Usually it's the DAC that gets all the attention, but I have a friend who is looking for something cheap 'n easy (but decent) for recording from 78s to a PC in uncompressed .WAV. Doesn't have to be anything higher-res than 16-bit/44.1kHz in the end. 24/96 would be great, but not absolutely necessary.
There is a little thing from Behringer called the UA-202 for less than $30. It has RCA phono inputs, headphone out, optical S/PDIF Out, USB. I've never seen one, never used it, can't find out much about it (other than from DJs and some musicians seem to like it for use with a laptop in a home studio kind of situation).
I searched here, but wasn't able to found much on DIY A-to-D projects. Maybe I'm not very good at the search facility.
Does anybody know of anything useful? Thanks.
There is a little thing from Behringer called the UA-202 for less than $30. It has RCA phono inputs, headphone out, optical S/PDIF Out, USB. I've never seen one, never used it, can't find out much about it (other than from DJs and some musicians seem to like it for use with a laptop in a home studio kind of situation).
I searched here, but wasn't able to found much on DIY A-to-D projects. Maybe I'm not very good at the search facility.
Does anybody know of anything useful? Thanks.
you really won't win with DIY on cost or perfromance at the lower end against anything with a mass market
PC motherboard sound chipsets sometimes are poor - but may be good enough for your application - you can check out loop-back performance with free RMAA and a Y-splitter or male-to-male cable
at line level (after your own phono pre-amp) you can leap to very good "prosumer" level pci soundcard with esi Juli@ for ~$120
PC motherboard sound chipsets sometimes are poor - but may be good enough for your application - you can check out loop-back performance with free RMAA and a Y-splitter or male-to-male cable
at line level (after your own phono pre-amp) you can leap to very good "prosumer" level pci soundcard with esi Juli@ for ~$120
Thanks for the replies.
OK, if I'm gonna be cheap, then something cheap will do. Maybe the Behringer UA-202 will be OK. Can't beat the price at under $30 USD.
About the X-fi Elite... I see that it has 24-bit/192kHz converters. I guess those are easy to implement in sound cards these days. I've never been a big fan of Sound Blaster stuff, but if it's good, then hey it's good. How do you think that would compare to an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96?
Asus makes a beefy looking sound card too, w/ C-Media CMI-8788 chipset and Crystal DACs. Can't remember what it's called at the moment...
OK, if I'm gonna be cheap, then something cheap will do. Maybe the Behringer UA-202 will be OK. Can't beat the price at under $30 USD.
About the X-fi Elite... I see that it has 24-bit/192kHz converters. I guess those are easy to implement in sound cards these days. I've never been a big fan of Sound Blaster stuff, but if it's good, then hey it's good. How do you think that would compare to an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96?
Asus makes a beefy looking sound card too, w/ C-Media CMI-8788 chipset and Crystal DACs. Can't remember what it's called at the moment...
just put RMAA and nearly any sound card name in a search engine and you will get links to loopback test plots
RightMark Audio Analyzer test: uca202 line-line
download the free version Download. Audio Rightmark and test your computer, it may be better than the $30 box
RightMark Audio Analyzer test: uca202 line-line
download the free version Download. Audio Rightmark and test your computer, it may be better than the $30 box
Asus Essence ST range probably. Has some of the best specs for A/D in a mainstream consumer level card certainly. But for recording 78s, the specs on most soundcards A/Ds will be overkill I'd imagine. Maintaining enough dynamic range to capture clicks without clipping though might be an issue.
If you have a sound card with S/PDIF input, that allows using an outboard ADC. One of the cheaper options has been the Behringer SRC-2496. 16 to 24 bits, 32k to 96k samples/sec, DAC & ADC, optical and coax, S/PDIF & AES/EBU. And perhaps the most useful features for recording... input gain knob and LED level display.
A possible cheaper alternative: an obsoleteish digital recorder like a Minidisc, DCC, DAT, or CD recorder. A video DVD-recorder may work too, although it's less likely to have features like an audio level display and gain control.
Behringer has a USB sound dohickey that includes an RIAA preamp; that should be even better than the UCA202. I don't know if it has a gain control, though.
Here's a page with a lot of different LP to computer options.
Knowzy
A possible cheaper alternative: an obsoleteish digital recorder like a Minidisc, DCC, DAT, or CD recorder. A video DVD-recorder may work too, although it's less likely to have features like an audio level display and gain control.
Behringer has a USB sound dohickey that includes an RIAA preamp; that should be even better than the UCA202. I don't know if it has a gain control, though.
Here's a page with a lot of different LP to computer options.
Knowzy
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