Vinyl collection, now what?

hleeid, nice snatch! You get the lucky guy of the week aware:)

If you have an Apple computer get the Channel D Pure Vinyl program. It will copy your collection to Apple's iTunes library (soon to be called Music) in 24/192 and download album graphics and song details automatically. The program includes digital RIAA equalization so ideally you would get a phono amp w/o equalization. Channel D makes several inexpensive ones of superlative performance. This also negates the need for a USB turntable. As for the turntable, that depends on how critical you are and how much you intend on spending.
As for all you die hard vinyl/analog guys out there I have news for you. If I played back a record and it's 24/192 copy you would not be able tell the difference. The copy will sound just as analog as the real deal unless I turned on Pure Vinyl's pop and click eliminator then the copy would be obviously quieter. 

Hleeid, congrats, you are on your way to a fabulous music collection. One word of caution. Turning these records into digital files is going to take a very long time. Pure Vinyl gives you a head start but still, doing all those records in real time will take you years and you will have to intervene every 20 minutes or so. I would certainly weed out the albums you obviously won't listen to.If you decide to get Pure Vinyl (this is the program Mike Fremer uses) and you need some help with it feel free to contact me. Once you are use to it it is a breeze. As an example it will start recording automatically as soon as it detects a needle drop and stop on reverse. If you put an autolifter on the turntable it will take some of the stress out. 

+1 what mikelavigne said

mikelavigne

... the wrong reason to get into vinyl is digitizing records. if your goal is to hear good music, sell the records and invest in digital streaming. digitizing records has a very steep learning curve and is a pain the ass to do. and the results are unlikely to be as good as good streaming unless you make a substantial gear investment ...

I absolutely agree. And if you don't follow a fastidious approach to digitizing an LP, there's no value in the result. Another issue is that with good playback gear, a properly maintained LP will last for generations.

... 5 years ago a case could be made for digitizing vinyl for music access. but that ship has sailed with high rez streaming. it’s so good that digitizing records is foolish.

Mostly. There's still value sometimes in making a pristine digital copy of some recordings, especially those that are OOP, or those with sonics that really trounce the digital version. Those files can then be put in playlists for convenience but - as Mike noted - it will take a lot of effort to get there.
mijostyn

... If you have an Apple computer get the Channel D Pure Vinyl program ... The program includes digital RIAA equalization ... If I played back a record and it's 24/192 copy you would not be able tell the difference ...

I'm not familiar with that software and process, but I do agree that a carefully made digitized file is audibly indistinguishable from the original LP.

@mijostyn - I appreciate your offer to help with digitizing!
Starting to understand the complexities involved so I will start with looking into a decent turntable.

Found a deal on a Clearaudio Concepts which I am considering.
Also thinking about the VPI Scout.
There are also a few older Rega RP models I saw for sale.

Really wish there was a way to listen to these decks!

@cleeds ,

'There's still value sometimes in making a pristine digital copy of some recordings, especially those that are OOP, or those with sonics that really trounce the digital version.'


Absolutely. 

A good case in point was the work of needledrop artists such as the notorious Dr Ebbetts. 

His digitising of the Beatles LP back catalogue played it's own part in getting Apple/EMI to issue their own official reissues.

For many years his bootleg needledrops were considered superior to the official 1987 CD releases. It appeared that digitising analogue LP was far less harmful than digitising analogue masters at source.

I never had issue with such practices, if one man on his own could supply a better sounding product than a multinational conglomerate...

A similar thing had happened back in the early 70s which prompted the release of the Red and Blue albums. But in that case the bootleg doing the rounds previously was of poor quality.

It's clear that the music industry has largely deaf ears as far as audiophiles are concerned but that was one example where they clearly heard the sound of money talking.