AcidTest

One of the things that really is selling me on the Accession is the design independently handling the cartridge vs record EQ. The Bronze is probably not a very challenging cartridge, and I'm much more a newb than a guru on anything LP related, but is addressing the cartridge itself possible in VS? That might be its own separate topic when getting into EQ options for the capture software and comparing Vinyl Studio vs Pure Vinyl, etc.

That has already happened for many titles, long ago. Some titles aren't available and never will be in any digital form. Certain pressings will sound better on vinyl than digital form due to the abysmal mastering practices of modern times. Believe me, I've got a few saved searches on Audiogon, HifiShark etc.

Returning to this after a few days of further reading and considering. I appreciate the discussion and debate especially healthy differing viewpoints between @bluesmanand @SJK. As mentioned earlier my LPs acquired in my teen years were not played on the best or really well maintained hardware, but they are what they are at this point. I do plan to grab a Spin-Clean unit which seems to be the best lower cost cleaner without going into hundreds of dollars for models that primarily seem to add convenience (until you get to the ultrasonic type stuff at even higher prices). So on the issue of a phono preamp + ADC solution, after a good bit of consideration I'm pretty much decided to go with a two box solution to optimize each, instead of one of the single box solutions like the mentioned PS Audio or others. It also seems to me that the ADC piece can be done at a more reasonable cost with less compromise than the phono stage, so I've targeted about a 2 or 3 to 1 ratio. That puts me in range of some very nice phono stages like the Sutherland Insight, Lehmann Audio Black Cube SE II, Rega Aria, and Graham Slee Accession. The latter is now my top contender because of 3 things. 1) It's optimized for MM carts, which I'm using and it's unlikely that will change in the medium range future, if ever; 2) Reviews are stellar for its quality as a phono stage; 3) It has some particular design aspects and features that are potentially very useful for digitizing LPs, primarily a choice of 3 EQ curves (American, British, or RIAA) plus Off, allowing for EQ to be done in software. The ADC I'm considering is the Korg DS-DAC-10R which at $400 seems to do all I need. The Korg MR-2000S is a great unit but does more than I need and I'd rather put the extra $ into a higher quality phono stage.  So my tentative setup is the Graham Slee Accession feeding the Korg DS-DAC-10R, to PC and Vinyl Studio.  Thanks all for the discussion - hopefully this will be helpful to others considering this and new to digitizing LPs.

@bluesman, I like your thoughts a LOT, thanks for taking the time to write that. Very practical and realistic. I'm not a musician (aside from playing piano for 10 years as a kid and brief attempts at guitar later) but while I've always enjoyed gear to an extent I try to prioritize love of music over love of gear. I listen to a pretty wide range from a lot of acoustic jazz, big symphonies to prog and extreme metal. While I've long had an appreciation for better stereo/sound reproduction than most folks, I consider myself on the low end in the audiophile world - definitely not a golden ear, and at 54 I know my hearing has a gap on one side and rolls off quickly after 8-9k. Subtle changes from cables etc are likely lost on me. So having said that, I'm mulling over various options and not rushing this. It's been decades since I listened to most of the material that I've been wanting to archive, and you're 100% correct - most of those LPs are not in great shape. Even though as a teen I was a little more conscientious than most and used a better then cheapo turntable even then - I did have a LAST brush/solution set that I tried to regularly use - there's a limit on how good most of these will get. A few just aren't available in any way digitally (even from torrent etc) so I want to archive as well as I can. My own listening is almost all digital these days, but on special occasions it's nice to pull out vinyl and enjoy the physical format and artwork, as you mentioned. I also like to occasionally have some music loving friends over and having a good quality vinyl playback option is something I've been missing for that. I'm hoping we can include a vinyl/rip listening comparison later this year.

@The Computer Audiophile, thanks for the article links. The Ayre looks like a nice piece but is way over my budget to cover just the ADC part. @audiobomber, appreciate the feedback on the Korg. It also does 24/192 or DSD at 1x or 2X so it's pretty flexible in terms of format. And thanks for pointing out the RIAA via software option, I glossed over that in my initial quick scan of the "how to" articles above. That sounds like a great option which allows bypassing and possibly completely eliminating an expensive piece, if I just digitize the vinyl and never really play the LPs directly.

Francis Wolff's photography for Blue Note is legendary and still sometimes imitated to this day. In book form there is also Blue Note: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff by Charlie Lourie (of BN & Mosaic reknown). Of course if you look around there are also sources for prints of the original photos as well, though not cheap. Trane, Blakey, Dexter Gordon are some of the subjects of my favorites but there are so many!

I have some old LPs from my youth that I'm looking to convert to digital. I've recently picked up a VPI Classic TT with Ortofon Bronze cartridge, but don't have any kind of ADC capability as of yet. I also don't have a phono stage really commensurate with the Classic - I'm using an Emotiva XPS-1 which I've had for a few years. So I'm pretty open on options in terms of a one or two piece solution. Right now my baseline pick is a PS Audio Nuwave Phono Converter. I've had their DirectStream DAC for a few years now and it's been fantastic. The NPC of course is discontinued but a few are still available at the closeout pricing or occasionally pop up on secondary markets. The other option I have earmarked as a baseline in a 2 piece setup is a high quality phono stage, plus the Korg DS-DAC-10R. Budget is under $2k. Ultimately, my goal is to digitize some existing LPs, and probably acquire some select titles in the future (primarily where mastering is clearly better on the vinyl vs digital release, or perhaps a few personal favorites that have very nice physical packaging to enjoy), and listen to this music from my digital setup instead of directly from vinyl. (I have a Mac Mini front end with 3500 CDs ripped plus Tidal as my digital source, feeding the DSD.)