How to transfer your vinyl to mp3

mikepanchaud14 September 2009

Connecting the record player directly to the line level record input of a PC won't work! Most ordinary record players are not line level out (like the one shown ?), they are connected direct to the cartridge. It is too low a level and does not have RIAA equalisation, so will sound very quiet and tinny. It needs a pre amp with phono inputs, then plug the line level out of the pre amp into the PC. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalisation Cheers, Mike.

Graham31 October 2009

Re mikepanchaud comment of 14 September 2009 Its just not as black and white as you make it seem Mike. Rather it depends on the qaulity of kit you have to hand. 1.If its some kind of combo or Phousdo seporates system look for aux out phonos on back of kit the ones worth giving house room will come with them factory fitted those that don’t fall into line with your comments – find better. But If TT has a crystal - some times these were called "ceramic" cartridge installed you can just about get away with it the maybe the levels may be a bit low but you might be able to compensate after recording tracks by carefull use of softwares normaliseing function and the problem of the R.I.A.A eq. won't matter quite as much having been there as a teenager in the early 70's working on a shoe string electronics student buget. (TT to beaten up reel to reel deck used as second channel amp of cobled together first strereo amp chain) 2.Any hifi amplifier still working from the 60-70-80-90’s with a magnetic cartridge with R.I.A.A equlaisation (some even had crystal cartridge curcitry) input for a turntable and with a tape loop for reel to reel or cassette tape decks are fine. Just connect everything properly. 3 There are systems out there calling themselves hifi that at time of purchase came with a turntable that indeed will output line level from the turntable just as if it were a CD-Turner or Cassette deck- Minidisc deck I know as I stopped using mine a year ago due to a major system up date the whole working kit was given away to make room for something light years ahead but I kept my Dual TT /Autophon magnetic cartridge with low level magnitic RIAA output that predated the kit cabled together with ribbon leads as it’s a quality bit of kit. All audio leaves AV amp bound for PC as selected by AV amp record souce selector witch can be differrent to that outputting via heavy wieght 5:1 speaker system – no not a all in one box from a supermarket product so you see it can be done but with care you must adapt methord to suit the equipment to hand.