[AAR.oner]

Originally Posted by GRC

Regarding conversion from vinyl - I've seen a few threads here and there where lineage has been stated -

Vinyl -> DAT or
LP -> CDR

without any indication of what was used to make the transfer. Lots of traders happy to tell us what Mics they used, what Pre-amp, what Recording Deck in the live context, but nobody seems to consider it important to specify what record deck was used in the transfer process. I've asked in threads what was used for the transfer, but to no reply.

If you're going to digitise some vinyl, you should go for the absoute best front-end you can afford. The old computing rule applies - Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you play your LPs on a plastic, cheap-as-chips deck, you'll get FLACs with a plastic, cheap-as-chips sound. Get a quality deck, tonearm and cartridge, and you'll end up with quality FLACs.

Tempting to suggest that if you can't afford the gear, to search around for someone who does, and who has the capability to do a better transfer than you.

What is classed as a high-end turntable will vary in different territories, of course, but my benchmark in the UK for quality hardware would be something by Linn, Rega, Thorens, or maybe Pro-ject as a bare minimum.

Information on the tonearm and cartridge used would also be of help to future traders and archivists.

complete agreement




jeppolit -- if you've got some really rare vinyl boots and there isn't a decent transfer out there circulating, finding a Thorens or Rega deck and using say a Grado cartridge would be worth it imo...i typically only transfer for personal archival reasons, so i just use my DJ gear...still i like to keep as much info as possible...

the very basics for transferring would be turntable > phono preamp > recording device...adding cartridge, cable type, etc info is even better...for my transfers the lineage is:

vinyl > Ortofon Concorde [cartridge] > Technics SL1200MK2 [turntable] > RCA gold [cable] > Stanton SK2F [preamp] > RCA gold [cable] > Marantz PMD671 [recorder]