USB Turntable

Hey again!

I'm going to buy my dad a USB turntable, so he can convert his vinyls and actually play them on the computer, and i'm wonder if there is anyone here who has experience of them.

Ones to avoid?

I see most of them are around £55 odd.

I've got a couple of these... http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?Track=TTX1USB

Very good turntables but not so cheap, saying that I still prefer my Technics 1210s.

If possible try to avoid belt driven turntables.

I might have to go for the belt driven ones. I'm not too keen on spending more than £60. Once he's finished tranfering the vinyls, i doubt he'll want to play them through it, unless it's a great player. And for Less than £60, i reckon it won't be :o)

The best cheapy I would suggest is the Numark TTUSB but thats ~£89, as a bonus it does have a 1/8-inch stereo minijack, making possible to connect other equipment through it (tape deck or whatever), and it'll have a replaceable good quality cartridge and tone arm.

As for the sub £60 products, I wouldnt have a clue.

i know both maplins and firebox (and im sure hmv had one too) sell usb turntables that are reasonably priced, but i have no idea regarding the stylus, build quality or how hard you can push it before it breaks

if as you say its for transfering only and not dj playback then going too high in price might be counter productive

some do 33/45 (and 72?) speeds via software, lets hope they dont sound too chip and dale when its converted ;)

you can also get a usb twin tape by one of the turntable manufactures, that would be great for your speccy cpc and c64 tape needs

all we need now is for someone to come up with a universal drive bay 5.25", 3.5" and 3" in one handy box that can read dos/c64 5.25" and amiga/dos 3.5" and whatever cp/m and cpc formats that came on 3"

hell go the whole hog and have console slots too
no retro gamer should be without :)

If you are converting old vinyl to mp3 for your personal collection, go with the cheap USB turntable. The artifacts from mp3 will probably be worse than the minor noise/coloration of the cheap turntable.

If you are doing pro studio stuff, then just use a good turntable without USB and record it directly.

And if you are an obsessive audiophile type, just keep your vinyl.

sweet, not seen these b4 :)

My mums got some great (and quite rare) vinyl but no R.P.

i myself rebought my limited lp collection on cd
and ive now surpassed my vhs collection with my dvd (although in numbers only not actually got all the vhs tapes on dvd as yet ... think ive got all the betamax tapes on dvd now except for sound of music ... cant see me buying that one ;) )