ripping vinyl

[mouse]

is this any good?

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665361524

anyone have a better suggestion?

i plan to also listen to vinyl from a turntable but it would be nice to finally transfer my album collection to digital media.

i had an rega p3 a few years ago, and loved it. very sad to sell it. i am not looking forward to spending 500 dollars on another one and also a good converter.

 

[danjpiscina]

if you have a turn table, it probably has RCA outs. those would be speaker level. hmmmmm. something to convert speaker to line level. once you have line level, any audio interface could do the job (mbox, 003, etc.) i'd record at 24 bit just to get the most dynamic range. i wouldn't use that USB turn table. probably wont sound good. mbox converters would probably sound better!

Dan P.

 

[Sleeper]

What self respecting turntable has speaker level outs?
I'm just saying.

 

[emrr]

Just sayin' turntable out needs to see an RIAA equalized preamp.  The USB feed might be as good or better than the many marginal phono preamps that are out there.  If we're spendin' $$$$, then it's a matter of taste and pedigree. 

 

[Sleeper]

Exactly Doug, maybe Dan P. is just confusing terms- speaker out with phono out, but the two are as far apart -level wise- as you can get so I thought I'd chime in.
I've never seen an RIAA preamp on this site but I'll bet there are plenty of DIY models out there.
I have a Shure SE20 which didn't cost that much at the time and it's a thing of beauty. (the pcbs are branded Urei and I'm pretty sure it's the same preamp as the UREi DJ mixers)... sounds fantastic, but they've gone way up since then.
I've seen Bozak schemos around too.
Hmmm.
Kelly

 

[diyfanatic]

for the same price you should buy something more like that.
http://www.needledoctor.com/Numark-TT-USB-Turntable?sc=2&category=12798

I use real turnable with dj mixer for my everyday music (I'm beatmaker) but
I have also this one and it's really fun cause it's portable
http://www.needledoctor.com/Ion-IPT-USB-Portable-USB-Turntable?sc=2&category=12798
use Usb/Rca
I bought a lot of vynil (soul/funk/jazz) and it's very handy cause it can work on battery and I can take it to the shop!!!!!
it has a small speaker who is not so bad.
and @ home I can plug it to the amp.
it's small...perfect in the living room...

Cheers.
Jr.

 

[sodderboy]

Do a search for RIAA here.  There were some great links to circuits, even some that were so tiny they could fit into an XLR.  Otherwise Google.
For non-critical work, I go LP-DAT, sequence the tracks, then burn a CD that I sometimes rip.
For critical CASS or LP work, I go into PT, master as necessary, and burn to CD.
All of the transfer work is done while I am working in someone's studio, where there is always a good 1200, Apogee AD, and good plug-ins.
I have not yet tried Garage Band for this, which is what a friend does for most transfers.  Home stereo and laptop.
I still have roughly 400 LP and CASS that need to be transferred, so when I want to bring the operation home I will get a PT front-end with it's own phono in.  I think that there was some sort of Maudio box with that?
Mike
PS: any method will only be as "good" as the components, with a consideration for time.  A local studio that does ripping sessions charges for 2 times the running time of the source material.  Not sure about the electronics in those USB out turntables. 

 

[trancedental]

What software do you guys use / recomend for getting rid of cracks & scratches, pops & noise from vinyl records?

Got a load of records I'd like to transfer over :

 

[skipwave]

I have not yet tried Garage Band for this, which is what a friend does for most transfers.  Home stereo and laptop.

I'd avoid GarageBand for this purpose, I've used it for a few quicky demo recordings at friends' houses and it imparts a distinct characteristic "nasal" sound regardless of converters used.

Get a free app like Audacity for cleaner transfers.

At home I use turntable>RIAA pre>RME ADI-2>ProTools. It is time consuming to normalize levels, but it is nice to make things a bit for consistent, especially if you ever want to "Shuffle" those tunes.

As for DIY RIAA. Check out the Phono designs by Walt Jung (3.2MB PDF file): http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/39-05/Web_Ch6_final_I.pdf

 

[Gold]

Exactly Doug, maybe Dan P. is just confusing terms- speaker out with phono out, but the two are as far apart -level wise- as you can get so I thought I'd chime in.
I've never seen an RIAA preamp on this site but I'll bet there are plenty of DIY models out there.
I have a Shure SE20 which didn't cost that much at the time and it's a thing of beauty. (the pcbs are branded Urei and I'm pretty sure it's the same preamp as the UREi DJ mixers)

I think the SE20 is the same as a UREI 1128 standalone preamp in the same form factor as the Shure. The SE20 is all discrete. I have an SE20 and an SE22. The SE22 has discrete input transistors but IC opamp after that. I expected it to sound worse than the SE20 but I think it sounds better. I think the DJ mixer is more like the SE22.

My SE20 has a marginal gain adjust pot which could be a source of sound crappiness. I recapped it though. Since the pot has the custom long shaft to go to the front panel replacement isn't easy. I just started using the SE22 because I didn't want to figure out how to replace that pot.

 

[thermionic]

Hi Paul,

It's funny that the UREi DJ mixer should come up - I just sold one about half an hour ago (the buyers just left and I turned on my PC to check email and do a quick bit of geeking here).  The original UREi preamps use a TL074 (early models have TL084). I think there might be another version with 2 x TL072. The only discrete part of the mixer is the output drivers, which I believe are based on a revision of 1176.

 

[thermionic]

For interest's sake, I attach a FR plot, comparing the UREi mixer you see in previous post against the Bozak upon which its layout is copied. I also attach a personal preamp for comparison. Taken via Lipshitz reverse-RIAA, accurate to 0.05dB.


Justin

edit - I give up on the sizing. Right click and view FFT in separate window to get a manageable view.

 

[Gold]

Hi Justin,

I just took a look at the SE22 schem. It has a two transistor front end (2N5210) followed by an LM301 and two transistors driving the output transformer.

AES Europe is in London this year. We'll have to meet face to face.

 

[thermionic]

I sent you an email, Paul. I discovered a great Turkish restaurant last week : -)

J

 

[mOBiTh]

Hey Justin that curve for your RIAA circuit is pretty damn impressive! How does it sound?

I'm also thinking of building an RIAA preamp for archiving stuff. I have 1210s and a DJM500 mixer but I thought I'd get a rega planar 3 or something, and a decent cart, for the job, and build my own preamp.

I'm still sad I sold my original rega deck and linn k18 cartridge when I was an impoverished student - it sounded mind-blowing. I had it connected to an Audiolab 8000C preamp which I thought was pretty damn good.

Was your preamp based on an existing design or a did you design it from scratch??

Matt 

 

[thermionic]

Hi Matt,

The preamp was designed by an associate of mine. The design has been licensed to a commercial OEM. I had to employ several designers to get to this stage. It's amazing how many people call themselves an 'analogue designer', yet they just plagiarise other designs or pass off apps data as their own (hey, I can do that!). I think it sounds wonderful, but then again I would, wouldn't I?

You can design very accurate filters if you have FilterShop. It's a very handy program, albeit rather costly. There are some pretty tasty DIY preamps out there. Check out diyaudio.com

BTW - Note that in 'shoot outs' people often prefer the funkier, less true response preamps. I find that gear with a flat FR tends to appeal more to the pro market.

Justin

 

[mOBiTh]

BTW - Note that in 'shoot outs' people often prefer the funkier, less true response preamps. I find that gear with a flat FR tends to appeal more to the pro market.

Cheers Justin

Yeah true. A flat f.r. for archiving seems like a fairly good idea though - will check out that site.

Nice one

Matt

 

[pstamler]

At the risk of blowing my own horn...I wrote up a circuit for audioXpress back in their Dec. 2001 issue. It describes a passive EQ circuit that can fit between any amplifiers with flat responses. (Actually two passive EQ circuits, one specifically for the RIAA curve used on all vinyl since 1955, the other for non-RIAA recordings, like early LPs and 78s.) I'm working on a circuit board which will do a phono preamp (and will also do a mic preamp if you hook the jumpers up differently).

You can use this circuit with just about any amplifiers, with quality of course varying depending on what amplifier you use. A 5532 works decently, an LT1469 works better and probably an LM4562 will work better still. It works with tubes too, but with a couple of tweaks.

audioXpress has published lots of preamp articles over the years, not just mine. Worth checking out.

Peace,
Paul

 

[danjpiscina]

Exactly Doug, maybe Dan P. is just confusing terms- speaker out with phono out, but the two are as far apart -level wise- as you can get so I thought I'd chime in.
I've never seen an RIAA preamp on this site but I'll bet there are plenty of DIY models out there.
I have a Shure SE20 which didn't cost that much at the time and it's a thing of beauty. (the pcbs are branded Urei and I'm pretty sure it's the same preamp as the UREi DJ mixers)... sounds fantastic, but they've gone way up since then.
I've seen Bozak schemos around too.
Hmmm.
Kelly

duhhh. thanks kelly. i'm not well-versed in turntables/phono preamps. yeah, if you want good lo-end reproduction, you definitely want a good preamp. so much weird stuff happening in there to boost those lo frequencies.

 

[mouse]

ok thanks for all the info people.

i bought a pro-ject debut III USB. turns out that it was just a debut III sans usb. the seller refunded some money and now i need a phono stage/adc to get into the computer. the two options that seem decent are the project phono box usb and the nad pp-3. any other suggestions? maybe i should just build an adc and riaa preamp. even the two i mentioned are a bit out of my price league now, but i may have to stretch.

also, somewhere in this thread or maybe another one someone posted a link to the altmann creation converters and turntables. those things look very interesting. one day i would like to build a wooden turntable with a chopstick tonearm. what he said about using wood and paper for speakers seemed very interesting as well.