help with 78's!!

F

finetunes

New member
I am transfering some old 78rpms(1920's thru the early 40's) to CD. I need expert advice on a turntable to buy. I won't be using the turntable for anything else, only transcribing about 50 to 100 discs. I'm prioritizing sound quality over bells and whistles. I'm looking at the Stanton STR8-80 and the Numark TT-100, although some dealers state the TT-100 only plays 33 1/3 and 45's, while others say it also plays 78's. Also, what type of tone arm should I go with - straight or S curve? The Stanton has digital outs, but I wonder if I'm better off coming out analog and using the digital converters in my Gina24 card.
I might be willing to spend more money for a better turntable than either of these but I will need alot of coaxing. :-)
Bubba
 
Bubba,

I'm far from an expert on turntables, but here are some basic principals.

1. Belt drive is better. DJ's prefer direct drive for fast cueing, but belt drives are sonically superior for a variety of reasons. Most notably, the belt helps isolate mechanical noise from the motor.

2. Seriously consider buying a used AR, Dual or Garrard (with the wood base and no suspension) instead of a new turntable. New inexpensive turntables are nowhere near the quality of these older ones. Looking for a high quality new turntable will instantly jump you up into the $1000+ range.

3. Buy as good a moving magnet cartridge as you can afford. Check Stereophile, or some other such publication for recommendations. The cartridge is as important to good vinyl reproduction as a microphone is to recording.

4. Get a good phono preamp. The phono preamps in most DJ mixers are quite poor quality. Look for good used hi-fi stereo preamp or I've even seen nice dedicated RIAA preamp kits which are far cheaper than brand names.

5. Definitely do not buy a turntable with an internal A/D converter. Your Gina is much better.

6. Whatever you get, take it to a good hi-fi shop with an experienced turntable technician and have them adjust it. Just having everything in proper alignment makes a world of difference.

Hope this helps:)
barefoot
 
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Bubba,

No problem, but I was just thinking. No matter what route you take, it's hard to imagine that you'll be able to get a decent system together for under a thousand dollars or so. And bringing old recordings like this to life is an art that some people spend years perfecting.

Since you have a finite number of records to archive and this is you're only purpose for the turntable, maybe you should consider renting some equipment? If you search around, I'm sure you can find somebody willing to rent you a truly wonderful turntable and preamp, probably specifically optimized to play 78's. A few hours east to Nashville and I'm certain you can find such a thing.

Estimate the number of hours it will take you to copy all your discs, and how that fit's into your schedule, then strike a deal to rent the equipment for the week or two you'll need. You will spend a lot less money and get far better results. Just do a little homework in advance in order to find a great system put together by an audiophile who really loves old records.

barefoot
 
Renting or borrowing equipment is not a bad idea, but I have not yet found all the records that I want to transcribe, in fact, there are probably some that exist that I don't know about and hopefully I will come across them in my searches. I figure if I buy a nice turntable, when I'm finally finished with my project (1 yr..2 yrs... 5yrs, ??)I could sell it and come out ok, that is if I buy used equipment to begin with.
Besides recording my own music in my home studio, I just finished copying about 16 hrs. of 1/4" tapes recorded in 1955. So I've had some experience in restoration and I do find it interesting. I've already found someone who needs some records put to CD so maybe I can recoup some of my costs.
Bubba
 
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