[Bohemianism]

How hard is it to do good quality vinyl rips? What would I need to be able to do it? Also how does the sq compare with a CD rip?

 

[The Oatman]

I would guess that a rip done at 24/192 with no compression from clean vinyl with a good TT and cartridge would sound a lot better than a CD. I will be playing around with this in the next few weeks so I will contribute my impressions.

 

[iriverdude]

Can't see why it should sound better, surely it'll sound worse. As to how to do it, you'll need a record player, phono stage, a soundcard with line inputs, software to record, and encoder to lossless flac/alac/ape.

 

[Bohemianism]

What sort of software would you use (for Mac preferably)

As for quality, by the audiophile standard expected on these forums, would you guys say your vinyl rips are of an acceptable, high standard?

 

[J.D.N]

Ive been looking into this quite a bit recently. As for software, you can use Audacity which is free, but limited functionality. I think im going to use Adobe Soundbooth, but it depends if you want to pay for software or not.

What im having trouble with is finding a good, well priced ADC, and they seem few and far between! Ill probably end up trying the Audient Black ADC as its a reasonable price and seems to get good reviews from the little ive found on it. The only worry i have is that its not really meant for such an application, so results might not be as expected.

 

[wavoman]

For the PC, I'm going to use the maudio 192, very reasonably priced and its ADC seems well-reviewed. Very simple SPDIF in and out ... and Drew at moon-audio mods them to isolate the SPIDF out with a transformer, so listening to the results of my rips will be clean and easy (my DACs are all SPDIF only, no USB).

I'm waiting for my TT to come back from the manufacturer repaired (it got damaged in a move), then will spring for a new Grado cartridge. Had my vintage Hafler pre-amp modded by John at Musical Concepts to upgrade the phono stage, so I think I am good to go -- was just going to use Audacity for the software, or the free stuff that came with the maudio card.

I thought I would EQ the highs down on playback to eliminate the recorded tape hiss etc. that I hear on older LPs.

I am not thinking the sound will match SACDs or good CDs, which I buy for any music I really want to listen to, but what are you supposed to do with hundreds of LPs from college days in the '60s? Might as well rip the tunes I like -- I do expect it to beat MP3's (though not necessarily Amazon's 256 MP3's, which sound pretty darn good).

Is there a better way? Am I missing something?

 

[El_Doug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavoman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is there a better way? Am I missing something?

too complicated

just play the record on your speakers, and hold up a microphone

 

[runswithaliens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Oatman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would guess that a rip done at 24/192 with no compression from clean vinyl with a good TT and cartridge would sound a lot better than a CD. I will be playing around with this in the next few weeks so I will contribute my impressions.

All you are going to get by going to 24/192 is huge file sizes the quickly fill up your HD. There is no way a turntable is going to put out at the level, and from what I have read, even if you had the most expensive equipment in the world, your ears would still not hear any difference from albums ripped at 24/192 and those done 16/48 (of course, that is discounting the human mind's ability to imagine it hears a difference).

It seems to me the true advantage of vinyl is bypassing the digital realm entirely to avoid the dreaded jitter. More details here: Jitter in Digital Audio Data Streams (thanks to Currawong for the link). So you might look into how you could minimize any jitter introduced by your ADC when you go to rip it onto your computer.

 

[panda]

forget all the techno mumbo jumbo. i am interested in a budget adc as well.
ran across this from someone's recco:

Apogee Electronics > Products > Duet

as far as recording, 16bit 48khz should be just fine...

 

[gregv]

I've ripped about 650 lps various ways. Currently I'm experimenting with 24/96 rips. I see no reason to go for 24/192 due to file size. If I want a better sound I'll just play my vinyl. I've converted many of the records at 16/48 and they sound great. Please don't consider any of this bragging - I just feel sharing my system info may help others put together a great sounding system:
 
For my front end, I use a Well Tempered Classic turntable with carbon fiber arm mod and other upgrades and a Benz Glider M2 medium output moving coil cartridge. I run the signal into a PhonoMax phono stage and out using Synergistic Research Looking Glass Phase 1 active interconnects out to a MSB PAD 1 Analog to Digital Converter - set to convert at 96kHz. From PAD 1 ADC I run a glass fiber optic cable into my MacBook Pro's mic/fiber optic input. I use Audio In freeware (old Mac audio capture software that seems to work just fine) to capture the digital signal and edit the file by hand using an old version of Sound Studio 2.1.1 (this software crashes often but I'm used to it). I occasionally use ClickRepair for minimally filtering files that have considerable damage, but I try to use minimal filtering if at all possible.
 
 My sound system... I like to keep things compact (no giant speakers here): Opera Consonance SE tube amp and Spica TC-60 speakers with Synergistic Research Alpha Quad Active speaker cables. I use a usb HRT MusicStreamer ($99) bought prior to their bringing out the high res version for $149 - mine doesn't convert high res files. I use an iMod with a custom made iMod dock using OIMP capacitors at the stereo for speaker listening / and the HRT (or the iMod) with and an original EarMax with Sennheiser HD650's and Cardas phone cables for headphone listening at my desk. 
 
Recently we got an OPPO DBP-80 Universal Blue-Ray player to see what all the hype is about with high res DVD and audio disks. This player plays just about everything and we share it between two systems. I've been recording my lps at 24/96, editing the files and burning the high res audio files using BURN (freeware for Mac) to write DVD-A disks. They sound great on the OPPO. I have to say, though the 24/96 files do sound perhaps a bit better, I may go back to 16 bit/48kHz files for their smaller size and convenience.
 
Any comments that might make my workflow better are alway appreciated!
 

 

[Skylab]

I've done all of my vinyl rips by using a stand-alone CD burner, a high-end Denon which has a 96/24 A>D converter.  It does a great job.  I then rip that CD in lossless.  I've made some great sounding "needle drops" that way.  I have generally only done it with stuff that isn't available on CD, though.

 

[Dalamar]

Quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Oatman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would guess that a rip done at 24/192 with no compression from clean vinyl with a good TT and cartridge would sound a lot better than a CD. I will be playing around with this in the next few weeks so I will contribute my impressions.

All you are going to get by going to 24/192 is huge file sizes the quickly fill up your HD. There is no way a turntable is going to put out at the level, and from what I have read, even if you had the most expensive equipment in the world, your ears would still not hear any difference from albums ripped at 24/192 and those done 16/48 (of course, that is discounting the human mind's ability to imagine it hears a difference).

It seems to me the true advantage of vinyl is bypassing the digital realm entirely to avoid the dreaded jitter. More details here: Jitter in Digital Audio Data Streams (thanks to Currawong for the link). So you might look into how you could minimize any jitter introduced by your ADC when you go to rip it onto your computer.

Since someone necro'd the thread, I'll take this opportunity to destroy your post.
 
Vinyl has much worse and far more problems than digital ever will. It died for a reason, CD is higher fidelity. However the recording studios have completely negated any gains that could have been made via loudness war and often poor engineering. Some get rich quick geniuses take advantage of this to sell outdated hardware at ridiculous prices, because they can use a terribly mastered cd and compare it to a vinyl, which despite its low fidelity will sound better since it's not full of distortion, clipping, squashed dynamic range, etc. $200+ LPs? $300+ turntables? don't make me lol
 
Any effect of jitter is absolutely minor compared to any TT issue, or vinyl degradation. Jitter is also inaudible after a certain point.

 

[CrewCall]

I know a bunch of folks that swear Steinberg Clean is the best for ripping vinyl
http://www.steinberg.net/en/support/steinberg_support_creative_tools/cleanclean_plus_faqs.html

 

[Skylab]

Id like to know what personal experience you have with vinyl that makes you deem it "
low fidelity", which is of course complete hyperbole.

 

[dlaloum]

Thought I would wake this thread from the dead...
 
I have been using my M-Audio 2496 to digitise my Vinyl - lots of it is 50's and in middling condition which means the rip is quick and the cleanup takes forever!!! (CoolEdit)
 
I recently started testing the M-Audio using Headphones (just getting back into HP's after a 15+ year hiatus)... and I found the M-Audio analogue out to be a little less transparent than the digital out into my AVR and out into a Headamp.
 
This caused me to start looking askance at the 2496.
 
So my question is has anyone compared different ADC's for vinyl conversion (or any other recording purposes) - and without getting into stratospheric pricing categories, is there something better than the 2496, or should I look at mods for the 2496?
 
The MSB PAD sounds like an interesting option as does the MSB Audio Director - has anyone compared these to direct PCI based ADC's?
 
Has anyone compared some of the Xonars to M-Audio and E-MU ADC's?