[paulmer]

Looking for a good quality turntable, at around 100-250 dollars. Any recommendations? Also, what are your guys suggestions for ripping vinyl -> pc? A friend told me that when he ripped his vinyl (He has a Stanton T.90) he ripped it once with usb -> pc then the second time rca -> 1/8 -> line in he achieved better audio quality the second time (although, he does have a 2k dollar speaker system..).  Do most good turntables these days have both RCA and USB out?

[royphil345]

There are a few tables with USB out, although it's not the norm... The analog to digital conversion built into these tables is probably not the best, would make the tables too pricy. Probably why your friend got better results doing the conversion with his sound card. Would depend on the quality of the sound card... For a person who has a laptop with no line-in jack or really crummy built in sound and no way to add a better sound card... a USB turntable might come in handy.

There's the Ion table with USB out... Inexpensive, functional, easy to use... Sound quality is a bit lacking and there's no dust cover included. If the best sound quality isn't important to you and you need a USB interface... Go that route and keep it simple.
http://www.amazon.com/Ion-iTTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-5930006-8634507?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1188707713&sr=1-2


My favorite table in your price-range is the Audio Technica. It's put together really well for the price. The tonearm shape is suitable for "just listening"... not just DJ "scratching". High-end it's not, but it's certainly not junk either. Many consumer reviews from happy customers.  http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT-PL120-Professional-Direct-Drive-Turntable/dp/B00012EYNG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5930006-8634507?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1188707272&sr=1-1

The above table has no USB out, but has a built-in phono preamp so it may be plugged into receivers without a special input marked "phono" and it will work fine plugged into any computer sound card with a "line in" input. You would need a stereo 1/8" plug to dual RCA jacks adapter for this. http://cgi.ebay.com/STEREO-3-5-MM-A-V-Y-CABLE-3-5MM-TO-2-DUAL-RCA-FEMALE_W0QQitemZ140153835668QQihZ004QQcategoryZ32833QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem   I think the sound would be much better using this setup than what you would get with the USB Ion. The AT table is better and the included cartridge better sounding. Although, it does track a little heavy and you might want to replace it eventually to be kinder to your records. This table is worthy of putting a decent cartridge on. Maybe an AT95E    http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LG&Product_Code=ATC95E   Garage A' Records has this cartridge for $10.00 less, but I can't link to a particular page on their site the way it's set up.  http://www.garage-a-records.com/index.php

I would say the Audio Technica Table is about the same quality as your friend's Stanton, but without a built-in USB interface (which your friend found out isn't the highest quality anyway). Actually, I like the cartridge on the AT a little better and it comes with a dust cover too. Add a separate USB interface if you require one (see below), and the price is still far less than the Stanton table goes for.


If your sound card / computer has no line-in jack or you're not happy with the quality of the built-in sound... You could buy a separate USB interface like this one  http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHUCA202   Wouldn't need any adapter cable. The turntable would plug right in.

I'm using an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 internal PCI sound card in my desktop to record with. Recording / playback is beyond excellent through this card. It's a music / recording oriented card. It bypasses the evil Windows Mixer. It has RCA ins and outs and also digital ins and outs. This is only a 2 channel card and I don't believe there are drivers for Vista... It will pass through Dolby Digital through the coaxial digital output to be decoded by an AV receiver.  http://www.zzounds.com/prodsearch?q=m-audio+2496&form=search   I recently heard a vinyl transfer done using one of M-Audio's 5.1 or 7.1 cards ("Revolution") and it sounded great too.

Finally... A recommendation for recording and track splitting software. The Ion and Stanton tables include "Audacity" which is freeware anyone can download and use with any sound card or USB interface. It's a full-blown audio recorder and editor for free. It can do just about anything that can be done with audio.  I've found a program called "CD Wave" that's made especially for recording from vinyl or cassette and splitting the songs into tracks that's WAY, WAY QUICKER and easier to use. Anyone who does vinyl transfers will like this. You can easily save your tracks as CD quality wav, FLAC, OGG or MP3... No click and pop filter though. I've never had much luck with them anyway. Always seemed to strip the "life" from the music...  http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/index.html

Well... I hope all this has helped somehow...

Good luck!!!  I hope whatever you choose works out well for you. Let us know how it works out or if you need help with setup...

[paulmer]

Do any of these have S/PDIF outs? I thought about things, and realized probably the best way would be to buy a nice one that has a S/PDIF out and just hook it up my box (I have a very expensive soundcard) and rip it that. way.

The Stanton T.90's look quite nice..but they seem to be sort of a DJ's toy....I don't have any such intentions - I just want to play my vinyl and rip some of it to PC.

[royphil345]

The Stanton is the only one I know of with a S/PDIF output. The Behringer USB interface I posted a link to also has a digital output, but it's optical. I'm sure you could find a separate USB audio interface with a coaxial digital output instead.

The thing is... If you have an expensive sound card... You should probably feed the sound card an analog signal and let it do the conversion to digital. There is no difference at all between doing the conversion with cheap D/A converters built into a turntable and getting the digital information into your computer via USB or the digital input on a sound card. It's the exact same digital information... just gets into your computer a different way. If your friend said the quality of the Stanton's USB out wasn't as good as what his sound card could do... the output through the S/PDIF will be the exact same information...

The Audio Technica table and a Behringer USB interface would probably outperform your friend's Stanton at a lower cost (and have a dust cover too). If you have a high-quality sound card... There's no reason at all to even purchase a USB or S/PDIF interface or a turntable with a cheapo one built in to do the D/A conversion . That's what your sound card does... only better...

The only reason for you to shop for a USB or S/PDIF interface would be to purchase one with higher quality D/A converters than your sound card has... and you don't want to spend that much.  If you have a desktop... The M-Audio internal PCI cards are tops for music and recording like I said and not too pricy.

[paulmer]

Yeah...I don't have the expensive soundcard yet...getting it soon, however, I was already planning on getting a M-Audio one...one of the Audiophile series..M-Audio seems to be a very top notch company - plus, their hardware/chipset specifications are open, unlike a lot of companies...Which is quite important, as I use Linux.

I also plan on buying a nice Denon AVR-2307CI receiver along with a new set of speakers..So, from what you're saying, its better if I rip from RCA than S/PDIF (assuming I have the kickass M-Audio card)? But what about just listening (when not ripping)? Is RCA still better then? Sorry for the ignorance here - I'm pretty much a nub at this AV stuff..just a lowly computer nerd, haha.

[royphil345]

Correct...

Any M-Audio sound card will do a better sounding analog to digital conversion than a converter built into an inexpensive turntable or an inexpensive interface... for recording or just listening. If you have a decent sound card, it's better to just use the analog inputs. It doesn't make things any more complicated in any way. The USB tables and interfaces are an easy solution for people who have laptops with no line-in jack or crummy sound, people who have crummy built-in sound in their desktops and don't want to install a new sound card, etc...

I think the USB tables are selling like crazy because many people simply don't know you can hook up any table to a decent sound card and get better results... and the included software can be downloaded for free...   People buy them because they want to do vinyl transfers and they don't know where to start, so they buy something that claims to do what they want and includes everything they need all in one box... even if there are better ways of doing the same thing... It's probably good for you though. The price on the Audio Technica table has come down considerably and I'm sure it's because of competition with tables that come with USB interfaces or an RCA adapter cable and some recording software you could download for free anyway. The table has been a bargain at a little over $200.00 up until the price drop just recently. Needle doctor is still selling them for $299.00. Their markups usually aren't that high. They know the table's quite a bargain and nobody will complain for the price.  http://www.needledoctor.com/Audio-Technica-PL120-Turntable?sc=2&category=46

EDIT: When you get your receiver, hooking your turntable straight to the receiver and not converting analog to digital at all would of course be best for just listening. You could just leave it hooked up that way and run the tape outs from your receiver to the computer's line ins for recording.  When your turntable's input is selected on the receiver, you'll hear the turntable and a signal will be sent to your sound card for recording. You'd have the sound card's output hooked up to a different input on the receiver and select that input to hear your computer's sound over your receiver / speakers. I have a computer set up just for my home theater and that's how it's hooked up. Have a decent video card with S-video output to my home theater as well. And a TV tuner card with SAGEtv software for recording shows and TIVO-like functionality. Home theater computer is on a wireless G network with my main computer which has more hard drives and media files stored. Streaming of audio and even DVD quality video files over the network is flawless.