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Questions about recording vimyl to computer?

I have watched some videos about the necessary hardware & software. And I have manipulated digital files such as conversion Flac to Alac (for Ipod) & download,  etc.  I have a lot of Flac & Alac  files already. So, I have plenty of computer & vinyl experience. Transferred many to cassette too. But none to digital.
I know I need Audacity and supposedly it is free.

I have a very good TT, Cart and phono pre. I have a laptop Win 7
Do I need a USB Audio Interface? Or can I go with my JLTi preamp to the 1/8 input jack on computer? Which will give best sound quality? Or does that matter to the 1's & 0's?

This USB Audio Interface has a phono preamp too, which quality may be sorely lacking. And considering I have a LOMC cart, maybe inappropriate for the job. Any suggestions? Didn't know whether to post in vinyl or digital.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UFO202--behringer-u-phono-ufo202-usb-audio-interface-with-ph...

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o_holter
975 posts
 
Thanks bondmanp. I also skip the computer, so far (using a Teac NT-505), though who knows, in the future. The Sugarcube looks nice but does not seem to be able to handle dsd -? I know that pcm top level is nice, but still not the best format. I am a strong believer in investing in the best recording format, before going into recording. including "vinyl rips". Plan ahead. You dont want to re-record your vinyl collection some years later, because you started out with too low level digitizing. 
bondmanp
1,811 posts
 
@o_holter I won't live enough to re-digitize my vinyl!  I can't argue with you, higher res is always better, but I am thrilled with my 96/24 needle drops.  The Sugarcube tops out at 192/24, but my older DAC maxes out at 96/24 (I know, I deserve a trip to the punishment room).  Prior to the Sugarcube, I was using a Marantz pro-sumer CD recorder with Red Book resolution.  Not great, but I got fairly good results, to my ears.
tketcham
291 posts
 
bondmanp, can you shed some light on a question I have about the SC-2 (and variants) recording specifications? The data sheets show recording sampling rates of 44.1k, 48k, 88.2k, 96k, 176.4k, 196k. Is the 196k rate correct? Why would they use a 196k sampling rate when normal DAC conversion is 192k? Or is this a recurring typo? What is the resulting resolution of the files you record using the 24bit/196k sampling rate?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Tom
bondmanp
1,811 posts
 
@tketcham AFAIK, that's a misprint.  24/192 is the max resolution for Sugarcube models that record.
tketcham
291 posts
 
Thanks for the reply. I'm getting convinced that it's a misprint. I emailed  SweetVinyl and hope to hear back from them. Have you actually recorded at 24/196k and then processed the file (Audacity for example) or played it through a DAC?
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