USB Turntables - anyone tried them?

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ssportclay

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As a general rule, turntables have not really improved since the 1960s but tonearms have improved a lot in the last 20 years. Since this is a DIY forum, my best advice would be to buy a used quality massive turntable from yesteryear and install a modern tonearm on it. A new turntable will have to cost over $2000 to perform better than a rearmed great turntable from the past.
 
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BasicHIFI1

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My records are still just sitting there, and a review of a lesser turntable vs a standard one, the comment was made that they were using the same cartridge. I feel I could process the sound output.


Exactly what in the records will get damaged by the turntable - is it the stylus cutting into the grooves, bouncing and skipping of a low mass arm, tracking inaccuracies, what is it really?



CRAPPY CHINESE RECORD PLAYER - YouTube
 
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BasicHIFI1

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Some of my vinyl can be sacrificed, I think. I have an USB microscope with which I will view the grooves before and after and see what the effect is.



Meanwhile to answer how a cheap turntable can damage your records:


Vinyl is not a portable medium. The discs are large and fragile, as are the components required to play them. They are also a largely mechanical medium, requiring components built to precise tolerances to play them correctly and without damage. And vinyl is not a cheap hobby. With the relatively high average cost of new records, and the cost of used vinyl on the rise, it makes sense to own a turntable that will protect your investment, rather than destroying it.
In this article my intention was to provide some definitive proof to show beyond reasonable doubt that a cheap turntable will cause excessive damage to the records it plays. Not only do the clips above demonstrate my point, but I can’t help but be surprised at just how durable the vinyl disc is. While it cannot be argued that our test record is not severely damaged, I thought that the level of damage would be greater. However any damage especially caused in such a short space of time is unacceptable when it is clearly audible. In future articles we will explore a range of vinyl-based systems designed to offer vinyl playback on a budget without ruining your records.
Click to expand...


Will A Cheap Turntable Damage Your Records? - Audio Appraisal


Maybe buy- use and sell - buying used is fine but selling...



Turntable For Sale In Sri Lanka - For Sale - Sri Lanka | Lankabuysell.com
 
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BasicHIFI1

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Retro Record Player 33RPM Antique Gramophone Turntable Disc Vinyl Audio RCA R/L 3.5mm USB DC 5V Gramophones: Buy Sell Online @ Best Prices in SriLanka | Daraz.lk


This one looks good. Are my records in good condition? Well no, some of them are not, and it is a case of recovering what I can.


Think of it as data recovery for vinyl disks. I hope my player wont get damaged.



From the article, the wear after 100 plays is acceptable, and I will be doing 2 plays max per record, then convert to digital format.
 
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BasicHIFI1

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Considering this one:



List price of about $ 130, reduced to $50 (US Dollars) equivalent. Of course there are used ones around but I am very reluctant to try my luck on those. Let's see.
 

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BasicHIFI1

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EC8010

EC8010

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Joined 2003
Perhaps the previous posters didn't make it clear (although they surely tried). A cheap turntable will wreck your records. Wreck. The cheapest half-reasonable cartridge costs about $60. You can probably buy a reasonable RIAA pre-amplifier for $100. You can probably buy a reasonable (not good, but reasonable) ADC for $100. So that's $260 and you haven't even bought a turntable with arm yet. There are plenty of old turntables available, although unless they've been in regular use until recently, they will have issues (perished rubber parts such as belts, dried up oil). People tend to store such things in the roof space - a place where it gets extremely hot in summer and cold and damp in winter.

To sum up, digitising LPs is expensive. Doing it well is seriously expensive. Far better to replace the LPs with CDs bought at car boot sales. But perhaps you have some LPs that never made it onto CD? In which case, they have significant value. Probably each one is worth more than the $50 you are contemplating spending on USB junk.

I hope this is clear. Either do the job properly, or not at all. And since it will cost so much to do the job properly, it's probably not worth doing. Sorry, but that's the truth of the matter.
 
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BasicHIFI1

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Of course I plan to purchase a quality turntable at some point. This will be an experiment.

To your point of CDs, I have become rather wary of digital music including CDs, and "Re-Mastered" CDs , now that I have heard some examples of
converted (to digital, .wav) vinyl vs the mp3 versions, but, to be fair, I have to compare CDs to the vinyl edition.

I did get three of my LPS professionally converted, and a cassette as well, the last one turned out badly with skipping and noise, which could be traced to the used nature of the LPs. The first two LPs converted were only every played about 10 times on a Technics turntable, however I will never know if I had set the tracking force correctly.

While on the topic, there is a list of recommended turntables, what do you think? Most of them are around $200 or more, which is doable.
There is the lowest priced one, the Lenco L-85

£69.99
(opens in new tab)at Robert Dyas (opens in new tab)
£81.84
(opens in new tab)at Amazon (opens in new tab)
£114
(opens in new tab)at Audio Visual Online

https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/hi-fi/best-budget-turntables
 
GeoffMillar

GeoffMillar

Member
Joined 2016
As an alternative, an "XP201" box - not sure if it's still on sale but will link if I can - slots into a PC and has line inputs for turntables and tape decks. You plug the RCA outputs into the jacks on its face-plate; cost around A$120 new.

It records the signal as WAV, not MP3, which is what many USB turntables do. The XP201 connects to the sound card; if you have a good quality card like Creative Soundblaster, the system works well and I've converted many LPs to CD in this way; mainly comedy and LPs which are n/a on CD anyway.

I also have a Denon USB turntable with an Audio-Technica cartridge and its conversions are OK for the car or casual listening. However, the sound is not as good as our old Pioneer DD turntable with Ortofon moving coil cartridge and you can't adjust the tracking or anti-skate on the Denon.

Geoff
 
tonyEE

tonyEE

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MAAC0 said:
Do You have a good HIFI system including turntable ?
Use the record outs from the amp & feed them to the computer soundcard.
That's what I did & worked well after some denoising & de-pop software edit.
Click to expand...

NO!

Get a reasonable AD/DAC device. The sound card in a PC is compromised... I did have some 24/96 AD/DAC PCI cards from around '02 (they were NOT cheap) but the outboard devices over Firewire and USB are much better.
 
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Markw4

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Last edited:
tonyEE

tonyEE

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I just upgraded my LP12 to a Karousel bearing.

The sound has improved incredibly.

QED.

BTW- the Linn prices are actually reasonable. If you take a hold of the Karousel, check out its quality and realize it was made in Scottland, not China, it's price is astounding.
 
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