musickat wrote: 
It comes from experience. I bought a turntable on eBay a few years back. It came without a stylus and I decided a new cartridge was unreasonably priced. It was basically garbage. I finally ended up getting a new turntable; which I've since sold on eBay.

P.S. Don't do like I did and rip your LP's to digital and then sell everything, thinking (even at 320/bps), you'll have an excellent recording. There is something about the sound/feel of real vinyl under a stylus that digital recordings just cannot relate... and you'll want to hear your music again, the way it was really meant to sound. Heck, even the micro-dust crackle enriches the experience. It really used to piss me off, but I miss it.

 musickat wrote: 
There are still many new cartridges and replacement styluses available if decide to go for a used turntable and it needs one..

 Umberdog wrote: 

Excellent point as well.   I do remember that from the old days ;)

Thank you much!

 musickat wrote: 
Your very welcome. The Pro-ject debut III USB is the highest quality of the bunch but also one of the most expensive at about $329 retail

 DaveInVA wrote: 
OK. Sounds easy enough even for me  :)  
I have Windows so that shouldn't be a problem.   Sounds like a good Christmas present to myself.

Thank you very much for your time and expertise 

 musickat wrote: 
They usually come with software for doing the ripping and they don't all come with the same software. Some come with the free "Audacity" which is actually a very nice program especially for free. If you are using a Mac make sure what you get comes with compatible software. Audacity works both Mac/PC though. After you rip the record (assuming you do the whole LP and not just 1 or 2 songs) you have to split the songs up and name them etc. The software programs have various methods for doing this. As LP's don't have digital tags like MP3's you will have to type in that info yourself. 

 DaveInVA wrote: 


Well certainly sounds doable.   So all you have to do is hook it up and play the record?  Or is it more complicated than that?
Thanks so much again!!

 musickat wrote: 
Pretty much all the sub $100 units are not so good. Some are not much better than "kiddie" phonos of the past quality wise.
The Audio Technica AT-LP2D-USB is about $140 and gets decent reviews and has a better cartridge than most at that price level. The IOBTTUSB and the Pro-ject III USB are much better but they cost around $300.

 DaveInVA wrote: 
If you buy a used turntable make sure the needle/cartage is in good shape, or at least you can find a replacement.

 DaveInVA wrote: 
Thanks so much Dave!
How much are you talking to get "decent" sound quality from these new USB turntables?  And any particular one?   There seem to be lots to choose from.

 musickat wrote: 
If you still have an old receiver that has a phono preamp then you can just buy a used turntable as some can be had fairly cheap and use the free program "Audacity" to rip them. You would just hook the "Tape out" to the "Line in" on your PC/Mac.They are generally better quality than the average new USB turntable some of which are pretty junky. If you don't have an old receiver you can buy a new fairly low cost phono preamp. 
To be fair, a USB turntable is the easiest way to go but unless you want to spend bigger money most are not that great quality wise. It would also depend on what quality you are hoping the rips to be and what kind of shape your records are in etc.
Dave 

Hello fellow music lovers!

I have been trying to wade thru this post to find the answer to my ?, but some of the posts are old so I thought perhaps some of you vinyl junkies might be kind enough to steer me in the right direction.

Since I no longer have a turntable, I am wanting to buy a turntable to play my records and transfer to my computer.  I am somewhat technologically challenged.   I am looking for a fairly inexpensive and not too complicated system.   I have so much great music that I can no longer hear.   Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Freshly ripped and ready for download.

... its kept me busy during the forum outages.
Modern Times

Now that I think of it, since records are made of PVC, a lot of car care products designed to recondition PVC and similar materials.  One of these products might make a good ad hoc cleaning solution.

 Servo wrote: 

Since its only spending money I ain't got and Keith Monks machines are out of production ...

The Loricraft Audio PRC3/4/5/6 Professional Record Cleaners

 kurtster wrote: 
  If it's not a Kieth Monks or similar level of sophistication, it's better to do nothing.

Discwasher products pretty much did more damage by shoveling the dirt around.  You need a vacuum system to lift the dirt away.

I miss having the local high-end store that I used to take my dirtier records to for a gentle cleaning on a very expensive machine.

I'd look for a similar way to safely clean your vinyl before transcription, to extract maximum detail as well as remove clicks and pops.

If you plan on doing processing in the digital domain, rip to 32float if your equipment supports it.  The mathematics involved in signal processing can eat up significant bits easily, so you can't start with too many.

If the number of defects is small, I'd hand-edit the waveform to approximate the lost information.  The human brain is still the ultimate signal processor.  There are probably plenty of automated tools that are "good enough".  It all depends on how hard you want to work vs. the desired result.

There's no reason to save your final processed file in greater than 44.1/16 resolution.  No matter what the noveau-vinyl fanbois claim, LP records simply lack the physical capacity to hold information even close to that dynamic range and bandwidth.

 kurtster wrote: 
I've had it for 20 years or more and they still sell them and replacement parts. Even used they usually don't go cheap. You can make your own fluid if you don't like paying $90 for a gallon of LAST. 

That Spin Clean unit is good for the money but it will never work as good as a unit that can vacuum the fluid off while the dirt is still in suspension. Using brushes and fluid always results in some of the crud being redeposited. 

Some records like ones fro yard sales and Good-ill etc I will clean with tap water and a microfiber cloth to wash and another to dry before I put it on the VPI to get the really big stuff off. Its amazing how many records that sound like crap really just have stuff like pizza grease thumbprints or other junk on them just from not being treated very hygienically by their previous owner.

 kurtster wrote: 
I wish I could find my old Discwasher stuff.  I know it is around somewhere.

 DaveInVA wrote: 
I wants me one of them. 

On the wish list.

Any thoughts on this ?