Converting vinyl to digital

[etpm]

All this talk about vinyl made me think of my little tube amp. I have had more than one person comment on how my tube amp must add "warmth" to my music. It does not add "warmth" One guy sneeringly said all I had was a 4 watt per channel tone control. Not true. For the frequencies I can hear the amp operates as an "ultra linear" amp, which means it has very low distortion and amplifies in a straight line, not a curve.
I bought the amp because tubes fascinate me, and have done so since I was a kid, 60 odd years ago. Not only do they look really neat but they do all sorts of work in a really simple device. Only 5 tubes do all the work in my 4 watt per channel amplifier, and one of those tubes is a rectifier, so it doesn't do any amplifying. It weighs a ton too because of the big transformers.
Granted, the thing isn't very efficient, I think it uses about 1000 watts of power but only outputs 8 watts total. I had to buy very efficient speakers to get any type of decent volume so I bought a pair of Klipsch speakers to use with it. I always wanted some Klipsch speakers.
My brother was over at my house and he pooh-poohed it. A little later I put some music on and he was amazed. He said it sounded so good he was shocked. His words.
I have good solid state stuff too and it sounds really good. Uses way less power too. But I don't mind that my living room amp is also a 1000 watt heater, it looks cool and sounds great.
Eric

 

[murphy1244]

All this talk about vinyl made me think of my little tube amp. I have had more than one person comment on how my tube amp must add "warmth" to my music. It does not add "warmth" One guy sneeringly said all I had was a 4 watt per channel tone control. Not true. For the frequencies I can hear the amp operates as an "ultra linear" amp, which means it has very low distortion and amplifies in a straight line, not a curve.
I bought the amp because tubes fascinate me, and have done so since I was a kid, 60 odd years ago. Not only do they look really neat but they do all sorts of work in a really simple device. Only 5 tubes do all the work in my 4 watt per channel amplifier, and one of those tubes is a rectifier, so it doesn't do any amplifying. It weighs a ton too because of the big transformers.
Granted, the thing isn't very efficient, I think it uses about 1000 watts of power but only outputs 8 watts total. I had to buy very efficient speakers to get any type of decent volume so I bought a pair of Klipsch speakers to use with it. I always wanted some Klipsch speakers.
My brother was over at my house and he pooh-poohed it. A little later I put some music on and he was amazed. He said it sounded so good he was shocked. His words.
I have good solid state stuff too and it sounds really good. Uses way less power too. But I don't mind that my living room amp is also a 1000 watt heater, it looks cool and sounds great.
Eric

I like tubes. I am using a first watt SS amp 25 watts class A

 

[etpm]

I like tubes. I am using a first watt SS amp 25 watts class A

25 watts class A! That's a lot for a class A. Tubes are cool. First Watt stuff is cool too.
Eric

 

[drssg]

My BIL has an all-in-1 unit that allows you to convert vinyl to CDs or just listen to the vinyl. I spent a bunch of time converting my records to CDs, listened to a couple of them, and then decided that they sound like crap.

It's strange. When I directly listen to a record, I'm much more tolerant of the noise and scratches. If I listen to the same thing on digital, it just seems stupid. I prefer to just haul out the records on rare occasions.

 

[murphy1244]

25 watts class A! That's a lot for a class A. Tubes are cool. First Watt stuff is cool too.
Eric

I also have a 100 watt Threshold 400A class A amp

 

[Jstpssng]

Thank you for the ideas. My stereo equipment got stored in a shed 20 years ago and the way things evolved, it's still up there. Somehow, I doubt that it works. I would like to have something small but don't even know who makes quality equipment anymore.

My mother is at the point where she can't be alone anymore so we're taking turns staying with her for a while. Copying the songs I want would be a good way to spend some time, and she probably wouldn't mind hearing them again as they hadn't had a turntable since the old stereo got zapped by lightning.
As has been pointed out, buying a decent turntable can be expensive, and may not be worth it.

There are several options to get rid of old vinyl. I know of a few places which will buy them.
A coworker told me yesterday of a shop which I thought was closed, but actually had moved to a better location. The guy is a vinyl guru, and may even have some suggestions of his own.

Some friends told me that they donated their parent's old albums to a Veteran's home and they loved them.

I'm sure that these are in pristine shape. On Sundays my father often would put a stack on the hi-fi, and they would play for hours. I've heard that this was a good way to keep from scratching them.

 

[Oaktree]

People say they can tell, an analog from a well sampled digital. This has been dis-proven many times in blind testing when using the same playback amps/speakers. People could not tell the difference.

Well, yes and no. A low bitrate mp3 is going to sound like crap for music, but it's pretty hard to tell with higher bitrates. A non compressed format like .wav or a no-loss compressed one like .flac will sound the best.
Mp3's are a compressed format, which means that some material that you supposedly can't hear is removed to make for a smaller file.

 

[bdhsfz6]

When I was laid up after hip surgery and had the time, I used my old stereo equipment and PC to digitize some of my vinyl record collection. It was a time consuming process though. I didn't get halfway through before I decided my time was worth more than the cost of downloading the same music from internet sources. I was doubtful I would be able to find the older recordings, but I did. it's amazing what's available on the net today.

Were I to start from scratch, I would think twice about investing $$ in equipment & software to do the conversion. When you include what your time is worth, it may be cheaper to pay someone to do it or just buy the MP3 files.

I used to be a true audiophile, and I'm a bit disappointed in the loss of sound quality with MP3 conversions. Younger folk, who listen to music with ear buds on their smartphones, probably don't notice the difference, but I miss the true high, full crisp sound of vinyl played on a good stereo. I guess I'm not alone though, since vinyl is making a comeback.