[doctorjazz]

HHB makes rack professional CDR, similar to Tascam, have one in my rack, bought used, so far only used it as a player

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[roundysquares]

This has been a huge plan of mine for some time, going back even 5-6 years.
After going through tons and tons of different variations on hardware software etc. Having many headaches along the line.

I finally have a setup I find to be as close to ideal as I have heard, without getting into stupid amounts of money.

I have tried so many adc's from 100 dollars to the 2500 dollar m2tech joplin. Which I returned, what a god-awful piece of crap that was. I am not going to even get started.

Anyways for me one of the hugest gripes I had when ripping vinyl was background noise and record surface noises.
Alot of phono pre's can make your setup sing through an amp, but do they produce a clean background and have clean power...usually no.

Clean records are one key point. Get a record cleaner, if you have over 150 records it is worth it. You can get used ones cheaper than you think.
The other huge point for me was battery power, taking everything off the grid.
I do not have particularly bad power where I am but let me tell you, as I started to update all my items with battery power. The change in sound was staggering.

Literally my entire vinyl rig is battery powered now.

Turntable has an rwa power supply, I use the Clearaudio Basic+ Phono Pre with battery power supply. Which is honestly one of the best phono pre's I have heard for clean sound.
Even without the battery power it was amazing, but adding the battery power supply was next level good. I have used an rsa xr-10b (4500 usd) praised for its quiet clean background, also had a simaudio moon 310lp and 320s (3300 usd) power supply which was amazingly quiet but still. I prefer the basic+ on battery to them all especially for ripping.
My adc of choice is the apogee duet 2, which I have running on battery power and my laptop Macbook pro is unplugged.

Once I did that, My rips where sounding very close to perfect. There was a lot of tweaking and messing around with stuff along the way.
I swear, if you want clean rips where the background almost sounds non-existant go battery powered.

I got almost everything I have used too, so it was about half as much as it would be really. Ebay, audiogon and here and just be patient.

 
I know it has been a while, but I have to agree with reeltime in saying that this is one of the most useful posts that I have read in a long time! 
 
I am a DJ who buys a lot of house and techno records. The records I buy on vinyl are usually vinyl-only releases and mostly limited to a few hundred copies without a repress. Since I use these records in club environments, which are far from ideal for the longevity of them, their sound qualities deteriorate rather quickly! I have played around with the idea of digitizing them right after purchase as a back-up solution for a long time now. However, I never really found any kind of info on that topic that got me feeling that’s the way to go, until I came upon your excellent post! So thanks again!
 
Anyway, I still have a couple of questions regarding the proper hardware set-up. I have a Technics SL-1200MK2 turntable at home. Assuming I have it hooked up to battery power, is this a good turntable for this use? Which cartridge and needle would you recommend? And also, how did you hook up your turntable to battery power? Is there an off-the-shelf solution or will I have to get something custom-made?
 
Thanks in advance for any kind of help! 

 

[Bob A (SD)]

I thought I'd share an interesting way of digitizing vinyl records (reels and cassettes too!).
 
Like many, I have a significant collection which I do indeed enjoy through my main stereo system (described here if anyone is interested:  http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/320.html ).   This stereo is on a different floor from my desktop computer.  Acquiring a laptop and other gear just to "needle drop" my records never passed the sanity check, so for years the idea of this project remained a murky dream.
 
Recently I was motivated to rip my CD collection into lossless FLAC files using EAC (Exact Audio Copy).   It's a convenience and pleasure now sitting at my computer listening to good music through my Sennheiser HD600s driven by a Schiit Modi2/Vali "stack."    So I looked yet again at the notion of ripping my records, reels, and cassettes
 
What I found is that many were successfully using quality portable digital recorders.  So I took the leap!
 
A Tascam DR-05 with a 32Gb MicroSD card is hooked into my stereo via a second set of preamp out jacks.  This gives me the advantage of level setting with the preamp and using my Merrill modified AR table with Denon MC carts and SUT.  My records have been very well maintained and routinely cleaned.   So the quality of the sound going into 24/96 WAV files is as good as I could expect in a home setting.
 
From there I take the 32Gb card and import the files into a software package designed specifically for digitizing analog media, VinylStudio (http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/).   It trumps alternatives like Audacity with all the features it has tailored again for this task.   I end up with FLAC files (normally 24/48 or 24/96 for "audiophile" discs) with metadata and cover art just like what I get from ripping CDs.  Pretty painless and inexpensive which is why I thought to share here on this old but excellent thread

 

[doctorjazz]

You really get good sounding files from an $80 ADC?

 

[Bob A (SD)]

You really get good sounding files from an $80 ADC?

Absolutely.  And I'm not alone.  Do some research and you'll find numerous folks doing successful  "needle drops" with inexpensive digital audio recorders including this popular model.

 

[doctorjazz]

Ok, have a VPI record cleaner, but I'm a lazy bum, don't use it that often. Obviously, will clean before digitizing. Have Linn LP12/Lingo/Ittok/etc, Pro-ject Tube Box S Phono stage, Peachtree GrandPre, Furman line conditioner, have to find some space for a laptop, using SD card is appealing. Heading for Amazon...

 

[Bob A (SD)]

You should be good to go.  BTW I use the manual Disc Doctor vinyl cleaning system and then touch up the disc with a Nagaoka CL-152 Record Cleaner just before playing.  Does the job!
 
Again no laptop here.  I simply take the MicroSD card from the DR-05 or alternatively hook up the DR-05 as USB storage and import the 24/96 WAV files into my Desktop and VinylStudio for processing.  I save the output in 24/96 FLAC.

 

[doctorjazz]

You should be good to go.  BTW I use the manual Disc Doctor vinyl cleaning system and then touch up the disc with a Nagaoka CL-152 Record Cleaner just before playing.  Does the job!

Again no laptop here.  I simply take the MicroSD card from the DR-05 or alternatively hook up the DR-05 as USB storage and import the 24/96 WAV files into my Desktop and VinylStudio for processing.  I save the output in 24/96 FLAC.

Thanks, sounds like it's worth trying. My last attempt at digitizing, using a CD recorder, never went anywhere.

 

[nicholas029]

If it has not already been recommended, you should check out Pure Vinyl software.  I have digitized my best vinyl, and I do have the best vinyl for what I listen to, with Rob's software which offers many options. I did ADC though an AR Ref Phono 2 with PV with flawless results. However the software gives you the option of not using a hardware RIAA correction.  With PV you also get Pure Music which is what you should be using for digital playback.  Add to that Fabfilter Pro Q parametric EQ properly set for playback and your vinyl rips will sound live.  Not a shill.  ISYN. 

 

[doctorjazz]

I thought I'd share an interesting way of digitizing vinyl records (reels and cassettes too!).

Like many, I have a significant collection which I do indeed enjoy through my main stereo system (described here if anyone is interested:  http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/320.html ).   This stereo is on a different floor from my desktop computer.  Acquiring a laptop and other gear just to "needle drop" my records never passed the sanity check, so for years the idea of this project remained a murky dream.

Recently I was motivated to rip my CD collection into lossless FLAC files using EAC (Exact Audio Copy).   It's a convenience and pleasure now sitting at my computer listening to good music through my Sennheiser HD600s driven by a Schiit Modi2/Vali "stack."    So I looked yet again at the notion of ripping my records, reels, and cassettes

What I found is that many were successfully using quality portable digital recorders.  So I took the leap!

A Tascam DR-05 with a 32Gb MicroSD card is hooked into my stereo via a second set of preamp out jacks.  This gives me the advantage of level setting with the preamp and using my Merrill modified AR table with Denon MC carts and SUT.  My records have been very well maintained and routinely cleaned.   So the quality of the sound going into 24/96 WAV files is as good as I could expect in a home setting.

From there I take the 32Gb card and import the files into a software package designed specifically for digitizing analog media, VinylStudio (http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/).   It trumps alternatives like Audacity with all the features it has tailored again for this task.   I end up with FLAC files (normally 24/48 or 24/96 for "audiophile" discs) with metadata and cover art just like what I get from ripping CDs.  Pretty painless and inexpensive which is why I thought to share here on this old but excellent thread

Almost ready to go for the Tascam, noticed something else in your post, using EAC to rip CDs. I've been using JRIVER...do you think there is a difference in SQ? Thanks.

 

[Bob A (SD)]

Almost ready to go for the Tascam, noticed something else in your post, using EAC to rip CDs. I've been using JRIVER...do you think there is a difference in SQ? Thanks.

 When I first investigated ripping my CDs to my computer and digitizing my analog material, I found virtually every article / thread cited EAC for ripping CDs.  Kinda like a "gold standard."   Except of course those that were using uber expensive pro hardware for their efforts with commercial software to match.   It was free and there were good YouTube videos to sanity check setup parameters.  Worked quite well for me and was fast to boot.
 
Regarding iRiver, no experience here.  I use foobar2000 which also has a ripping capability.  Never bothered to explore it.  As for SQ, there really shouldn't be a difference among ripping utilities any more than there should be SQ differences in media players.  Bits and bytes are bits and bytes   SQ is more a product of sound cards, USB DACs, amps, etc.  So my "put" is to use whatever ripping utility whose user interface you're most comfortable with.  Of course it couldn't hurt to check out EAC
 
On another note, everything I read about how wonderful VinylStudio software was has proved to be spot on.  I love being able to look at a recorded spectrum, hear it, and tweak exactly how I want the track breaks configured.  Haven't used the audio clean up functions all that much beyond pop/click removal on the occassional record with a need. Highly recommended!

 

[doctorjazz]

Thanks, almost ready to jump in...my current crises is running out of space on my hard drive...have an external, but not sure JRiver will know where the files are, how to format (made the mistake of transferring pictures onto it without formatting, now it keeps giving me an error that I didn't format, I should do it bit I will lose anything on it. Probably need yet another external hard drive to be able do this formatting). Add to this that I'm waiting for a LH Labs Source server, they say in 1-2 months (we'll see...), and you can ser that my digital life is a mess!

 

[rgs9200m]

All my ripped music is on external drives, a scattered bunch of small solid state ones. Jriver handles it easily and transparently. You just tell it where it is when you do a rip. And you just create a playlist for the album and say where it is.
(At least that's how I like to do it.) I tend to avoid using my internal drive for data at all. It makes it easy to change computers and avoids the problem of computer crashes. Just keep everything external w/backup and, better yet, cloud backup in addition.
Keep 2 or 3 backups of your stuff on a giant cheap spinner drive of, say, 6tb. Easy as pie. (But the irony is that Tidal sounds better.)

 

[doctorjazz]

Interesting, deficient in the back up department as well, have to mind my digital P's and Q's...
(AND GET STUFF OFF MY HARD DRIVE!)

 

[rgs9200m]

You really need to do a backup right away or you are living on the edge. Sometimes you won't get a catastrophic failure on your main hard drive, but some common partial failure right where your important data is stored that can make your life miserable.
This happens to me and I need do a partial copy from a backup drive.