Sweet Vinyl Sugarcube - I Want It!!!


At the NY Audio Show this past weekend, I got to see and hear the demo of the Sweet Vinyl Sugarcube.  This PC-based stand alone unit is amazing.  Here is what it does:


1.  De-clicks vinyl - and does so completely transparently, and is user-adjustable (more or less filtering of clicks and pops). 

2.  Digitizes vinyl - MP3 through 24/192 resolution.

3.  Locates metadata for LPs being played/digitized, including cover art

4.  Inserts track divisions based on the metadata (wow!).

5.  Compensates for non-RIAA recordings

6.  Plug in apps will do even more, like reducing groove noise.

It inserts in a line-level loop or between your phono preamp and preamp.  It has digital (S/PDIF and USB) outputs as well as analog outputs.


Projected retail is $2500, and they plan a kickstarter campaign soon.


If you spend time digitizing vinyl, this thing is nothing short of a miracle.  I want one so badly I can taste it.


(I am not associated with Sweet Vinyl in any way.)

bondmanp

@kalali - I enjoy spinning vinyl, and if I could, I would play the LP rather than the digitized version.  But that's not always easy to do.  I have to find the LP (harder than it sounds in my house), clean it, and flip it over in the middle.  Sometimes, I just want to play my music with the press of a button or two, or in a room other than where the big rig is.  Since I started digitizing my vinyl and cassettes (insert laughter here), I have spent much more time listening to my collection of music than pondering what I want or do not want to hear.  I started ripping my collection to a server in 2011 (finished all the CDs, now working on the vinyl).  The convenience of a music server is so conducive to focused music listening that I usually end up doing that.  My rips are not perfect, or even as good as the vinyl, but they are not too bad, either. 


As for the "shelf version" of the LP on CD, I have two issues.  One is that I swore back in 1984 that I would never give the record companies the satisfaction of selling me my entire record collection a second time.  I am that cheap.  So I went and bought a Thorens TD-166MkII in 1984, a big ticket item for me in those days, which I still have and use today (slightly modded).  I figured this West German-built 'table would last, and I was right.  The second reason is, yes, indeed, I have yet to hear a regular CD of an LP that I own sound better than the CD-R I created from the LP, even on my very modest system, and that was prior to getting the SC-2.  I find I get better dynamics, detail, warmth, soundstage and an absence of digital harshness from my digitized vinyl than almost every CD I own of the same recording (I have a few).    My DAC is pretty good, but hardly SOTA.  It is comparable in quality to my vinyl source, I think.  So, that's my attraction to digitizing vinyl.


Then there is my 45 minute to one hour commute in the car, each way.  Having music in the car keeps me sane as I fly down the Garden State Parkway at 10 to 15 miles per hour each day.  Previously, I had a 6-disc in-dash CD changer, but now use a cheap and cheerfull FiiO file player.  It takes me about 2 years to work through my entire music collection during the commute (and that doesn't count the yet-to-be digitized vinyl, of which there is a lot).  When you have a lot of music, it's good to cycle through the whole collection this way, because you rediscover stuff you've owned for a long time but haven't listened to in a while.  Plus, I hate repeating the same music too often.


The SC-2 makes digitizing vinyl easier, faster, cleaner and more accurate.  Or, at least it will once it is fully functional.


So, I hope this answers your questions.

@miner42 - I hear you.  I told one of the principles of Sweetvinyl that had the SC-2 only digitized, track-split, added metadata and sent the files to my networked server, I would have gladly bought it without the de-clickifier processing.


At retail, I don't blame you for waiting.  At the Indiegogo price, it was too tempting to me to pass up.  I am fairly confident that Sweetvinyl will see this through and succeed, though.

bondsman, thanks for the explanation. With the exception of a few labels, I also didn't attempt to duplicate my LP collection by buying CDs but I'm finding myself using the streaming method more and more these days, particularly when on the move, etc. And from one New Jersian to another, I completely get your reference to the Garden State Parkway, especially during the morning rush.

Enjoy the music.

@kalali - There is never any "rush" on the Garden State! :-)  More like the morning "mosey".


Being extremely cheap, and a bit of a ludite, I have yet to commit to monthly streaming fees, and my cheap cell phone has limited data, so I am still all about owning the media I listen to.  And the other problem is, how do you pick a place to start streaming when there are millions of choices?  I prefer my cycle-through-the- collection method.


BTW, if you're interested, we have a great audio society hear in Joisey:


www.njaudiosociety.com


I encourage you to check it out.


Cheers.

Update - After some time away, I returned home, fired up my SC-2, and was pleased to see I got an update. Both the SC-2 and the Sugarcube Android app were updated. The biggest difference I noticed was that you can now customize the resolution for recording, both the bit rate and the sampling frequency. This is very welcome, as for the time being, my streamer (SBT) cannot handle anything over 96/24.

It could be my imagination, but the sound on an unfamiliar LP I digitized last night seemed even smoother and more detailed than I remember the SC-2 sounding.

On the downside, the "light show" issue was not fixed. If anything, it’s worse. But there does not seem to be any impact on the sound or functionality of the SC-2 as a result.

Also, although I haven’t read it yet, Fremer posted a review on his Analog Planet site of one of the Sugarcubes.