It's all debg's fault.

[richardf8]

Though I suppose I asked for it when I left this comment in her journal.

But I've gone out and bought one of those USB turntables - the ION TTTUSB - From Best Buy.

I got it home, and hooked it up to my laptop. It sounded terrible. So I hooked it up to my desktop, which was purpose-built for music production and it sounds good. I suspect that at 500MHz my laptop may be a bit underpowered for it.

So the product.

This is not a piece of audiophile equipment, nor is it a studio or DJ quality turntable, but rather a lightweight simulacrum of the latter. It's plastic platter is belt driven, and there is no provision for speed adjustment, and its non-branded magnetic cartridge tracks at a ponderous 3.5g VTF.

That all said, this is a purpose-built solution to a very particular problem - the transferring of Vinyl to Digital, mostly MP3 format. Given this purpose, it is an elegant solution - it connects via USB to a computer and will connect to a stereo at either standard phono levels, or line level by means of a built in pre-amp. The USB interface to the PC relieves one of a lot of things that can otherwise make such a transfer difficult. The piece de resistance is the 1/8" stereo input jack allowing you to patch in a cassette player to its USB I/F. The sound quality is quite decent, and certainly up to the task of MP3'ing a vinyl collection. The DJ-styled start/stop buttons are very well suited to ripping individual tracks, though a heavier platter would make cueing easier. In keeping with the DJ style, there is no tone-arm return. This makes unattended copying something one needs to keep in the back of one's mind.

The software bundled is the GPL'd Audacity wave editor, comparable to Steinberg's WaveLab Lite, and a product that I was already using. It works as well as any wave editor. I have not pushed it terribly hard. MP3 export requires that you download the Lame_enc DLL. It is not bundled with it, because the LGPL license that the Lame encoder carries is thorny about commercial distribution. The Audacity/Lame interface has a problem with ID3 Tags - it will let you tag the first file you export in a session, but not the subsequent ones - it just retains the tag info you entered at first.

So final recommendations? Dang, it sounds like I've panned the thing, doesn't it? But really, at $150 from Best Buy, I must say it is a more than adequate solution. The built-in preamp alone is a tremendous time saver if you wish to use your Sound Card's A/D converter - no need for an amp, but the built in A/D converter/USB interface is at this device's heart. I fully expect to enjoy what it will let me achieve.

Comments

Adequate

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate this review!
It sounds like this is a viable solution for people who have (sadly) gotten rid of their phonographs. Essentially the only advantage I can see beyond that is that it allows you to bypass an amp.
In some cases an amp isn't necessary anyways, but it can help to flavor and control the sound, which transfers readily from an amp to the computer usually through the sound card.

I have to agree with you though... the tracking at 3.5 seems obscene in audiophile terms. Chances are this will cause irreparable damage to the record vinyl, but I suppose if the goal is to make the transfer and stop using the LP completely, it may not matter, as long as the first pass gets accurate frequency outputs.

This isn't my bag though... I'd wanna keep the records in good shape, permanently. Wanted to give you a warning regarding Audacity too... I use it primarily for audio editing and mastering as well, but I've discovered some imperfections. 1). I thought it would be a perfect solution, but sometimes it corrupts a transfer by adding a stutter (repeated sample) to the recording. 2). Unfortunately, it can also spontaneously corrupt files, specifically by adding segments of silence in tracks that previously were fine (so open copies, not originals).

Just wanted to give ya a heads up... best of luck!

Re: Adequate

[richardf8]

I do have a turntable, but not an amp that I consider fit for the task.

There is no reason one could not fit a better cartridge to the tone-arm if one wished.

The 3.5g VTF isn't so horrible with the conical stylus, most of my records hail from the days that ceramic cartridges ruled, and thus have probably been subjected to worse (most were also bought used). That and an elliptical stylus would spell doom, though, I'm sure.

Re: Adequate

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

oo yeah! I've got some conical systems too, the kitchy-fun ones that hold multiple records, and some even have vacuum tubes ^V^
I was speaking specifically of audiophile-hi-fi specs.. but yeah, I do have some older stuff I have found at garage sales and gotten from parents, etc... but I don't put any of my valued records on those.

Glad to hear you see the potential of altering the counter-weight etc of the tone arm if so desired. *starts clapping and stomping to the 1954 recordings of the Havana-Gila Monster* ^V^

Have a great transfer!

am I missing something?

[childings.livejournal.com]

Uhm... I can hook my current turntable (it's like eight years old now at least) up to my computer without USB and rip mp3s. :/

Other than the fact that they can plug into the front of your computer instead of the back (which really isn't a huge deal considering the way my desk is set up) I don't get the point of the USB turntable. All I have to unhook the current one from the stereo.

Re: am I missing something?

[richardf8]

Initial hope was to hook it up to my laptop, which does not have stereo audio inputs (I don't know why). Laptop is too feeble to cope with the USB Audio, so that could not work.

My other turntable needs to be boosted to line-level before I can feed it to the sound card on my desktop. My current setup, which includes lots of recording equipment but little actual listening equipment, is a bit of a Rube Goldberg device and the fact that my only real preamps are "sound shaping" means when I try to do a straight MP3-Rip through them, it sounds really bad.

The USB turntable, having fewer points of failure, just makes the job SO much easier.

Re: am I missing something?

[childings.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I don't know why I didn't think of laptops, that makes perfect sense , especially since so many djs do everything off of laptops these days.