Tascam DA-3000

DTC

The Ayre QA-9 you mention does have discrete (assumed class A) circuitry. It's easily double the cost of the Tascam and I am not sure if it's still available. Could not find any listed on 'Bay. The other issue is that the QA-9 requires a stand alone computer to formulate the final .WAV or .FLAC audio file, which is not that convenient. The TASCAM is a stand alone solution, which produces .WAV files on memory cards or USB media directly.

Did discover that Brown Dog does make a SO8 to SO8 surface mount adapter to allow two OPA627 op amps to replace a 5532 dual. In my tape loop listening tests with the Spectral, I have found the OPA627 to be pretty close to the vinyl source, with a small amount of loss of SQ. For recording of vinyl for casual listening playback, this may suffice, assuming the BD adapters don't create stability problems with the 627s.

Ozzy,

So what is the best way to transfer vinyl albums. I was
thinking to transfer all favorite albums. CD Recorder is not
the solution (only 80 minutes of the music on one disc).

topten:

The TASCAM does not have the file size limitations of a "CD" recorder. You can build any size file if the media (USB thumb drive, HD, or memory card) is large enough (but will run into 2 GB file size partition issues since they use FAT file partitions).

Neither does the Ayre QA-6, because you stream USB digital to a computer.

Audio quality does become an issue, depending on how critical you are.

Fremer did a review of the Ayre QA-6 recently in March 2015 along with some other A/D converters such as the PS Audio Nuwave, Lynx Hilo, and M2Tech Joplin:

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/analog-digital-converter-files-identified-converters-profiled#wCSH81I66K8VFGXx.97

topten:

Also, MD (Sony mini-disc) is not a loss-less format. It is compressed, similar to MP-3. I also have mini-disc and would never equate this format with high end audio. So it would not surprise me that anything recorded to MD will sound flat and lacking in detail.

I have many recordings ripped from CD to Sony MD, and they don't even compare to the CD quality originals. I did it because MD is convenient on a portable device were I did not want the larger sized CD. I think it is better than MP-3.

DhI93449,
The largest file that this unit will create during record is
2GB. If a recording is about to exceed this size, a new file is
automatically created, but the audio is processed so there
is seamless continuity between the current and new file. On
playback, in order to hear the audio seamlessly, please set
the TRACK GAP mode setting to “GAPLESS”.
(See “Setting
gapless playback mode” on page 41.)

Is this solution to the 2GB limitation:

GAPLESS
is selected during DSD file playback
Depending on the status of the audio data, noise might
occur at the division between tracks due to the nature
of DSD files. If the noise is bothersome, set the track gap
mode to
NORMAL
to avoid it. (Noise will not occur during
the gapless playback of audio from tracks created using
this unit’s auto track and track increment functions, for
example.)