Digitizing LPs

The Tascam DA-3000 does a nice job recording LPs to DSD and hi-res PCM. To improve the Tascam, check the archives here and on Audio Asylum for my suggested internal modifications. Adding to that, I recently had good results treating pins on its internal wire harnesses with Perfect Path Total Contact graphene paste (as discussed in the "New Tweak" thread.)

DSD slightly surpasses 24/192 PCM recording on the Tascam. However, for noisy albums you need PCM to employ declicking software. I do that with Vinyl Studio. However, in automatic sweep mode VS’s declicker degrades general SQ. This may or may not be an issue for you, depending on the quality of your analog front end. If anyone is using a less intrusive declicker, please post.

@tkr

I purchased Tascam as the best all-in-one DSD recorder I could find short of Playback Designs.  All that's needed in addition to the unit is CF or SD card media and a CF or SD reader to transfer files to the PC for processing by Tascam's free Hi-Res Editor software.  My reservation about the Lynx was its lack of DSD support, and a Mike Fremer review in which he failed to find meaningful differences between the Lynx and other 24/192 units across a wide range of price points.

@jbny Thanks, I’ll try it.

@tkr I "hear" your pain. An LP takes up around 3.5GB at DSD128. I store them on a QNAP TVS-882 RAID on up to eight disk drives and SSDs. The QNAP contains an i5 quad core CPU that hosts Roon and Roon DSP engine.

I have no bone to pick either. I will only submit that if you’re 70/30 leaning toward digital, then recording those LPs will eventually get you to 100% digital, and at a potentially higher level of satisfaction and lower cost than replicating an LP collection with hi-res downloads. Moreover, if you have 2500 hours of vinyl in your collection and a 30% attention span with analog, the likelihood is that you will never listen to most of those LPs in any case. The recording process is a pleasant re-engagement with that collection.

Another time consumer in the digitization process is the cleaning of LPs prior to recording. I find that I’m willing to accept more noise in the course of normal listening than for the purpose of archival recording. Recording makes me think harder about cleaning records and tonearm/cartridge set-up, and more critically about the quality of the analog source. I just purchased a Lyra Etna for this purpose that I would not have normally considered. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on one’s degree of fanaticism and resources with respect to the LP. However, long after that Etna stylus is toast, I’ll be enjoying its recordings.

In any case, I find it interesting that analog-oriented audiophiles are beginning to think about this.