gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, I agree sort of. The problem with many PC internal sound cards is that they are pretty poor. If all you want to do is make modest copies then they will probably do. If you want high quality rips then you should look at external sound cards. IMO the minimum capability for high quality rips is 24 bit / 96 k sampling. You can always edit the rips and convert them to a compressed loss less format of your choice, but if you start out with low resolution copies you can not improve them. There are a number of devices that will do both the phono preamp function and ADC function (all seem to do the DAC function as well). It all depends on what you want for the final copy and how much you can afford. It is possible to take the output directly from a turntable cartridge and do the RIAA compensation in the PC with a program like Audacity. I have done this and found that the signal to noise was not all that good. This is really a no brainer as the output from the cartridge is about 20-30 db below a normal line level signal. What you save in simplicity you lose in S/N. I use a separate phono preamp to feed an external sound card (they really aren't cards but boxes). It is a SIIG CE-S700 and are sold widely now (even Walmart on line at $74). It will do native 24/96 and with software 24/192. It does an excellent job and the rips are clean and quiet. It will work (in native mode) with nearly any common audio software. I find it easiest to rip with Nero, edit with Audacity and play with with Creative. Any one of the three could do it all, but each IMO has certain features that make it better at the task. If all you want like I said earlier is MP3 copies or such then pretty much any built in PC sound system will work. You still have the issue with the gain and RIAA compensation. For a cheap and pretty decent phono preamp I would look at Phonopreamps.com. Their model 750 is decent and cheap.
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