Anyone have experience with Ion Audio USB Turntable?

[blessingx]

I see this come up for sale occasionally and think about it for painless needle-drop transfers to digital (which all my setups are). Anyone have any experience? Search came up empty.

 

[infinitesymphony]

I haven't used one, but I've seen a few first-hand and the build quality looked and felt cheap... I wouldn't trust it with any valuable records, nor would I trust it to faithfully reproduce the records' inherent sound quality.

But I guess if someone wanted an ultra-cheap turntable to just play the vinyl into the computer without caring about quality reproduction, it would work.

I s'pose for $125 or less, it's not bad. After all, with a used turntable, you'd still need a phono preamplifier and a decent sound card. Plus, the Ion comes with a trial version of Bias SoundSoap. So it's not all bad.

 

[chelrob]

I have one. Still in the box though. I plan to fire it up within the next few weeks to rip some vinyl. The Ion also has phono outs so it can be used with a preamp/line level inputs too.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

You can go check it out at Circuit City, I have seen one in all the stores I have been to. It does look very cheaply made though, but reviews are pretty decent and apparently it does what it claims to do.

 

[chelrob]

Got mine at Best Buy.

 

[servoled]

If you already have a turntable I'd recommend picking up something like the ART USB Phono Plus which is basically a USB sound card with RIAA EQ. Ion turntable would be a cheap all in one solution, but you can definitely do better with a decent turntable and some kind of soundcard/phono preamp combo.

 

[mattoy]

has anyone used this turntable in an actual gig? I'm curious as to how it performs...other than as a vinyl ripper..which is what I personally believe it was intended for...

 

[Ingo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattoy /img/forum/go_quote.gif has anyone used this turntable in an actual gig? I'm curious as to how it performs...other than as a vinyl ripper..which is what I personally believe it was intended for...

A gig? I don't think there are too many turntablists here on head-fi. Most of the vinyl crowd here have audiophile minded set-ups.