On Mon, 2009-03-30 at 18:16 +0000, Paul Stimpson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I got a fantastic deal from Absolut Music in Poole. It was a Tapco LinkUSB musicians audio interface. It works with ubuntu and as far as my tests have gone pretty good.
>
> It's 24 bit, bidirectional at all sampling rates below 88kHz and unidirectional at 88 and 96kHz. has a built in mic amp with phantom power if you need it. I think I paid £69 for it (rrp £199)
>
> Cheers,
> Paul.
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: trotter <m.nuttall@???>
>
> Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:55:27
> To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List<hampshire@???>
> Subject: Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Vinyl Ripping Issue
>
>
> At 18:41 30/03/2009, you wrote:
> >trotter wrote:
> > > At 10:19 30/03/2009, you wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hi All,
> > >>
> > >> A bit OT I know but I am hoping that someone somewhere has encountered
> > >> this issue or at least something similar.
> > >>
> > >> Basically I have a Pro-ject Debut II turntable hooked up to a Pro-Ject
> > >> Phono Box II USB phono stage.
> > >>
> > >
> > > Decent beginner turntable.
> > >
> >
> >Heh, it was all I could afford at the time - a used 'bargain' from ebay.
> >Badly packaged, it arrived in a 'kit form' never intended by the
> >manufacturers, and a combination of postal insurance and a partial
> >refund made it viable once the replacement parts had been purchased.
> >It's actually in great condition now and sounds good to my
> >none-too-discerning ears.
> >
> >I recall that it nearly cost me a great deal more than money when my
> >wife discovered I wanted to start buying vinyl again!
> >
> >;-)
>
> I have a projective perspective which was £600 new but i picked it
> up for £400 on ebay. Unfortunately vinyl hardware is expensive for
> sound that is better than cd. CD is better bang for buck unfortunately.
>
> I enjoy trawling car boot sales for vinyl.
> Then cleaning them up with disco knosti antistat fluid bath.
>
>
> > >> It occurs to me that the alternative is to unhook the phono stage from
> > >> the amp and attach it to the line-in
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > Is that the line in on the amp?
> > >
> >
> >I was actually thinking of going from phono stage line-out to laptop
> >audio line-in, via a cable to convert phono leads to a 3.5mm jack plug,
> >but yes it occurs to me now that you mention it that I may be by-passing
> >the DAC device in the phono stage by doing this.
> >
> >I ripped my copy of De Stijl by The White Stripes today and got an
> >excellent result. The problem is that it is currently a lottery as to
> >what input levels I get!
>
> Unfortunately line in on sound cards are frankly abysmal quality
> wise. In a recent PC pro magazine feature on ripping vinyl it stated that
> you really need to buy a sound card close to £100 for anything remotely
> decent.
>
> This put me off doing it with a PC so i am sticking with MiniDisc
> for now. Besides its easier that way.
>
> Martin N
>
>
> Co-Moderator of MiniDisc and amithlonopen yahoo groups.
>
>
> --
> Please post to: Hampshire@???
> Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
> LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
My 50 pence worth;
Minidisc side by side with mp3, cd or vinyl sounds really lifeless and
flat IMHO. Nothing more scientific needed than a pair of reasonable
ears. Physically it's a bit 50/50. I've seen a number of top end Denon
broadcast Minidisc players borked by the tiny screws falling out of
minidisk media. It's a fun format, but compared to MP3 it's pointless in
all but concept. However, it still sounds better than the average MOBO
sound card without any doubt.
Vinyl gives better reproduction than CD. I wish I could point to where
that is specifically defined, but in the old vinyl-v-cd wars that have
gone on over the years that always seems to emerge. Possibly something
to do with sound being analogue and vinyl being an analogue medium. It
does not tend to suffer all of that rounding of ADC's. The flip of that
is most stuff is recorded (these days) on digital equipment. I still
occasionally press a run of 12 inch singles (I find they just sell
easier than CD's or downloads) and it has all been mastered in the
digital domain. So, horses for courses. CD is another transient media.
It is fairly pointless and limited in quality, lifespan and durability.
I still have records from the 1950s that play clearly. I have plenty of
tea-stained destroyed CD's from the 80's that remain un-played. I don't
think I would define that as 'better'.
As for the act of using Ubuntu (or Linux) to put vinyl to CD. It's
pretty flawless. I've happily had various M-Audio hardware (delta range)
work with Linux. Currently the cheerful USB Behringer soundcard works
without any installation on Ubuntu. They have just released a version
with a phone preamp in it too. Runs at about £25.(lots of the old
non-phono line only ones expected to drop in price I guess?). The one
thing I would say is get a quartz locked turntable with a decent Ortofon
or Shure cart. Go for stable speed and clean sound.
Rant and 50 pence worth over - back to the shadows....
