I am willingly running the risk of public humiliation here. I know that. In fact, I look forward to the vitriol. Whatcha got?

Anyway, I want one of these things. I want to take my perfectly fine vinyl albums and listen to them on my ipod. I know jack about this stuff. This thing looks like it would do the job for my non-audiophile ears. Does anybody have one?

I had looked at products of this design, but was turned off by the fact that they are USB 1.1, which is significantly slower than I (a non-tech head computer user) am used to experiencing.

I decided to get one of my turntables totally re-habbed, and have been running directly into the computer through an amplifier out.

Audacity is not the greatest of programs, but with a little experimentation you can achieve success.

Perhaps someone else can recommend a better WAV recording software program.

Ah, 7" singles, I've missed you.

I think you can save yourself some grief by running your turntable signal into your machine and recording it. I used Nero to record, but there's probably some freeware crap floating around, too. There's probably better recording software, but I didn't give a shit since it was getting mp3'd anyway.

I bought one of these things a while back, because my laptop doesn't have an audio input other than a mic input, and I use Audacity to record the music and LAME to convert the files to mp3s. (If I also want the material on cd, I'll burn the .wav file and then convert the files to mp3s using iTunes.)

The iMic is a hell of a lot cheaper than the turntable, and the sound could even be better, assuming that your turntable is better than the Ion turntable.

(The sound, for the record, is terrific.)

Audacity took some trial and error to learn, mostly because the preset preferences aren't logical, but it's been a piece of cake since then.

I should add: if you're going to listen to these tunes on your iPod, you can simply convert the .wav files to .mp4 files via iTunes. iTunes is also handy for tagging the songs.

I've talked people out of buying these things in the past; either here or elsewhere, I don't remember. And I told my mum not to either.

First test is, does it come with Audacity? Because that program is freeware, and if you plug your existing record player set up to your computer's line in, you've got exactly the same set up as these USB turntables offer.

Even if you pay for the recording software, it'll be cheaper than these things; and bear in mind, these are unlikely to be good turntables. They will be new, they will be cheap, they will be crap.

There are plenty of ways of recording to mp3 from an existing stereo setup, most involving just buying a cable and downloading something. A little research should save you some money for records to convert to mp3...

Thanks for the responses. All are helpful.

My existing turntable is a 15 year-old, bottom-of-the-barrel Technics. I doubt this UBS one is worse. NuMark sells the same exact piece with their brand on it...aren't they somewhat reputable?

Anyway, my computer is a coupla flights of stairs away from my turntable (don't have a laptop) - it's just not convenient to truck either one of them back and forth...though I'm really tempted to get that external sound card and give it a try...I could let the turntable camp out upstairs for a while...

That's maybe a case where this could come in useful. I guess I'm laptop spoilt, in a way, I just stick mine next to the stereo and plug it in. If you're happy just parking this turntable thing next to your computer then okay.

I just wonder about the cost; I bet you could get a better quality second hand turntable for less than this will hit you for. I think they're around £125 in the UK - so that's heading towards $250 over your way? It's a lot of money, to me, especially if it comes with what is basically free software.

I guess it is a simpler solution and there must be a market; I kind of kicked myself after explaining the 'right' way to my parents, because they'll never do that, whereas they might have whiled away some hours together working this thing out. But then, they don't need the damn records on mp3s anyway, and it would probably have ended in an argument. Regardless, if it works and you've got the dough then cool; I just don't like to see people give money to people when they don't need to.

don't forget, you can't just plug your turntable into audio input on the back of your computer. The signal needs to go through an RIAA phono stage for re-equalization, and it needs to be amplified up to line level as well.

These all in one digital turntable thingys are cool, since they have the phono stage built in, plus will do the digital conversion onboard, so the signal coming out the back is already digital, less suseptible to noise, etc.

That said, they are crappy turntables, so the analog signal you are starting with is not as good as it could be. I probably get better results with my Linn LP-12 running into a Linn phono preamp, then into an outboard A/D converter, then via USB into my laptop.

However, the simplicity of these all in one dealies is very appealing. It is certainly better than nothing.

Mike Greenlees wrote:Anyway, my computer is a coupla flights of stairs away from my turntable (don't have a laptop) - it's just not convenient to truck either one of them back and forth...though I'm really tempted to get that external sound card and give it a try...I could let the turntable camp out upstairs for a while...

For the reasons mentioned above, the turntable may be better, as you would have to lug your turntable and your amp/receiver upstairs.