Not sure if this has been posted before, but i was wondering what peoples thoughts were

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/analog-digital-converter-shootout-which-sounds-best - https://www.analogplanet.com/content/analog-digital-converter-shootout-which-sounds-best

Im still without stereo (and now without use of left hand for a few months....) to listen to the sound samples myself but i was curious what everyone thinks of the different transfers.

From the voting 4 out of 10 cant tell difference between the lowest cost and most expensive adc tested whilst rest of the vote is split pretty equally across all the devices tested.

I wasnt going to bother with any adc in my system and just use youtube rips whenever i want to listen to a song on the move but ive seen a number of personal favs disappear from there over time so its forced me to think about upping my digital game with my own transfers.

Craig

If and when Mr Fremer manages to get decent file samples then it might be an interesting experiment.

I listened to the first one for a couple of seconds, heard the hum, and abandoned the "test".

The "test" is a waste of time!

Moving on, I use a Tascam DR07 Mkii - that way the computer is out of the equation for the recording process, as are USB connections with possible ground plane noise transmission, and software flip outs.

As with all digital recording, too hot a signal causes input overload clipping, which needs to be avoided, so having a phono stage with a variable level output, such as the GSP Accession makes things very easy indeed.

Transfer the captured file to the computer for editing

 

Looks like Mr Fremer agrees with you on file 1 Chris.

I found rest of article where he reveals which unit is which in the test and looks like he holds his hand up for operator error for file 1

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/analog-digital-converter-files-identified-converters-profiled - https://www.analogplanet.com/content/analog-digital-converter-files-identified-converters-profiled

I've now listened to each of the files for a couple of seconds each, and they all have electrical noise issues.

Every single one of them!

Laughable, isn't it?

https://ifi-audio.com/products/idefender3-0/ - https://ifi-audio.com/products/idefender3-0/

Maybe.

It's not 60Hz noise, so it might possibly be ground plane borne.

   The other big problems I have is that we’d all need to listen on the same gear to make the test worth anything, your replay chain would need to be better than ALL of the ADC units in order to hear the differences, and Mr Fremer would need to guarantee that his process was identical in each sample, except that they’d need to be level matched, which of course some units end up making lesser resolution. So, yeah...

Mick.

I agree that there are just too many variables to know how different adcs would behave in ones own set up (deck, arm, cartridge, preamp, dac, cables..) but i do think, in principle, it would give a good idea if the adc makes any substantive difference at all in ones own chain even if one could not know exactly how it would behave in ones own setup. 

Im surprised how few 2 channel line in usb out adcs there are. Plenty  with mic preamps and gain controls for musicians and ones with spidf output but if you just want line in usb out for stereo then options are very limited from my hunting about

I thought about doing it but can only manage CD quality (16 bit 44.1... or 48k)

I thought about doing it but can only manage CD quality (16 bit 44.1... or 48k)

Its probably symptomatic of lack of demand. The heyday of the adc seems to have been in the firewire and spdif era and a lot of things people wanted transferring from their decks to computers was done 10 years ago. Probably like camera film scanners people are running their old adcs through a windows xp computer which has the interface and drivers to make the setup still function.

But price range is bizarre. Its £100 or £2000 with very little in between. 

Craig75 wrote: Its probably symptomatic of lack of demand.

So, are you saying that line-in to USB-out falls into that category? If so, I may have a go at 16/44.1 - 16/48.

I understand this is low res, but if it has become niche to want line-in to USB-out, then maybe CD quality is good enough? Especially considering vinyl is more than likely to only need 12-13 bit.

Central Semiconductors are doing quite nicely, thank you... making transistors nobody wants!

Graham Slee wrote: Central Semiconductors are doing quite nicely, thank you... making transistors nobody wants!

The all pervasive ADC - Alexa, Echo Dot, iThis, iThat

Thats my impression - that line in to usb hifi devices are pretty slim on the ground. (Remember this is just my know-not-a-lot impression)

You have the

1. usb turntables which are very common

2. The small behringer style dongles shown above - which are surprisingly uncommon these days compared to the past (i think?). 

3. The focusrite scarlet style musicians mic preamps and line inputs to a laptop. These look very flexible and very high resolution little units for £100 especially if yr a musician and hifi fiend 

4. Preamp + adc unit in one - P******t have one of these

After that all i could find is a big jump up to the very impressive looking RME adc/dac followed by another big jump up to units im assuming are being used in studios such as lavry, burl etc. 

Obviously musicians will always need the focusrite style units and these are big sellers and hifi can piggyback on these but it was lack of behringer style units between preamp and computer that was perhaps indicative that humanity's great vinyl ripping enterprise of the mid 2000s into 2010s has run its course. The days of having 45s and 33s that were not available oine via youtube or what have you seem to be drawing to a close. Obviously there are still a lot of 45s not online but so much of the globes output is on there now compared to 10 years ago. 78s and cylinders is a different matter but then thats always been a very specialised area. 

Couple that to the fact that if you buy new things from say bandcamp, you get the record + unlimited digital streaming or downloads of the music too.

So there is a rapidly diminishing need for hifi adc but obviously there is a still a hardcore who have 78s, a collection of seriously scare 45s and 33s, those for whom youtube quality isnt going to satisfy their needs, and recording studios doing digital mixdowns.

I stand to be thoroughly corrected here though but im sure most people here dont want any form of amp in the adc or phonostage or headphone monitoring, and would prefer their own carefully chosen setup to do all that work and just let the adc do nothing but the line conversion.

Whether cd quality is good enough for people though i dont know. It is possible musicians could also use these kind of devices with their favorite mic amps and might expect a higher conversion rate? I have no.idea 

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