2. pc-audio
  3. 1417856497

PC audio newbie looking for advice

I'm just throwing this out there and I will greatly appreciate any help, knowledge, or tips I can get regarding the process of recording my vinyl and CDs to a hard drive.

Ultimately what I am looking for is this:

1) A tablet and/or smart phone interface ( I might be OK with small IR hardware for home but hopefully not)
2) Easy, smart, software for this interface (I've read MediaMonkey is good)
3) An easy, software solution for the adc process (I've read that VinylStudio is easy and effective)
4) Since memory is cheap I want to keep WAV, or maybe lossless, files on a standalone hard drive(s) for home audio playback. I might also convert these to mp3 for use on a smart phone to play in the car, etc.
5) I have a nice 17" Toshiba laptop (windows 7) and want to use it for the front end in the adc process if I can. My phone is the only Apple product I've ever had, an iPhone 5s because it's slim and small compared to other phones. I do not own a tablet currently but a dedicated convertable for the sound system is appealing. I am not inclined to go the media player route.

Over time I've put together a decent rig for critical listening and I am thinking that now I would like to convert my vinyl and CD's (about 500 units all told) to hard drive for convenience and portability. Some of the answers to some of my questions are probably on the forums somewhere but they can be difficult to hunt down. I can handle technical if necessary but I prefer easy, elegant and low maintenance solutions. I've got an idea of most of the parts and pieces I will need but I haven't wrapped my head around the process as a whole from end to end. I am not willing to spend forever and a pot of gold to gain a few percent, and basically I am looking to reduce my stumbling around in the dark as much as I can. Thanks in advance for your time and patience.

My home audio rig consists of a primary system in a critical listening / video room which shares some sources with a lesser secondary system that takes sound everywhere else in the house and yard via an effective 12 channel mid fi amp and low tech, hard wired, 12/4 & 14/4 wall rated speaker cable all over the place whole house sound system. I am not inclined to go Sonos or equal because my speakers and sound are superior and the sound is the thing above all.

FWIW

Primary rig
-----------
Cary SLP98p F1
Cary CAD 500 MB (2)
Cerious Technologies React 2
Esoteric P-700
Cary Xciter DAC
ProJect PerspecX
Parasound T-3
Samsung whatever 3D Blueray player
Samsung 58" Plasma 3DHD TV
APC H15
HRT Linestreamer plus
I am considering replacing the Samsung blueray, Esoteric, and Cary Xciter with an Oppo 105. The Esoteric is a great unit though. Yes I like to turn it up a bit at times.

Secondary rig
-------------
Sansui AU-317 (preamp only)
Dayton Audio MA 1240
Yamaha 5 disc CD changer
Sansui TU-317
Cerious Technologies Cerious 7
Quad 12L2 (2)
Asperion Outdoor
DCM Time Windows
Pioneer HPM 100

Power, interconnect, and speakers cables are a combination of Cerious Technologies, SoundSilver, and custom.
silversurfer0116
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"A turntable has to convert analog data into digital data to burn it onto CD."

No it doesn't, but something in the chain has to. A stand alone CD burner has its own analog to digital converter. Since its integrated as part of the burner, you really don't see, or interact with it in any way. You can either connect a phono preamp to it directly, or connect it to a preamp.
kennythekey
593 posts
 
Silversurfer,
There's new stuff all the time, so at one time Computer Audiophile favored J. River as a player. It works for me, but I do have a lot of different parts to my digital gear, that can complicate things.
As I remember, I downloaded the JRemote app after I already had the J. River Media Center. There's a setting in J. River, that runs the Media Server when you start up your computer, that the JRemote app syncs with. I think you need the J. River Media Center to use the JRemote app, but the Media Center is on my PC, while JRemote is on my iPad. Look into this, so you know for sure.
I guess I have a number of separates, because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. Digital audio technology, turns over like cell phones, computers, and software, because it's the same idea. I don't want to upgrade my all-in-one, because it won't handle a bigger hard drive, for example. But, that's me, and others have their own solutions that work best for them.
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
I am in the processing of digitizing my vinyl. It is a time consuming but rewarding process. The adc is a critical part of the process. When I started the process, in order to test the process I used the adc in my PC. It did the job, but the sound was not as good as the vinyl. I eventually bought a Korg MR2000s, which unfortunately is not made any more. The Tascam DA-3000 is a good entry level professional unit. I digitize to 2xDSD or 24/192 PCM, depending on how noisy the record is. You cannot do click removal on DSD without converting it to PCM. I had planned to use DSD for most of the work, but in the end am mostly using PCM becue of the click removal. As clean as you think you albums are, there are always a few clicks in there.

I use Vinyl Studio and find it easy to use. As with all software, it takes a little getting used to but it does everything I want. It does not do fancy effects like Audacity, but I don't need those. It does look up albums and retrieves track names and track lengths, which many of the programs do not do.

Although a CD-R unit can work, I will look carefully at the adc in it. I do find that high rez does sound better than 16/44.

My goal was to get the digital to sound as close to the vinyl as I could. My vinyl rig is a VPI Scout with a Benz Ebony TR cartridge and a Linn Linto phonostage. The two pieces of equipment that realized my goal were the Korg and a Chord Hugo DAC. If you want you digitzed files to sound like your vinyl, you need to match the DAC to your vinyl sound. The Oppo is a fine all around player, but some people do find its sound analytic and a little dry, which may not be what you want to match your vinyl and Cary sound.

I use J River and it does indeed have a lot of features which can make it complicated. But, you can also use it without any modifications and it works fine. You can then customize as you wish. The customizations are its real strength. It does many things that other programs just do not do.

You can get free trial versions of both Vinyl Studio and J River, but both of them are pretty inexpensive. Vinyl Studio for $30 is a steal.

I would concentrate on finding a adc that fits your price range and does the resolutions you want. If you have a PC with a sound card that does adc that might be a good place to get started. It probably will not be your final solution but it is a good way to try out the process. You can import any files you create into Vinyl Studio.
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
JRemote started as a third party app that ran on Apple phones and tablets. It requires J River be installed on the main computer. It is just a remote interface and player for the hand held devices. The developer of JRemote now works for JRIver and he is in the process of developing an Android version. No time frame has been announced. JRiver has their oun Android program called Gizmo, but it is less flexible than JRemote and will probably be phased out once JRemote is available on Android devices.
lewinskih01
909 posts
 
Check out computeraudiophile.com, as it is focused on...computer audio...obviously.

There is a Guide to Ripping CDs. It focuses on dBpoweramp. Finding the right settings is not necessarily intuitive, but I followed that guide to a t thE first time, and never had to re-set the settings.

There is also a guide to Setting up JRiver. I think it was written back at the time of JRiver 17. Even though we are now on JRiver 20 version, the basics still apply. Again, it is handy to get to the critical settings quickly.

There might be a guide for ripping vinyl too...don't know.

I think JRiver is a good place to start. jRemote works great (my server is headless so this is critical), and Jriver itself is good. I believe certain combinations of DAC/playback software/format of the music to be played/type of server used sound better than others so it gets slippery pretty fast if one shoots for "the best sound", but I would leave that for later.

HQPlayer is also a good playback software. Has a lot less features than JRiver, but for audio playback it is just fine. It needs a computer with a screen, though, so no JRemote-type options. You also cannot pick songs from different albums as easily as with JRiver. But if you just select a whole album and play it, it works very well. Some claim it sounds better than JRiver. I didn't try it with PCM material (CDs), but tried it with DSD into a capable DAC and indeed it sounded better than JRiver. Yet I opted to stay with the latter due to the human interface.
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