Vinyl recording better coaxial to cdr or usb to hdd?? help

[rudy99]

hi, would it be a better quality to record my vinyl Lp's to a cdr philips cd burner via coaxial to a cd and then latter onto a hdd, or would usb straight to hdd have best sound quality, ??

thankyou

 

[Farview]

The answer is somewhere between "it depends" and "it doesn't matter".

It depends on which set of converters happens to be better. More than likely, the USB device is 24 bit and the CD burner is 16 bit. So the USB would win in that case.

It doesn't matter because the dynamic range and frequency response of either set of converters far excedes that of the LP you are playing into it.

Go with which ever is more convienient because you won't hear a difference if you set the levels correctly.

 

[grimtraveller]

The answer is somewhere between "it depends" and "it doesn't matter".

Back in the late 90s I accidentally discovered a way to record vinyl onto CD. I'd bought a Phillips CD recorder and I thought I could just plug the outs from the turntable into the the ins of the CD ~ no deal. So I plugged them into the amp ~ no deal. I tried every possible configuration to no avail and I was just cursing my folly at having wasted nearly 300 big ones (we're talking £s not $s). Then a brainwave hit me. The previous week, I'd managed to record cassette albums to the CD. I figured that if I set the turntable to record to cassette mode and left the tape deck on pause, the sound from the turntable should go to the CD. Bingo ! What a fluke.
Not long after this, I transfered a copy of Led Zeppelin's 'Physical graffitti' from vinyl to CD for a colleague who was decidedly anti digital, a real analog purist. He couldn't believe the result, he kept gushing over the fact that he could pop the hated artifact into his car CD but it was like the record was playing, complete with scratches and the like ! He loved that.
Nowadays technology has made quantam leaps forward and it's easy to do transfers. But I've noticed that often, those that want their vinyl transfered as opposed to just buying the CD are looking for something that maybe they feel they can't get from the CD. I think Farview is right here because the quality will be as good as the record sounds at this point in time, regardless of whether you use coaxial or USB. For all mine I just went rca to Phillips CD and they sound great.

 

[rudy99]

Back in the late 90s I accidentally discovered a way to record vinyl onto CD. I'd bought a Phillips CD recorder and I thought I could just plug the outs from the turntable into the the ins of the CD ~ no deal. So I plugged them into the amp ~ no deal. I tried every possible configuration to no avail and I was just cursing my folly at having wasted nearly 300 big ones (we're talking £s not $s). Then a brainwave hit me. The previous week, I'd managed to record cassette albums to the CD. I figured that if I set the turntable to record to cassette mode and left the tape deck on pause, the sound from the turntable should go to the CD. Bingo ! What a fluke.
Not long after this, I transfered a copy of Led Zeppelin's 'Physical graffitti' from vinyl to CD for a colleague who was decidedly anti digital, a real analog purist. He couldn't believe the result, he kept gushing over the fact that he could pop the hated artifact into his car CD but it was like the record was playing, complete with scratches and the like ! He loved that.
Nowadays technology has made quantam leaps forward and it's easy to do transfers. But I've noticed that often, those that want their vinyl transfered as opposed to just buying the CD are looking for something that maybe they feel they can't get from the CD. I think Farview is right here because the quality will be as good as the record sounds at this point in time, regardless of whether you use coaxial or USB. For all mine I just went rca to Phillips CD and they sound great.

hey thanks you guys are cool, right now ive got a cheap turntable with usb and line outs never use it ,i do use my yamaha p350 circa 83 for everyday use, but is has much background noise,
idealy i wanted a new tt with either usb or coaxial outs for recording and key lock would be the icing on the cake.
it appears ive found a stanton that offers all these capabilities but it isnt their top of the line product
(whcih i considered but is almost 35 freakin pounds!) so i dont need a hurnia,
and i checked all the technics very pricey but then i came across a techinic 1200 copy by audio technica the Audio-Technica ATLP120USB,, and it has usb and line out plus 78 speed,,,,, about 24 pounds much cheaper then technic and i just may be sold on her. but no coaxial
thats cool you had a phillips burner, ive had mine for almost 15 years works like a charm and is a tank and has coaxial input and toslink outpu
ive recorded all my magnetic tape to hard drive and its difficult to tell the usb recording sq because the tapes dont sound great in the first place, but its nice i know have my whole tape collection on my ipod hooked up in my car, i love it so much, but im lazy and didnt want to sit thru every song to cut each track so i have to fast forward,, no biggie

got some zeplin lp too man

3 cheers 4 u

 

[rudy99]

The answer is somewhere between "it depends" and "it doesn't matter".

It depends on which set of converters happens to be better. More than likely, the USB device is 24 bit and the CD burner is 16 bit. So the USB would win in that case.

It doesn't matter because the dynamic range and frequency response of either set of converters far excedes that of the LP you are playing into it.

Go with which ever is more convienient because you won't hear a difference if you set the levels correctly.

thats the thing i think most of these built in usb are 16 bit, my tape 2 pc was nad the audio technica im lookin at is :

USB Function A/D, D/A - 16 bit 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz USB selectable;
Computer interface - USB 1.1 Compliant Windows XP, Vista or MAC OSX

so would coaxial out of a turntable to the coaxial input on my phillips cd burner be better sq??

thankyou for your help

 

[Farview]

The CD that you are burning is only going to be 16 bit. That's probably why they didn't bother with 24 bit converters, because they are assuming that you are just gong to make a CD or mp3 of it.

A quick, oversimplified lesson in bit depth:

The number of bits corresponds to the dynamic range that can be captured. 16 bit can capture 96db of dynamic range and 24 bit can capture 144db.

You will be lucky to get 70db of dynamic range out of an LP, so it will easily fit within the 16 bits.

So, again, it doesn't matter. Chances are, they will not have two different sets of converters (16 bit and 24 bit). They are more likely using 16 bit converters and sending the signal out two different ports.

USB can carry 24 bit as well as coaxial and lightpipe can. With digital transfer, the type or format of the connection doesn't matter. The two different outputs are there for convienience, not because one is better than the other.