I can't get them to trigger even though I peg the meters and I can hear the distortion when recording. They will trigger on a previous recording made before I installed SB. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Cool Edit. No luck.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

I have On board 6 Channel Audio but don't know much about it .. I didn't go for an upgrade to sound card when I bought the computer (I had the hifi)

Can Anyone recommend a decent upgrade here .. I haven't tried connecting the output from my hifi as I am concerned about overloading the circuits in the computer but it would be useful to save LP to CD

Thanks

Hi

i may be wrong, but i don't trust any onboard soundchip.

what YOUR upgrade is, i don't know, depends on YOUR use.

I wanted years ago the best way to in- and output Stereosignal, so i bought a Terratec EWX 24/96 Studio-Standard Recording Soundboard. it has RCA in/out and digital in/out. Nothing more than i need and this in a fantastic quality.
I have a Stereo System hooked to the computer, containing a little bit modified preamp to match the tape in/out with the studio signallevel of the EWX 24/96. THE PC is connected as TAPE to record and playback to the analog RCA in/out.

If you want x.1 Effect-sound, this isn't your upgrade, you will have to check such soundboards.

Helge