matejcek

Wow. Thank you all for your responses. It's a wonderful thing to see people with passion for something come together, to support each other and also support novices who are looking for help. I think it may be a week before I can respond properly – I'm leaving town for a few days. I hope that I have not wasted your time. I'm old. As a musician (avocation, not profession), I appreciate accurate reproduction of many genres of music. But at 67, my ears are not as discerning as they once were. I don't know what one gives up with a less-than-ideal A to D converter. But I seem to be about to lose my job – the company is going under. I don't see a $150 ADC in my future, nor an $80 LP cleaner. I'm pretty sure I have to replace the sylus, and it would probably be dumb to not clean the discs. The discs in the complete works of John Philip Sousa set are probably nearly pristine. The early Grateful Dead, Doors, et cetera, could be rough. I suppose I would do well to count the albums. It's not so many. I would be quite surprised if there were 200; there may not be 100. I'll look this evening. My goal is to have ready access to more of the music that I love, to be able to easily listen to it at my desktop, in my car, and so forth. Once it's transferred, I imagine my bride will push hard to dispose of the LPs. I also need to organize the music that is digital only – purchased downloads. I have quite a bit of ballroom dance music, having taken up social ballroom dancing at 60. It's going to take me a while to digest the wealth of information you've given me. I'm obviously 'out of my league' here! Meanwhile, I'd love to hear any thoughts about finding a stylus for that old Stanton cartridge. Curiosity question, not germane to my project: Does anybody use 'crystal cartridges' anymore, for anything? I would guess they are not very useful except as museum pieces or curios. Thank you again for your kind support! Paul in WI

I want to transfer my old vinyl to a digital format. I may also want to save CDs the same way. I was originally daunted by the task, but I think most of it will be pretty easy. I can't find my '60s Garard turntable, but I've got a similar vintage Sansui SR1050E that should do the job (assuming the belt is intact.). I was thinking that I'd have to get some sort of pre-amp – but my Scott 490 should serve. I've got a PC that I'm refurbishing for the job. It's got an Intel Pentium D (2.66 Ghz dual core) on an Intel D945GCCR motherboard. It's probably got 2 GB of RAM. I'm adding a 256 GB SSD, and I'll probably reinstall the 1 TB hard drive that was in it. I think it's got a ¼ TB hard drive, as well. It has DVD and CD writers. Magically, the power supply smoked just when I completed the new build that's taking its place, so I've got a new, beefy PSU for it. My intention is for the PC to be headless, and silent. It will sit in the living room, and if it isn't quiet, my wife will throw it out a window. Toward that end I'm trying to replace the CPU cooler with an ultra-quiet one, and I've run into some nuisance challenges -- all solvable, I think. I have a couple of immediate questions (below). I sincerely hope that it's OK to post them all here in one place, rather than trying to find the right forum niche... Is the D945GCCR motherboard up to the task? The codec is a RealTek ALC883. That seems like a pretty sophisticated chip – but if I recall correctly, the board does not take full advantage of its features. Any reason to prefer WindowsXP or Ubuntu 14.04? I increasingly detest Microsoft, and I'm mostly using Ubuntu Linux. I have some experience with Audacity from a long time ago; I believe that it now runs on both platforms, plus iOS. I have not quite figured out how I'm going to coordinate dropping the needle onto the LP and starting recording with a headless system, when the controlling system will be 40 feet away in another room. But I think I can just start recording, drop the needle, and then later trim out the dead air with Audacity. My old turntable has a Stanton 500 cartridge. I have heard that there are two types of 500s: 'old' and 'new.' Since mine is from the '60s or '70s, I'm thinking that it's the old style. Remembering the '60s and '70s as best I'm able, I'll have to assume the needle – oops sorry – the stylus is trashed. The stylus carrier has a red rectangle on a black body. The Sansui documentation says to use a 0.5 mm diamond spherical stylus at 2 grams. Am I likely to find a new stylus for the old Stanton 500 cartridge? Is there consensus on how to clean vinyl? Specifically, to clean vinyl without having to take out a mortgage. I won't be purchasing a $1500 device for cleaning. And I'd rather not use spit and the elbow of my shirt (though that's probably how I cleaned them when the were new...) Can I wash them with detergent and rinse them thoroughly? Somebody is probably going to point me to some pre-existing thread. It would not be my preference to study this extensively and try to make a decision – though I'm pretty sure I won't be using wood glue. (I thought it was a joke. It was serious, wasn't it?) What's the best format to store the files once the are on the PC? I've got a feeling that may be tantamount to a religious question, but I'm going to have to pick something, and I don't know how. To anybody who has made it this far: Thank you! I'll be grateful for any tips anyone wants to share. I'm hoping that I won't need my anti-flamethrower asbestos underwear... Paul in East Troy WI