USB Turntable

[Pomai]

Yes. Turntable. As in vinyl 33>45>78? rpm records. Shoots, kids today probably don't even know what a CD is. lol

I was in Hawaii Kai Costco the other day and noticed they had the ION USB turntable for sale. I immediately thought of Mel (that sounds kinda' weird).

What was funny was that there were a couple teenagers oogling over it, with thoughts of getting it for scratching hip hop. For real!

Great idea though. A turntable that conveniently digitizes the signal directly to your computer, making archiving your old record collection just a mouse-click (or two or more) away.

Actually, I got rid of all my vinyl a long time ago, but if I still had them, I'd DEFINITELY pick something like this up.

Here's a CNET video review of the Stanton T.90 USB turntable model.

[zztype]

Re: USB Turntable

Oh my. What aisle did you say that was on? Behind the HDTVs?

[Leo Lakio]

Re: USB Turntable

I believe I'm getting one of these for Christmas (if I ever get over to my sister's house across the lake, that is...) Since I still have over 3000 vinyl albums, it could come in very handy.

[scrivener]

Re: USB Turntable

I've been eyeing these things for a couple of months. I don't have 3000 LPs, but I do have a few hundred. Would love to get some of that into my iTunes.

[jkpescador]

Re: USB Turntable

Please let me know how it works out if you get one.

I have some records. I really don't know what they will sound like after 20 years. I have mostly 80s 12 inch stuff. Some may say they are collectible. I think most stuff is on CD now.

[tikiyaki]

Re: USB Turntable

I've been serisouly considering getting one of these, but, then, I would start collecting vinyl again, which would go against my whole "I wanna downsize my stuff" thing.

So, I've refrained....for now.

[bueller555]

Re: USB Turntable

I've used a cassette player with RCA jacks into the back of my computer to convert cassettes to digital. I'm also looking to convert a few albums, but I can't even find anyone with a working turntable! The USB turntable is nice, but unless I'm missing something, I don't think that it's really necessary.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: USB Turntable

I saw something like that at Best Buy. I'm not sure about the quality of the turntable itself. I saw one review that didn't rank it very highly. Frankly, I'd expect to pay more for a quality turntable and external sound card.

[oceanpacific]

Re: USB Turntable

My daughter got me one for Christmas, but it's still in the box. If I use it, I'll be forced to upgrade myself from my "lo-lo tech" methods of transferring music from vinyl. I have about 10K LPs, 45s, and EPs.

I already have two turntables without the USB connections. I suppose that another platter won't be excessive.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: USB Turntable

A device like this is something people can use with their computers, especially if you don't have a high-quality sound card installed (most standard sound cards are relatively "noisy" in the digital realm, so doing the analog-to-digital conversion externally is better.)

[craigwatanabe]

Re: USB Turntable

The real beauty of a USB turntable is that you don't need a phono preamp. If you already have traditional turntable you still need to run it thru a conventional amplifier that has a phono pre amp (phono setting on the front panel). That's simply another major piece of hardware needed to do the vinyl to digital conversion.

This device makes it very easy to do the conversion by simply plugging in the USB connection and running the software once Windows XP recognizes that new USB device. Can't get much simpler than that.

Now if the makers of Discwasher can mix up a nice batch of D4 to clean up those scratchy tracks that would be nice.

[scrivener]

Re: USB Turntable

So Craig, do you have one? Tell us about it.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: USB Turntable

I actually do not have one because I have all that other crap I mentioned so I figured "why bother" however the thought of not having to drag out all that junk just to rip one LP makes me want to purchase one anyway. But for me I've pretty much ripped my music collection to WAV already if not downloaded the MP3 version of that tune. I have only a handful of records left in my collection having donated the bulk of them when I moved to the Big Island. And all of them have been ripped already.

[scrivener]

Re: USB Turntable

I have a birthday coming up in a few days. I think this would be a swell gift to myself. The website description says shipping's not available to Alaska and Hawaii, so I'm going to have to grab one here. Has anyone seen it at any of the other Oahu Costcos?

Pomai, did you happen to see the price?

I, too, have seen USB turntables at Best Buy. I wonder if it's the same brand. Might have to do some comparison shopping tomorrow. Oh, I have a former student who can get me the employee discount at Best Buy. Hmmm...

[helen]

Re: USB Turntable

Not that I have any need for a phonograph turntable but I am kind of wondering if the company (or some other company) sells replacement phonograph needles as well?