VINYL - 2,200 LP's to CD or Hard Drive - HELP

In addition to the garbage ION USB turntable, there are some decent ones, including a USB version of the Project Debut III and the Audio Technica PL-120. All include a built-in phono stage, DAC, and USB interface.

Project Debut USB

Audio Technica AT-PL120 with USB

I'd go for the Audio Technica. It's a quality knock-off of the Technics SL-1200, weighs about 24 lbs., has the detachable universal headshell, and the price is right. You could actually get some good transcriptions off this.

Oh, and I also vote for going HD server. Heck, you could encode at 24/48KHz if you wanted.

No one mentioned this, and I don't want to be a kill joy, but you might want to remind your 86yr old freind that copying the contents of the LP's to another medium, then selling the LP's is a violation of Copyright law. Once he sells the LP's he must destroy the "back ups" which is the CD's or digital coversions stored on the HDD. WIth that being said, transferring 2200+ LP's is a major undertaking and he will most likely go through at least two cartridges.

USB turntables are not built for sound quality but for ease of use. I doubt one would last thru 2200 LP's being transfered to a HDD. If you want a quality transfer, use a quality turntable / arm / cart / phono pream / sound card. Surely this will be a major undertaking no matter which path you choose. LP's to HDD is not an automated task. You will to monitor the job constantly to ensure there's no skipping, and unless you use a semi or fully-auto TT, you will have to be there to lift the arm at the end of the side which you will want to do becuase recording audio at cd quality to a hdd requires 10MB's per minute no matter if you are recording sound or the silence at the runout groove. I don't want to discourage you, but this will not be a quick and easy task.

A_L

06-12-08: Arnold_layne
USB turntables are not built for sound quality but for ease of use. I doubt one would last thru 2200 LP's being transfered to a HDD.

The Project Debut and AT-PL120 were built for sound quality. The USB section is an add-on. Both of these turntables have functioned and sold well for a long time as analog turntables. It's the ION that's made and marketed purely as a USB digitizing turntable that's a lightweight plastic POS.

Furthermore, the Audio Technica is a Technics knockoff, with cast aluminum plinth, close tolerance bearings, and targeted at the dance club market. As a $200 turntable it is simply unbeatable and should survive well past 2,200 LPs WITHOUT A BELT CHANGE! :) (though maybe the motor bearing could use a little oil along the way).

If you outfit it with an Ortofon 2M Red, you can replace the stylus after 1,100 LPs for a mere $69 retail.

The perfect is the enemy of the good, here. Sure, you could get a SME 20 with 12" arm, Clearaudio Goldfinger, EAR or Graham Slee phono stage and pro-quality A/D converter, but I seriously doubt the "client" wants to spend far more money on analog playback gear than he listened through for his entire lifetime.

If he already has a component turntable, maybe the best thing is to just get a USB A/D converter.

I make this out to be about 5 months of work, 12 hours per day, to do the transcription, tagging, and record manipulation;

Figure 45 minutes x 2,200 = 99,000 minutes = 1650 hours = 137.5 12/hour days, with no days off or weekends. If you pay a college kid $10/hour to do this, you're out $16,500. If only (?) four hours a day, it's well over a year and a half.

Are you sure you're up for this?

06-12-08: Dfhaleycko
I make this out to be about 5 months of work, 12 hours per day, to do the transcription, tagging, and record manipulation;

Figure 45 minutes x 2,200 = 99,000 minutes = 1650 hours = 137.5 12/hour days, with no days off or weekends. If you pay a college kid $10/hour to do this, you're out $16,500. If only (?) four hours a day, it's well over a year and a half.

Actually, I think you can figure an hour for each LP, for the time it takes to mount each record, brush or clean it, clean the stylus, pull the record out, put it away, etc. 40 hours/day x 52 weeks = 2,180 hours, so this is a 1-year, full time job with weekends off, but no holidays or vacation.