[labrat]

Deleted.

 

[Geoff Rymer]

Ben, what turntable are you using? If you connect a normal turntable to a line-level input, not only will the frequency response be all out of whack (ie no RIAA equalisation) but the sound will be very quiet. Phono cartridges only produce very low voltages, hence the signal needs to be 'pre-amplified' by a phonostage before amplification. The 'phono' input on an amp includes this phonostage, line level inputs don't.

However, some turntables have built in phonostages (some budget Pro-jects have this option I think), in which case it should be plugged into a normal input rather than a phono input. If it plays at normal volume on a normal input, i'd suggest this was the case. If not and it still crackles on the phono input, have you connected the turntable grounding post to the amp?

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by batfastad Regarding the RIAA thing... I've got my turntable hooked up to a normal amplifier input - not the phono one. Is that right? When it's connected to the phono one on my amp, the sound's all crackly. To connect it to the phono inputs - is that what a phono pre-amp's for??? Thanks Ben

This can be caused if you select phono type to MC (coil) with MM (magnet) Phono cartridge (or vice versa).

jiitee

 

[batfastad]

Funny you should mention the pro-ject turntables.
Mine is a budget pro-ject one - a debut 2 I think.

In my amp manual the phono input on my amplifier is moving magnet.
The ground wire is connected to the amp.
The volume seems to sound fine with it connected to a normal amplifier input.

So I might be ok with that then.

Final question...
Quote:

Originally Posted by batfastad In theory, is recording method going to be better or worse quality than line-in to computer, or to my cd-recorder?? I would have thought in theory it should be the same quality as with the CD recorder - as all that's being received by the computer is a digital signal. Also my minidisc deck was £300 but my cd recorder was only £120 new, so I'm guessing my minidisc deck might have a better DAC in it. Also, levels are so much easier to get right now!!!

Any opinions on this??

Is recording using the TOSLink input on my audigy, better than recording direct to CD on my cd recorder?

Thanks

Ben

 

[Geoff Rymer]

That's quite a difficult question to answer- I'd assume the DAC in your MD deck is superior to that in your CD recorder but that is not the end of the story.

As other posters have mentioned (and I'm sure they know more about it than me, cos I don't have a Creative card), the Creative cards do not run 44.1KHz natively (some run 48Khz and some run 96KHz I think). This would not be a problem except the Creative sampling rate converter doesn't do that good a job.

Recording at 48KHz would solve this but I'm not sure if your deck can be set to output at 48KHz. Pretty sure mine can't, but I know they DO downsample FROM 48KHz (eg DAT) to 44.1Khz, so maybe yours can. Maybe you could check out some of the minidisc discussion sites/forums?

Either way, the best way to judge the respective sound qualities would be to listen to both!

Best of luck!

 

[batfastad]

Right so it's likely that my audigy 2 zs is afflicted by this problem.

So it might not be as good as copying directly to CD.

But it would be an improvement over going to my audigy soundcard using the analogue line in?

How much of a difference does the sampling deficiency of my audigy make?

Would buying a DAC improve things?
I hook that up to a normal line input on my amp, so I can attach devices with both optical and coax digital connections and play them through my amp?

But do DACs have digital outputs I can use?
So I have a DAC connected to say the MD/Tape connections on my amp - so it's connected to a stereo line out and an input on my amp, then have a digital output going to my computer?
So I can go from my amp, via the DAC, to the digital inputs on my computer?

Can anyone recommend a DAC to me which could accomplish that?

Thanks

Ben

 

[Geoff Rymer]

Before you go spending loads of cash on a dac, just try a recording and see what you think (I'm trying to save your wallet from as much head-fi pain as possible here)!

 

[batfastad]

The thing is they all sound fine to me.

I'm no audiophile, but I'd like to get the best possible theoretical quality with the kit I've got.
Having to re-rip records as the quality of the previous rip, is a pain.

I guess using my minidisc as a DAC to my audigy, will still be far better than recording using the analog line-ins on it!

And as this is the method you use, I think I'll try it for a few weeks before I go and sell my cd recorder.

-- Or --
On my computer do I record the wav at either 48 or 96, then convert with software.
Is that an option?
If I have the wav files at either 48 or 96khz, can I run the resulting 48 / 96 wav file directly through LAME once it's recorded (I encode to 320 CBR)?

I guess that means the DAC in my minidisc needs to be able to output at those sample rates (will look through the manual to check).

Thanks for thinking of my wallet! Head-Fi's starting to get it twitching!!

Benjo

 

[Geoff Rymer]

Hmm, I think somebody else needs to help here, cos I'm running into areas I don't know too much about now. Main problem is I would imagine it unlikely your MD deck could output at 48KHz... could be wrong though. Anybody else got suggestions?