USB Turntables

The S shaped arm is only one of 2 ways to lower distortion. A properly designed straight arm with the proper head offset will accomplish the same thing.

I saw some of the USB turntables in the store. It appeared that they only converted to MP3. That sucks! Sure MP3 is ok for devices that have limited storage space,but you need something that converts to a better format for maximum listening enjoyment.

BTW I hooked up my old Technics turntable to phono pre-amp and then connected it to the sound card on my computer.Total expense was $20 for the pre-amp at Fry's The pre-amp ran on 110 volts ac,and had an option to run on a 9 V DC for cleaner operation.

In a reply from David (great name) above, he mentions Audacity having a speed conversion utility. Hmmm, I wonder if you could use that like High Speed Dubbing on old dual cassette decks? Put a 33 1/3, set the speed at 45 (or 78 if possible) and dub the LP about 40 percent faster at 45 RPM or about 140 percent faster at 78.... Quality might suffer. :)

Comment to borgward: I have the ION turntable. The supplied software will save in .wav format, in addition to mp3, which can then be converted to anything you want in another program. That also allows for directly saving to audio CDs without conversion from a compressed format. I imagine (but do not know for sure) that this option is available with most of these turntables.

i got the audacity over a year ago from amazon for $99.99, no tax, and no shipping! within 5 minutes out of the box i had my first mp3... i love the audacity software. best buy i've made in a long time.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ummmm, actually not. Audacity is free software. See http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Picked up an Innovative Technology (iT) USB turntable at JC Penney before Christmas for $89 after rebate. Comes with Audacity freeware, and both USB and analog twin pair. Does 33, 45 and 78. Seems like the right and left channel are the same, on the captured audio, but I specified stereo. Anybody know where to tweak the inputs on either the hardware or Audacity?

Another option is to use the DAK.com (http://www.dak.com/Reviews/2020Story.cfm) mixer for $69.90 and the included software if you already have a turntable (as I do). They also sell a turntable/mixer package for $219.00 if you do not have a turntable.
The software if flexible allowing for burning to a CD or saving to file on the PC. The instructions are very good and the customer support is first rate with almost instant response to emails. I have had the unit for a month and have converted 67 albums without a problem.

Just curious, have you tested any of the units which play/convert both vinyl and cassettes? I've seen them, but they look cheaply built. I've got a number of cassettes which I want to convert to digital but no longer have a cassette deck on which to play and hook up.

Also, I'm no expert in using Audacity, since my (VERY) old collection of vinyl albums will have scratches perhaps some warp from being stored so long, is it difficult to "clean up" the sound?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I have not tested any of the units that do both vunyl and cassette. But as far as software to clean up the sound, look into the offering from DAK.

Answer to Dave in Indy.
High-speed dubbing is/was never very successful, even in so-called high-speed dubbing cassette decks (now, thankfully, virtually obsolete). Quality usually took a dive because when the source is speeded up you are asking the play-back heads and electronics to handle higher frequencies that they weren't really designed for. For instance - you have an original recording which ranges (for the sake of argument) from 30 Hz to 17Khz.
If you double the speed, you are asking the kit to reproduce frequencies from 60Hz to 34Khz. Bass end is no problem, but just look at the top end. Way outside the range of most tape heads or even high quality record deck cartridges, which is why most high-speed cassette dubs sounded a bit wooly. Just a gimmick, really. I wish there WAS a way of getting vinyl to mp3 without having to play the stuff in real time! Very laborious!

Does any of the readers know of any current "box" that does it all. By that I mean a unit that contains transference and conversion hardware whereby you can use that one source to ultimately convert your vinyl to CD, and your cassette to CD, and your 8-Trac to CD, and your reel-to-reel tape deck tapes to CD... all under one roof, and maybe that completely bypasses your pc altogether?

Same principle would be a great feature for transferring all your old video units to DVD. To be able to have one little 'box' to attach your VHS', or your old 8 mm films, or Super 8 mm films, or 35 mm negatives, etc., to a DVD.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The ION LP2CD pictured in the article does exactly that!