Ripping vinyl

You could also look at the Boss power supplies - although SMPS they're very well made, and the nasties are filtered out.
You do have the issue of the plug polarity being the opposite of everything else, but that's something easily got around.

Paul H wrote: What's the Tascam like, Chris?

The Tascam just does what it says on the tin.
The ADCs are more than good enough, as you'd expect from a company that has been active in making recording equipment for awhat seems like forever.
Like any menu driven piece of kit you need to dig around a little bit to find which settings you need, but once found and adjusted it's by far the easiest and most reliable method I've used.
And the noise floor of the recordings is very, very low.

The eternal issues of recording LP records that many folk encounter still exist, no matter which piece of kit you use, and it's the same with the Tascam.
Frequently the line level signal is too hot for the recorder/interface input, which is the reason why Graham put the variable output on the Accession phono preamp.
Going direct from the phono preamp will give the simplest path.

I thought about the overloading issue for a good while, and I have ended up connecting up my Reflex M phono pre to my Solo II headphone amp, and use the level control for the headohone output to keep recording levels low enough so as not to clip the recorder input.
OK, so it's not as simple as phono pre to recorder input, but the Solo II is a very good amplifier, and transparent to boot.

Paul H wrote: I'm currently using an Asus Xonar U7 soundcard for high res needledropping into a laptop but, while it works fine, it's temperamental. And I'm not utterly convinced that the use of USB 2 inputs is the cleanest way of getting a signal into the digital domain.

I've used all sorts of sound cards over the years, followed by a couple of recording interfaces (Emu0202 USB, followed by an Emu0404 USB).
The best of the them by far was the Emu0404, which requires its own power supply. The 0404 USB can perform ADC/DAC duties on its own without needing to have a computer connected by USB, and it has SPDIF inputs and outputs too, so it's quite a powerful and well considered piece of hardware.

The Emu0404 USB I bought second hand, and it replaced the Emu0202 USB).
I was immediately struck with the superior results obtained recording with it, and I attributed this to its ground planes not being connected between it and the computer over USB.
It wasn't long before I wondered whether the external PSU could have beneficial effect on noise within the unit, and I tried the linear PSU I use to power my Squeezebox Touch.
The lowering of audible noise floor to being undetectable told me that it was a good step - a just audible band of hiss disappeared, which has to be a good thing.

The Tascam made all of that faffing about unnecessary.
They don't make the model I have any more, but they still make other models which look to be functionally the same.





Edited by Chris Firth - 28 May 2016 at 12:25pm

I'm thinking of starting to rip some vinyl. I have just got a Fono Mini A2D for free off a mate, He's just up graded to a Graham Slee phono amp. Now before I buy any software to do this with I thought it best to start with one of the free programs to see how I get on. I know there is one, I think I have asked this before but I just can't remember what it's called I have had a look on this forum with no luck (I think it's got city in it's name) Or maybe someone here may have a better program to use. I am not too worried about being able to play a track as in being able to skip tracks, As I would like to play a rip like a record as it was intended to be played. I will be using a laptop, Is there anything else I need other than a cable which I think I have some where or anything else I need to know.