2. analog
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Digitizing LPs

I know this is an analog section, but I thought perhaps folks with a analog LPs might know more about this so I’ll ask if anyone has expertise in copying/digitizing LPs, the software needed, the equipment needed. And maybe most importantly, how tough is this job to do and get good results?? I don’t want to create CDs, I just want to send a copy of each to hard drives so I can stream them. I am digitizing my CDs too.

I should say I have a good start on it, a Windows 7 Desktop with attached Musical Fidelity Preamp with phono stage, Adcom amp, Spendor speakers, and ASUS Xonar Essence STX soundcard, and a choice of turntables. Still, I know I’ll need another piece of gear. Is that a USB DAC? If so, how good does this have to be? Or put another way, do I need to spend a lot of money on this?
echolane
jbny
38 posts
 
@dgarretson try clickrepair lot's of people use it. It does a great job, try it on a low setting of10-20 and then manually fix the few clicks that it leaves behind. It's pretty transparent.
dgarretson
2,616 posts
 

@jbny Thanks, I’ll try it.

@tkr I "hear" your pain. An LP takes up around 3.5GB at DSD128. I store them on a QNAP TVS-882 RAID on up to eight disk drives and SSDs. The QNAP contains an i5 quad core CPU that hosts Roon and Roon DSP engine.

tkr
100 posts
 
@dgarretson

3.5 GB is a huge file! 
I considered ripping my record collection, but we are talking about 2500 hours of music on LP. Let´s stipulate that an hour of music on vinyl would take about 1.5 to 2 hours to rip, divide into tracks, label and declick/normalise, we are suddenly looking at 4000 to 5000 hours of work......
I simply decided that it wasn´t feasible, or at least not worth the time.
On top of that, I´m not really sure that wearing down the stylus of a cartridge with 2500 hours of vinyl playing, really is a sensible way of saving wear and tear on the cartridge.
dgarretson
2,616 posts
 
Admittedly it's a long-term project at any pace. But worth doing just once and well-- and buying the best equipment that one can afford for it. The results are good enough that I will not revisit the vinyl, and sell LPs off along the way. Any bids for a complete Savoy Brown collection?
tkr
100 posts
 
To each his own. I am certainly not picking a quarrel with you, but for me it is simply not worth the time and effort.
My estimate of my listening habits is that 70% of my listening is digital, 30 % analog. Let´s say 10 LPs a week. In that case, it´s probably better to simply listen to my vinyl system without digitizing my LP collection. (Mind you, I have tried out digitizing some LPs, and the result is quite good)
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