Turntable USB question

kprhok

Yesterday, after thinking I had researched turntables within my price range and was satisfied with the reviews on the Audio Technica AT-PL120, I bought one.

I purchased an Ortofon OM10 cartridge also.

I planned to convert my father's collection of old vinyl big band LPs to CD.

Now I am learning that the USB feature has at least one very negative review.

I have two questions:

1. If I simply decide to run cable from my phono to receiver phono jack, do I then run a cable from my tape/out jack in the back of the receiver to my computer mic input?

2. If I want to go from turntable to computer and avoid running through my receiver, does this mean I would need to purchase a preamp to avoid all the problems with the internal preamp and gateway that the review so harshly writes about. Can you have two preamps in one line? I am a bit confused as to how that would work. Seems that anything going out from the turntable preamp would be limited to the quality of sound produced by that preamp, presumably bad.

Thanks for helping me figure out how to get the best sound from the new turntable when moving from vinyl to CD using a computer.

By the way, the reviews from this and some other sites overall in terms of quality of turntable have been good, so I don't really have buyer's remorse as the title suggests, it's just that I don't know if the USB feature is going to be as convenient as I first expected. One forum member did bring up the USB issue but somehow I thought that would have been a minor issue at the time.

madmax

Whats wrong with the USB device?

madmax

You don't want to use the mic input, it will be fairly low quality. Its best to use an outboard line level in USB device.

kprhok

madmax wrote: »

You don't want to use the mic input, it will be fairly low quality. Its best to use an outboard line level in USB device.

Is that a wire that runs from the receiver to computer, or from turntable to computer?

madmax

It would take the output of the receiver, change it to digital and send to computer through USB.

kprhok

madmax wrote: »

It would take the output of the receiver, change it to digital and send to computer through USB.

Got it. Thanks very much MadMax...

doctorcilantro

Not cheap, and though I never used it, the EMU 1616M has a phono preamp, and you would get really good converters. It might cost more than the table did though.

It is a PCI-based system with an external breakout box connected to the PCI card via Cat5 type cable.

Then you'd also have a killer DAC to run it right back out in real-time to your stereo, or to playback digital source material. Maybe not a purist approach but at least you could monitor the recordings in real-time.

Just looked and while you can find used 1616M for $250 sometimes, it appears they have a brand new Version3 out w/ some kind of shielding (overkill) on the PCI-E card.