I transcribed my LP (and tape) collection with Audacity default settings 32-bit float - and down-sampled on (default) export as 16-bit PCM WAV.
The hardware I used was:
- Technics SL-150
- SME 3009 (improved) arm
- Art-cessories Dj-Pre11 pre-amp
- Edirol UA-1EX USB sound card (run at 16-bit)
I listen to the results on QUAD ELS-57 speakers (ancient but still excellent) - and the results are amazingly good - certainly Hi-fi CD-quality good.
Apart from Audacity the only other tool I used was an app called ClickRepair which produces almost magical results removing clicks and scratches. Sadly the app appears to be no longer available, the Australian mathematician, Brian Davies, who developed it is either very sick or has died and his website where it used to be sold is no longer active. There do appear to be some Internet sites where you can still get a copy if you do some searching.
Peter.