I'm a fan of 80's and early 90's CCM (wayne watson, Steve Taylor, Sheila Walsh, etc.) which is mostly OOP, often never released on CD, and often expensive when it has been released on CD (Steve Taylor's Meltdown CD is ~ $60.00 used at the only place I can find it)

However - it seems that vinyl for this era CCM artists in vg+ or NM condition are not *too* hard to find, and very reasonably priced. So I've been buying them (slowly) and I'm planning to preserve them and enjoy them by ripping them to digital.

I'm probably going to buy a Gemini XL-500 turntable (I currently don't own one). Most of the complaints I have seen related to it are DJ complaints that would not have any impact on my need - and the 3 year warranty covers the only other complaints I've seen. And it's very reasonably priced IMHO.

For audio input into my PC I'm probably going to just use the audio in on my nforce2 board (A7N8X Deluxe)

What I need advice on is the proper cartridge to purchase (I haven't used vinyl since late 80's) for the best results, and the proper pre-amp.

I don't want to scrimp on the cartridge. Even though I'm not going to be playing records very often, I will be playing the results of what I rip - so I want a good cartridge - but know nothing about what is expensive because it is good and what is expensive because suckers exist.

Secondly - is there a recommended preamp?

Thanks for any advice.

As far as cartridges go, I highly recommend the Audio Technica 440ML (AT440ML). The tonal balance is tipped up a bit toward treble, but I find it in every way superior to anything else I've ever heard (or tested). They run for around $100, and IMO you can't go wrong at that price.

Preamps... not an easy question. You might think about finding a good vintage receiver or preamplifier (eBay?) from the 1970's or 80's with a phono stage built in. Most decent phono stages sold these days are "audiophile" priced, and unattractive for that reason. The only newer one I personally would consider (although I haven't heard it):

http://store.yahoo.com/decibelchicago/mush...shalphonpa.html

Best of luck in putting stuff together...

I've got a Grado gold cart. I bought it new for $105 on ebay. Initially, I was blown away by the stereo separation having never heard a "good" cart. A preamp with adjustable output is also a pretty good idea. I bought a behringer stereo pre also on ebay. I don't really need it now, especially because I'm running two tables into a mixing board - an HK with the grado, and a Dual with an AudioTechnica something or other. My old soundcard (AWE64 gold=POS) absolutely required a pre to get the signal out of the mud. You won't have this problem with most modern cards, though a good card isn't a bad idea either. I've got the M-audio audiophile 24/96 as does fewtch. Here's my RMAA results:

http://as220.org/mobius/rmaa/

Happy recording,


mobius

Edit: I don't want to be misleading. I'm using a preamp (some of the time) because I'm recording from a variety of sources (mics, crappy casette tapes, etc) which sometimes need a boost. You shouldn't need it for vinyl recording. You only need your table and a phono pre, which will probably be built into your receiver.

Also, nothing beats a *good* cleaning before you begin recording, so a record cleaner could be on your list.

http://www.kabusa.com/index_rc.htm

Under 100 €, I've never heard anything bad about the Ortofon OM-Pro, which is regarded as a very good cartridge. I don't know if it is still available, though.

Having a pair of XL-500's myself I don't think you're going wrong choosing that for your turntable, they are robust and have lasted me well for 2 years so far.

I too am looking for a cartridge more for hi-fi recording than for low-wear heavy tracking, Pio's suggestions looks good for my price range, any agreements on that?

For a pre-amp / hi-res soundcard I use a Terratec DMX-6fire. I'm not sure if it's considered as being as good as a 'proper' standalone pre-amp, but it comes with RIAA filtering - and hey, you get a free 24bit 96khz card bundled with it! That might beat the only weak link which is your onboard AC'97 sound chip.

IMO, what you want for recording vinyl to digital is a cartridge with a linear contact (aka "micro-ridge") stylus profile -- it minimizes distortion (particularly at the inner grooves on a record) and maximizes stylus and record lifespan. There are only two under-$100 cartridges I know of that have that kind of stylus profile: The AT440ML and the AT331LP (both made by Audio-Technica). The Shure V15VxMR is probably the next cheapest at around $200-$250 street price.

I've come to really dislike conical/spherical and elliptical styli after using the 440ML for awhile -- it's just so much cleaner sounding and (relatively) free of the typical distortions you get with LP's.

Fwiw...

Thanks for all the replies!



Yes - I'm planning to have them "proffesionally cleaned" using one of those expensive machines that does it. I haven't found a place nearby that does it, but I haven't asked either - I suspect that the used record store can do it (or knows who can).

While it means spending more money, I think I am going to buy a Audiophile 2496.

It says it works in macs too, which is a plus - since I have macs - and prefer to have cards that I can move from one platform to another if I fry a motherboard or something.

If money is a concern, the $100 M-Audio Revolution should be pretty close to their Audiophile 2496, for about $50 less...

Depending on how compulsive you are about cleaning off the cracks and pops, you might want to read Clive's LP to CD Tips http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm</a> even if you don't wan't to clean up the recordings, lots of good info there.

If you get into (electronic) cleaning of the tracks, check out his <a href='http://www.delback.co.uk/wavrep/' target='_blank'>Wave Repair software, he barely mentions it but it's a good choice for recording and editing the problems, and very cheap.

For a preamp, if you don't mind building a fairly easy kit, Jim Hagerman's website has the Bugle kit, which will cost about $50 to build, (another $30-40 for the AC power kit if you don't want to live with batteries) and sounds very good, it even beat out all others including a $250 preamp in a recent AudioXpress mag shootout. Apparently it just made the Stereophile components list this month. I've been very happy with mine.

He has two higher kits if you want REAL quality, and have the money.. and a inverse RIAA filter kit that is pretty cheap and of interest to us crazed audio types in that you could use it to do RIAA tests of phono preamps.

I have both the spherical and Stereohedron ® stylii for the same cartridge (Stanton Trackmaster AL, and EL), I can record both and post samples, if you are interested.

I can already say that the Stereohedron stylus (said "elliptic special") wears records as much as the spherical one.
The Trackmaster cartridge wears records very much. I can hear the increasement in background noise in a brand new final endless loop of a record after about 15 rotations. Same with spherical and elliptical (=Stereohedron, that is actually "linear contact", or so called "micro line" or "micro ridge" ), but no effect on background noise with a Grado ZC cartridge after 50 rotations.

A magazine once tested DJ cartridges performing "scratch" (moving the record forward and backward) on a record. The results in damage caused to the record were very different from a cartridge to another, and it didn't seem related to the tracking force.

As far as distortion is concerned, the elliptical sounds different (more treble), but when a record is weared, the distortion caused is the same with both stylii. An elliptical stylus doesn't help recovering a good sound from a weared groove. Or I'd rather say, mine doesn't. Maybe someone else has different experiences.