LP to CD format anyone ...

you can purchase pioneeer xxx609 excellent cd recorder that can take an analogue input. You can also have ADC -- analogue to digital converter that you can transfer digital files to your PC in the desirable format depending on one's resolution.

Cd recorders are available. Most consumer models force you to use CDR for music discs which cost more. Of course one can record to a computer hard drive but mnay find that a pain.

My solution was to buy a stand alone digital field recorder in my case a Tascam, DR-05 unit which has an SD card inside. I can record to it via analogue outputs of a system. In my case I found that I needed to connect it to a headphone output jack on a tape deck that has variable audio volume out. The headphone out on my AVR was sending too high of a signal and the DR-05 rec level control could not cut it back well enough to keep it from digital clipping (other brand/models of receivers/preamps may vary though.)I then send a properly adjusted audio output to the DR-05 and make final audio record level adjustments using the DR-05 record level control. This allows me to better record without overloading the input. The DR-05 will allow recording up to 24/96 levels or one can record to a lower rez to 16/44 or even blah MP3 files. The DR-05 allows you to manually mark tracks as the music records. Once done you can import it to a computer and post process the files to make any files you wish later including burning a CDR.

The DR-05 my not be the be all and end all but for what $150 incl shipping it makes very nice CDR's for my car audio system.

Aside from a few 'best of the best', I think transferring is a waste of time, unless you must have that music in the car. Use the time to enjoy the music.

I have an Alesis Masterlink 9600. It records to a hard drive before it burns. The successful burn rate is very high, and on the occasional failed burn, you can just try again. The music is already on the hard drive. It also does 24/96 and you don't have to use CD-R's for music. The one's for computer use are OK.

I used to have Yamaha CDR (HD-1300, I think), and I thought the albums I recorded sounded better than store-bought cd's. (I did a couple a/b tests to verify.) However, I eventually gave up, because I was too lazy to do it "right". So, my cd would always consist of 2 big tracks- side 1 and side 2. And, no data (if you loaded into iTunes, or something like that, it was sloppy looking). I could have divided up the tracks into individual songs, but I never looked into the appropriate software. Really, I was just too lazy.
But, the sound quality was great.