How can I transfer my records to cd? Best quality

The Edirol UA-5 made by Roland, retails about $225, comes with drivers, it will make about as good of a transfer as a non-professional is likely to make. Then a good parsing application, I use Roxio with Jam, another $100. But make no mistake, your are talking a couple of hours per record. You will also need lots of disk storage space until you get it mastered, then compressed. The only reason any of this would make any sense, is if you have material simply unavailable in CD format. If you go this route, make sure your external speakers are turned all the way off, monitor through your headphones. My biggest surprise in this whole experience. was how much acoustic energy from the speakers will feed back into the record. That said, I have made some petty impressive transfers, it's just a lot of work. Enjoy.

Two things Tudor, first, you're right to suggest monitoring with headphones, even with the best possible TT, you'll improve the quality of the transfer substantially. Many people fail to realize this and end up with marred recordings.

Second, I find it hard to believe that anyone that's heard good vinyl would find CDs an acceptable alternative. The resolution is not even close in most cases. For me, the point of archiving is to preserve the resolution of the vinyl for archival purposes and secondarily to produce high quality transfers to portable devices. (mp3 is not high quality, IMHO. CD is "acceptable" but only if there's nothing better).

Dave

I have done lots of LP to CD transfers because the sonic results are normally much better than the commercial CD release of the same material.

To me it's easiest and best sounding to avoid getting the computer involved until the record is burned on to a CD, after which you can use the computer to split tracks or de-click manually if you desire. BTW, the only way to de-click without destroying the sound is to go in and manually take out each tick by hand. Programs like Cool Edit pro allow you to zoom way in on each tick, one by one, and smooth them out. You are only manipulating a fraction of a second of the recording so that you don't screw up the sound quality. It's a massive pain, but very effective. I normally don't bother.

Sound quality will be greatly affected by the quality of each step in the chain. I have typically used: a Linn LP12/Ekos/AQ Fe5 or SME20/SME V.Vi/VDH Frog Gold or Colibri >>> ARC REF Phono, PH3SE, or PH5 >>>> Meridian 561 (A/D converter) >>>>> the digital input on an Onkyo CD recorder with adjustable level control.

The CD copies tend to sound much more like the LP than a commercial CD. There is much more detail, harmonic information and spatial resolution. It's actually quite amazing.

Yes, the results with good front end and quality A-D is truly amazing.

I find that you CAN get good results burning with a computer; however, there is a minefield of setting that you can get wrong. All the settings on the computer must be optimized. One wrong setting and you're recording at a lower resolution than you intended. A good, dedicated machine is nice. Anybody know of a machine that'll take 1-bit DSD at 5.6MHz and convert to DVD-A. (I don't, but it doesn't hurt to ask).

Dave

I have stumbled upon an enjoyable and inexpensive method for digitizing vinyl. I use a $40 iMic, free Final Vinyl software, and Airfoil for monitoring. I have digitized scores of LPs and look forward to scores more.