<p>My old one died and can’t be fixed–no parts available. I still have a lot of old albums that my son and I would like to listen to. Any suggestions about a good turntable and where to find one?</p>
<p>I use one of these to listen to records and also to convert them over to mp3.</p>
<p>[TTUSB</a> - High-performance LP Conversion System - ION Audio](<a href=“http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/ttusb]TTUSB”>http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/ttusb)</p>
<p>We got my daughter one of tHose combo ones with cd And radio. Its old fashioned looking and works well, and I’m pretty sure you can add speakers, but don’t really need to, the sound is great.</p>
<p>See, this is why I come to CC for everything. My H thought it was really funny that I would come here with this type of question, but I know I’ll get good advice.</p>
<p>SIL got BIL one from Urban Outfitters. Very retro looking. Someone is manufacturing them again.</p>
<p>Having done several hundred LP to CD (and cassette to CD) conversions a decade or two ago I will tell you that any system that claims to do so easily is not telling the full story. I have done conversions that are better quality than what was done commercially… but using largely pro-grade equipment borrowed from a friend. </p>
<p>Figure time to play/rip the songs, then to split audio, do various noise reductions, intros/exits, add metadata and album art, and you’re talking 1+ hour per album, probably twice that if you’re learning. </p>
<p>If you want a real turntable these are still out there…</p>
<p>And to me, the scratches are part of the nostalgia and experience of listening to my old vinyl. </p>
<p>I have one song with an endless skip/repeat right after the lyrics, “Do not hesitate.”</p>
<p>I have been tempted to buy one of those Crosley box turntables w/CD & radio. My nephew has one and says it sounds good, but I’d like to hear it for myself, being something of a classical music snob.</p>
<p>Plus you can still buy new vinyl records…they are coming back for audiophiles…rich audiophiles. $50 an album? :eek:</p>
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<p>The system I recommended is pretty simple and easy to use. </p>
<p>Obviously ripping vinyl is going to occur at realtime speed and not the accelerated speeds we are used to for ripping CDs. The audio splitting is done automatically, although there are occasional glitches, either songs that run together and have to be manually split, or silent gaps that the software mistakes for song change. You manually enter the artist, album, and song titles and it adds them to the metadata. Audio leveling is including in the software, and it adds songs automatically to iTunes.</p>
<p>I’m not very technologically savvy. I need something really easy to operate.</p>
<p>If you can find a good used Hi-Fi shop around they usually have lots of good quality turntables for cheap. For example</p>
<p>[Hawthorne</a> Stereo - Used Stereo Equipment](<a href=“http://www.hawthornestereo.com/used/]Hawthorne”>Used Gear - Hawthorne Stereo)</p>
<p>Check eBay: [vintage</a> turntables | eBay](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/7o4lpfm]vintage”>vintage turntables for sale | eBay)</p>
<p>I like the idea of used/vintage, but I had a good quality old one and it couldn’t be fixed because the parts were no longer available, so I’d wonder about that.</p>
<p>Buy 2–one for parts ;-}</p>
<p>As far as ripping occurring at realtime speed, that’s a feature, not a bug. Gives me a chance to listen to some old favorites I haven’t heard for years - while at the same time making DW happy by making progress on her “can’t we get rid of all those old records?” campaign!</p>
<p>We don’t have <em>that</em> many vinyl records…maybe 18 linear inches, but probably half of them have sentimental value. Sure, I could buy Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” album on CD, but it wouldn’t be the one I almost wore out that year my roomie & I listened to it nonstop! And we have a few Beatles albums…some Emerson, Lake, & Palmer…</p>
<p>And a lot of them are actually recordings I or my friends played on…our names are on them. Can’t get rid of THOSE album covers! </p>
<p>:cool:</p>
<p>I have tons of old vinyls - My collection and a huge, great classical and opera collection I inherited, that doesn’t have a scratch (mine are a mess). Some years ago I bought a new one from Circuit City for about $100, but they have gone out of business. Amazon has a huge collection. They are easy to find at the usual places (Costco, Best Buy) and I think it is the speakers that matter the most for sound quality - I’d go with the cheapest turntable you can find.</p>
<p>It depends on how much quality you want to get out of the vinyl and how much time you want to put into it. </p>
<p>My process went as follows:</p>
<p>equipment: Pioneer LP player with Shure needle, SAE pre-amp, SAE tape deck, SAE equalizer, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. Software: Audacity, and some I can’t recall for splitting files into songs (did not work very well) plus Audacity plugins for noise and pop/crackle reduction.</p>
<p>Rip entire side in real time; use software to identify and split tracks (worked half the time) or do it manually; run filters to pick up record or tape specific noise or tape hiss and remove; fix intro/exit fadeins and fadeouts (Audacity’s pretty good); fix pops/crackles, level, add tags manually. </p>
<p>Not much different from today’s solutions except for the manual noise reduction/sound repairs plus the ability to pull good sound out of the original media, process it with the right equipment, and convert to digital. The Turtle Beach card was lightyears agead of the Soundblaster cards of the time for this specific task. </p>
<p>My benchmark piece of work remains Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. My remastering is considerably better sounding than a store CD…</p>
<p>Keep in mind is that many (maybe even all) of the USB turntables are the absolute bottom-of-the-line in terms of quality; in many cases, even the cheap BSR vintage models performed better in some ways (i.e. used metal instead of less durable plastic). Another thing to keep in mind is how often you want to listen to your records. Many of the usb models have tracking forces that are way too high (3-5 grams, with no way to go any lower–and no, adding a coin as an additional counterweight does not count) and I think I even saw 1 that had 6 grams tracking force. These high tracking forces will wear out records very quickly. (By comparison, my Dual 1229 tracks at 1.5 grams, IIRC).</p>
<p>Your best bet is to get a high quality vintage turntable and repair it. Many of the lower quality ones used ceramic cartridges that both gave unimpressive sound quality and were set at too-high tracking forces; these are honestly not worth repairing and even in working condition, I would not recommend them. I personally like Dual turntables (my family has 2 of them); conversely, BSR and generally anything from those small all-in-one stereos (Yorx, Sounddesign, Lloyds, etc) are poor quality. A good quality vintage turntable is a better investment than a poor quality new one, is of better quality, will last longer, and unlike a cheaper one, it is actually WORTH THE MONEY to restore if it does need any future maintenance. Additionally, many allow the cartridge to be replaced (which is probably a good idea regardless considering their age.) </p>
<p>Lastly, when buying used, the absolute best way is to buy local. Turntables are delicate mechanical instruments, and many online sellers (regardless of whether they are ebay sellers, thrift stores, whatever) have no clue how to pack a turntable to prevent it from getting damaged. I have read many horror stories of people who bought from someone that said they had plenty of experience with proper packing (some even explicitly sent detailed packing instructions, offering to pay extra if needed) and the seller still packed the turntable improperly and as a result the turntable was still severely damaged.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, USB turntables do have their uses. If you can’t borrow another turntable and you just want to quickly and inexpensively record a digital copy of your albums and then just listen to the digital copy afterwards, then they probably are the best route. But if you want to routinely listen to vinyl, there is a whole world of turntables out there that will provide significantly better quality and long term enjoyment of your records.</p>
<p>~signed, a 17-year-old with a record collection and a high-quality turntable that has lasted well for almost 40 years, and that is a well-built machine that has the potential to last 40 more.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in recommendations, etc. PM me and I can send you a link to a good turntable forum where you can get recommendations for models, for where to buy, and for where to get turntables repaired/restored.</p>