lewm - I understand your concern, but as I think I made clear above, my only connection with Sweetvinyl is that I committed to be a beta tester for the SC-2 during Sweetvinyl’s Indiegogo campaign. As a contributor, I receive regular email updates from Sweetvinyl which I have shared here. Also, I saw the product demonstrated and spoke with two of the principles of Sweetvinyl at the November, 2016 Chester Group audio show in NYC. Everything about the product I have posted here is based on what I have learned from my communications with the folks at Sweetvinyl. Other than being a paying customer and beta-tester, I have no financial interest in or control over Sweetvinyl. Just as I appreciate it when users of new products post their impressions here on Audiogon, I am trying to share my experience and excitement about this product with the audio community.
Perhaps what raises suspicion is my extreme enthusiasm for the Sugarcube. You got me there! After 10 years of using a pro-sumer CD recorder to digitize my LPs, I am only about half way done, and the process is difficult. I currently have to insert track divisions on the fly using the recorder’s remote. If I miss, I can either start over again or live with it. Then there is the process of manually typing in much of the metadata after ripping the CD-R onto my server. And, then there are the clicks and pops that still annoy even after a good vacuum cleaning. The Sugarcube promisses to solve all three of these issues with a turnkey dedicated box that does not require the use of a computer and a handful of applications. If it works, it will speed up the process, produce cleaner, higher-res digital files of my LPs, and make organizing them on a server easier. So, am I excited? Heck yes! Sorry if I come across as a shill, but I am really enthusiastic about this product, which, I feel, is a new product category. I have taken a lot of flak from others who are committed to using a bunch of computer programs to accomplish what the Sugarcube will do, but none of these programs do what the Sugarcube can do without a lot of digital editing of the recorded files. The Sugarcube automates the click & pop removable (and it’s adjustable), automatically inserts track divisions, and automatically pulls down meta data from the web.
BTW, most of this info is on the Sweetvinyl.com web site and the Indiegogo.com web site. At Indiegogo, just search for Sugarcube, and read through the page and the updates.
As for me seeming to be alone in posting, that is likely because there are only 100 SC-2 beta units being produced, and perhaps the other 99 beta testers are not active on Audiogon. Who knows? It does seem that some of the Indiegogo campaign purchasers are located outside the U.S., too.
Hey, it’s an Indiegogo thing, so I might end up with nothing, or with a unit that doesn’t deliver as promissed. That’s the risk I took after seeing/hearing the demo. It is already 4 months overdue, but as I said to Dan Eakins of Sweetvinyl, I’d rather have it right, than right now. So, even though I may end up with a paperweight, or a product that does not deliver what was promissed (and with very little recourse, according to Indiegogo policy), I remain fairly optimistic.
