Re: [ARSCLIST] Lossy compression losing quality (was Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio and the Milllennials . . .)

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To Roger's point about a good-quality USB turntable. I agree it's only a matter of time. There's no 
rocket science involved. It's simply a turntable, RIAA preamp, A-D converter and USB interface, 
likely on one printed circuit board. Your big challenges, from a quality standpoint, are really in 
the RIAA preamp. It sits close to the turntable motor and mechanics, and it sits next to the 
high-frequency signals of the USB interface. The A-D stuff from line-level analog is well known and 
cheap now. So is the USB. I would say the big cost centers in these units are the cartridge and the 
preamp, so I bet a good one can't be made for $150, but if you get in the $500 range, no reason it 
couldn't be done.

Perhaps more useful -- and I've been surprised no one has done it, would be an external box with an 
intergrated RIAA preamp, A-D converter and USB interface. The only reason I can think that this 
hasn't been done is that the market for "putting my LPs into my iPod" is too limited to justify a 
Chinese factory production run.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Lossy compression losing quality (was Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio and the 
Milllennials . . .)


> Shures are excellent but they don't manufacture the SS35E stylus any more. I'm hoarding the few I 
> have. I also use Stanton because I got a wider variety of tips for that one, but the Shure is my 
> only choice for Diamond Discs and transcriptions. On t'other hand, the 2.0 or 2.1 mil truncated 
> elliptical stylus for the Stanton 500 will track Pathes without leaving the groove.
>
> dl
>
> Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
> > Sures are the best all-around cartridges for 78s.There aer better sounding ones,from an 
> > audiophool standpoint,but Sures haven't been on the market longer than many collectors have been 
> > alive,for nothing.USB 'tables are a new beastie.A really good quality one is only a mater of 
> > time.
> >
> >
> >                                        Roger
> >
> >
> >
> > Goran Finnberg <mastering@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Steven C. Barr:
> >
> > > 1) Either use a "record player" with a ceramic cartridge, as I do (NOT recommended for 
> > > LP's...!)...and redirect the cartridge output into the "Line In" jack(s) of your computer sound 
> > > card..
> >
> > Ceramic cartridges needs to be correctly loaded for proper frequency
> > response.
> >
> > Something like 1 megohm is the proper load, anything less and the bass
> > response suffers greatly.
> >
> > You will not see 1 megohm input impedance on any soundcard that I know
> > of.
> >
> > So this is quite suboptimal indeed.