Audiophile ADC for burning vinyl?
Jul 26, 2008 at 3:28 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 25

the_eleven

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Looking for an audiophile grade ADC to burn some of my vinyl into digital format.

I know about the USB box from Project, and the Apogee Duet.

Are there any other ADC's that are worthy?

Are there any ADC's that are made solely for this purpose?
 
Jul 26, 2008 at 3:32 AM Post #2 of 25
If you have a decent phono stage, I would just use something like a Presonus Inspire or Edirol UA-1EX, both of which are inexpensive and I've used both with excellent results.
 
Jul 26, 2008 at 3:44 AM Post #3 of 25
Audiophile can mena a lot of things...

Depending on your budget you might want to check out the Lavry engineering AD10.

I can't find the link right now but I saw a pretty flexible phono equalization implemented in software which would allow you to do a straight recording and perform the phono equalization in the digital domain.

Cheers

Thomas
 
Jul 26, 2008 at 4:18 AM Post #4 of 25
Quote:

Originally Posted by thomaspf /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Audiophile can mena a lot of things...

Depending on your budget you might want to check out the Lavry engineering AD10.

Cheers

Thomas



In my case, I want to get the highest quality conversion that I can afford. The Lavry looks like a great product...maybe a bit more than I can afford.

Are there any ADC's that are aimed more at the home market and less at the pro-audio market?
 
Jul 26, 2008 at 6:18 AM Post #5 of 25
There are loads of them about, if you know what to look for... Get yourself a DAT machine off eBay. There are quite a few high-end ones going there for less than U$300 these days. Connect the RCA input from the DAT unit to your phono pre-amp. Feed the optical output from the DAT unit to the optical input of your PC in order to transfer the digital data from DAT to PC.

I myself have been using a ADC I picked up from a company called Maplin in the UK. It was only £25, which is about U$50.
 
Jul 26, 2008 at 11:06 AM Post #6 of 25
Quote:

Originally Posted by StanleyB1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
There are loads of them about, if you know what to look for... Get yourself a DAT machine off eBay. There are quite a few high-end ones going there for less than U$300 these days. Connect the RCA input from the DAT unit to your phono pre-amp. Feed the optical output from the DAT unit to the optical input of your PC in order to transfer the digital data from DAT to PC.


Bingo! Slightly less impressive but cheaper is what I'm doing- using an MD Deck in the same way- I had it lying around not in use, so it was a no brainer. Pretty good as ADC and DAC for my purposes.
 
Jul 26, 2008 at 10:40 PM Post #8 of 25
Do you have a phono preamp? If not, the E-MU 1616M is a great choice. Otherwise, the 1212M has the same ADC chip, the best one currently made--AKM AK5394A.

At a higher price point, the Benchmark ADC1 or ADC1 USB would be even better.
 
Jul 27, 2008 at 2:06 AM Post #10 of 25
Quote:

Originally Posted by infinitesymphony /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Otherwise, the 1212M has the same ADC chip, the best one currently made--AKM AK5394A.

At a higher price point, the Benchmark ADC1 or ADC1 USB would be even better.



That E-MU 1212M looks killer. Looks like it won't work with a Mac. though.
frown.gif
 
Jul 27, 2008 at 4:10 AM Post #12 of 25
The Apogee Duet is a good suggestion... you get a decent DAC to boot for listening purposes as well. Around the same price point is the MOTU Ultralite. Splitting the cost difference between these and Benchmark is the Lucid AD 9624—an ADC with good rep.

(I would have thrown in the TC Konnekt in the ring, but there have been ongoing complaints about driver issues since release... maybe they're resolved by now??)

Good luck!

* I don't have long-run personal experience with either the Duet or Ultralite, just brief and casual encounters... none of which qualifies for a critical review session. My general experience with MOTU's products have been that they are always well-built, solid performing, reliable pro equipment with great support and reliable drivers. The Lucid recommendation is based on reviews of the product I've read and popular opinion, and not personal experience.
 
Jul 27, 2008 at 6:29 AM Post #13 of 25
Quote:

Originally Posted by the_eleven /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yes, have a tube preamp with a phono stage.....

So was looking for something that I can plug into USB or Firewire on my Mac...



I haven't got any experience with FireWire, but if USB is one of the possibilities that you would want to use, then audiophile quality requirements might be stretching it a bit. The USB side of things as far as HQ audio is concerned leaves me cold as ice. The performance levels of the USB chipsets is nowhere near audiophile requirements. Instrumental overtones and fine details seem to suffer poor handling whilst passing through the popular PCM series of USB chips from
If you have a MAC that supports optical via the headphone socket then that would be the way to go. But that's just my opinion.
 
Jul 27, 2008 at 2:58 PM Post #14 of 25
I played around with this process the other day for the first time. My "digital" setup is: MacMini --> USB DAC1 --> BAT VK-300xSE --> Totem Hawk Speakers. My Vinyl rig is a Rega P3-24 connected to the BAT & same speakers.

Anyway, I simply connected the tape-out on my BAT integrated to the analog in on my MacMini and recorded (used the new Toast to record/match levels, etc) at 24/96. (yes, my audio-midi setup is right)

I then queued up the vinyl, and digital tracks, matched volume levels (BAT allows you to do this via input level matching) via a dB meter, started playback at same time and switched sources back and forth.

What did I find? Could not year a difference, neither could my wife (who has way better ears than me). One thing is for sure, the "test" album I used is one that I have on both CD and Vinyl. And the Vinyl sound NOTICEABLY better (better highs, smoother, etc)

That convinced me for the time being to just rip my vinyl using this method vs. a dedicated ADC. I was looking at the Apogee or the Benchmark ADC for this.

My point: Have you tried and done an A/B with your Mac using analog-in from your Pre-amp/phono stage before you go and spend a bunch of $ on a setup to get your vinyl digitized? I don't know how resolving your setup is, but I feel I have a pretty decent setup, and the Totems are NOT friendly to badly recorded music (neither is the BAT). I hear every single little detail, and I could not hear a difference between the Vinyl or Digitized Vinyl.
 
Jul 27, 2008 at 6:48 PM Post #15 of 25
Quote:

Originally Posted by the_eleven /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yes, have a tube preamp with a phono stage.....

So was looking for something that I can plug into USB or Firewire on my Mac...



I have an Apogee Duet that I use with my iMac, and it is great. The nice thing is that the Apogee software/hardware is fully integrated with OSX. For example, when the iMac goes to sleep, the Duet automatically goes into standby. I just use GarageBand to make recordings, and it is pretty much seamless. If you buy it from GuitarCenter, they have a great 'no questions asked' return policy, so there is really no risk trying it out.
 

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