Vinyl collection, now what?


Hey folks,

Just inherited a really interesting collection of records from my audiophile crazy uncle.
Lots of master and super master pressings, a complete Time Life Records collection, Sheffield track records, etc.

I have never owned a turntable and know very little about them.

Does anyone have experience digitizing tracks to file using a USB turntable?
Any recommendations for or against?
Am I looking at something potentially very expensive?
I haven't looked through everything but saw lots of albums I would like to digitize.

Thanks everyone!
hleeid

Showing 3 responses by mijostyn

I have the pure Vinyl Program. It catalogs all my digital recordings in the iTunes Library, has all the required codecs and up samples everything to 24/192 to keep the anti aliasing filters up out of the way. I only digitize records I am ABing with another source. Just makes it easier. I have no intention of digitizing my entire collection. IMHO you would have to be out of your mind. 
Russashe, the Clearaudio concept will do nicely you just have to put the right cartridge in it which depends on the phono stage. 
No, cleeds was not kidding a 24/192 conversion of a record will be indistinguishable from the record. cleeds and I are not the only ones to say this. Michael Fremer has made the same comment. He also uses Channel D software. 
cleeds, check this out. These guys are on a serious roll. Their Phono stage is one of the best out there. The L20 is the quietest phono stage ever made....if you can afford one :(
hleeid, nice snatch! You get the lucky guy of the week aware:)

If you have an Apple computer get the Channel D Pure Vinyl program. It will copy your collection to Apple's iTunes library (soon to be called Music) in 24/192 and download album graphics and song details automatically. The program includes digital RIAA equalization so ideally you would get a phono amp w/o equalization. Channel D makes several inexpensive ones of superlative performance. This also negates the need for a USB turntable. As for the turntable, that depends on how critical you are and how much you intend on spending.
As for all you die hard vinyl/analog guys out there I have news for you. If I played back a record and it's 24/192 copy you would not be able tell the difference. The copy will sound just as analog as the real deal unless I turned on Pure Vinyl's pop and click eliminator then the copy would be obviously quieter. 

Hleeid, congrats, you are on your way to a fabulous music collection. One word of caution. Turning these records into digital files is going to take a very long time. Pure Vinyl gives you a head start but still, doing all those records in real time will take you years and you will have to intervene every 20 minutes or so. I would certainly weed out the albums you obviously won't listen to.If you decide to get Pure Vinyl (this is the program Mike Fremer uses) and you need some help with it feel free to contact me. Once you are use to it it is a breeze. As an example it will start recording automatically as soon as it detects a needle drop and stop on reverse. If you put an autolifter on the turntable it will take some of the stress out.