Best for recording records?


What is best now for recording records to save to hard disk and play back with a great dac?  Is it Korg or PS Audio NuWave?  I would not use the PS Audio as phono amp, only to record as I think Fremer is right it sounds not good as a phono amp.  Korg is a pain cause you don't record to computer, you record to it then you transfer to computer.  2 steps.  PS audio goes right to computer.  But what is best for SOUND QUALITY?  Either 24/192 or DSD 2x.
inburrito

Showing 1 response by rossb

I use an RME Babyface Pro. It is a German pro audio A/D converter, is reasonably priced and sounds excellent.

I record at 32/96 and then downsample to 24/96 for "archival" purposes or 16/44 for most purposes. Recording at 192khz is in my opinion unnecessary since LPs don't produce frequencies up to 95khz. Using 32 bit is useful only for manipulating the dynamic range without compromising sound quality. Having a final version at 24/96 is in my view more than adequate, and to be honest I can't tell the difference between those and the 16/44 versions, and happily listen to the latter.

As others have noted, it is an enormous amount of work  - for each hour of recording allow 1-2 hours of additional work to edit, remove clicks etc. I really only do it to make recordings to allow me to hear the difference between, say, two arms or two cartridges, through instantaneous comparisons, while keeping all other variables the same.

Even if the digital recordings seem to sound identical (which they do) they still lack something I can't quite define which means they are no substitute for playing the original record.