LP to CD format anyone ...

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.

I've been doing this for about 17 years now, and have gone from a simple consumer-grade setup to a full-on professional studio rig doing transfers & remasters for commercial release. Things I tell anyone is that there are few to no shortcuts, and that you pay what you get for. There is no quick, simple, brain-dead way of doing LP to CD transfers that is worth the time and trouble.

No matter how one does it, it will take time, a lot of it, and there will be a learning curve. It really makes little sense these days to record directly to CD-R. It's better to record 44.1/16-bit (at the very least) files to one's computer. Then for mobile playback edit and burn to CD-R or, better & easier still, copy to a USB drive either as a .WAV file or, if one must, converted to an MP3 format (save the original file!).

As for hardware, again keep in mind that time is one's biggest cost. The very bottom end would be an ION Audio TT and the free Audacity audio editor. You will most certainly get what you pay for with the ION, and waste a lot of time with it. Audacity is really quite good, and a great value, up to its limits. It will work well enough for most people, but you weren't born knowing how to use it. OTOH, the sky is the limit at the top end. (My kit cost close to $20,000.) A reasonably good system can be put together any number of ways, but at the very least it will consist of a decent TT/cart driving a good phono preamp which in turn drives a high quality sound card in one's computer. An external ADC is MUCH better, and excellent speakers are a must for any audio editing. Also, done properly, down sampling from a higher sample rate file to a 44.1/16-bit Red Book CD is not as simple or straightforward as one might think.

BTW, while there is software, including Audacity, that works reasonably well for click/pop reduction & removal as well as noise reduction (and very expensive pro software that works VERY well...), there is NO software that will reliably and accurately break up the sound file of an LP side into individual tracks. It HAS to be done "by hand" and again will take plenty of time to learn and do.

Enough for here. Searching the Web will yield all manner of detailed "how-to" information for transferring LPs 2 CDs, all of it differing for any number of reasons. Take a long vacation and Good Luck!