gofar99 Messages: 1969 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, If the analog source is high quality then the MP3 will be much worse. OK for listening as background or in the car. Using a typical phono preamp (some good ones are in the $100-200 range) you can digitalize the output in a PC or via a dedicated device and (I use a SIIG external sound "card")save the file in a much higher resolution. I like 24/96 (native format no software in the SIIG) as the files are not too huge and nearly any program can handle them. Hard to tell them from the original material. If you use Audacity you can edit them and clean up much in the way of defiencies. Steep sub audio cut to remove sub sonics and if you have the patience you can individually remove clicks and pops. The auto setting is OK, but not perfect. Lots of other things can be done too. After the edit, you can decide what format to export the files. I use .wav as all my devices can use it and it sounds great. There are plenty of choices to suit your needs.