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Topic: LP to CD. Ion vs. Audio-Technica |
Bob Kagy
From:
Lafayette, CO USA
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Posted 2 Feb 2007 10:31 am |
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A recent NY Times article compared 2 turntables plus software that hook in to your PC for converting LP's to CD's.
One unit is the Ion iTTUSB; the other is the Audio-Technica LP2Da. (each can be google'd).
Has anybody had hands-on experience with either or both, and would you have a recommendation?
From the article, it looks like the Audio-Technica might be a little more user friendly.
Thanks for any comments. |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 2 Feb 2007 12:46 pm
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Bob, my Dual turntable died just before I got ready to convert a bunch of LP's to CD. I researched both turntables a lot and ended up getting the AT-PL50 which is the turntable that comes in the AT-LP2D package. The AT turntable has a metal platter, built in RIAA preamp (can be switched off) and a decent dynamic cartridge. Most of the reviews of the Ion at Amazon showed a high level of disatisfaction with the ION including it's felt/plastic platter which is too light to provide good speed regulation and too slippery to grip the LP's without slipping (the AT comes with a high grip rubber mat very similar to the Dual).
There's no advantage to going into the USB bus. I found the gain of the built-in AT pre-amp to be too high for my computer's sound card line level input so I ran the AT into an old Kenwood amp I had lying around and then took the tape out of the amp into the computer. All of my recordings are crystal clear. I used shareware software to create the .wav files then WMP to convert them to .wma files to burn to disk. I really can't say that this cheap AT turntable (no anti-skate, no adjustable tracking, no adj. speed) worked any worse than my expensive Dual turntable. In fact the speed although fixed was right at 33 1/3 as close as I could time it on my watch.
At Circuit City the AT alone lists for $99. I paid $74 for it and it went on sale for $49 a few weeks later. My second choice would have been to get a Technics servo turntable off of ebay.
Greg
Last edited by Greg Cutshaw on 3 Feb 2007 6:45 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Bob Kagy
From:
Lafayette, CO USA
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Posted 2 Feb 2007 3:21 pm
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That's a nice review Greg.
Many thanks. |
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Delvin Morgan
From:
Lindstrom, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 3 Feb 2007 8:25 am
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| So therefor I can copy my cassette tapes onto the computer via my sound card? I don't need any USB powered tape player? |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 3 Feb 2007 8:40 am
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Delvin,
I copied my old cassettes using the same technique, cassette player to Kenwood amp, tape out of kenwood amp to soundcard. Most any recording software you use will have a stereo indicator that will tell you if the sound card is receiving both left and right channels ok and you can also assure that your recording level is ok that way. With your cassette player you may be able to run directly into your sound card's line input or stereo mic input since no RIAA equalization is needed.
All of the cassettes and LP's I have recorded this way are completely indistinguishable from the originals. Same warmth with no extra noise or noticable distortion. Remember that the original LP's and cassettes were not super high fidelity to begin with so this recording process easily maintains the original fidelity.
The process I used was to record the entire LP or cassette one side at a time. Then use the recording software to highlite and save one song at a time as a .wav file. This speeds up the process a whole lot. You can burn the final files as .cda files and get about 26 songs per CD. Or you can burn them like I do as .wma files at 44 khz and 192 kbps and get about 185 songs per CD.
Greg |
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