Vinyl Transfer using USB Audio Interface - A better solution ?

Hi,

I am new to this Forum and do need assistance to use Audacity and hope to get some insightful advice on the listed 2 Arrangements with regards to vinyl digitalisation.

I have an Audio Technica, with pre-amp built-in, Turntable (TT) AT-LP60XBT (without USB out). On its back, it has an audio jack where it can be either used as a 3.5mm headphone output or using it to connect to the Receiver/Amp. There is also a Line/Phono switch as well. It does not come with Grounding post.

The TT is currently connected to my Denon Stereo Network Receiver, DRA-800H with a dedicated phono-stage input via a 3.5mm male jack to 2 RCA male Y-splitter cable. The Receiver has a Grounding post. The TT user’s guide advised to set TT’s switch to Phono only if it were to be connected to a Receiver with a dedicated Phono-stage, in which I did.


Arrangement 1:

Digitalisation of vinyl using Audacity 3.1.3 on Windows 10, is done by connecting a 6.35mm to 3.5mm Adapter Aux cable from the Receiver’s Phones jack to my laptop’s audio combo jack.

Under this arrangement, to avoid clipping, I need to adjust my Audacity’s recording level to about -0.6 dB and the Receiver’s phones jack volume to about 35 and hit record.


Arrangement 2:

I am considering to get the Behringer UFO202 to digitalise my vinyls.

Will I be getting better results by using an USB Audio interface instead of Arrangement 1 ?

With the UFO202, I will need to connect the turntable to the Input of the UFO202. On the top left of the Behringer, which input should I switch to, is it the Line or the Phono input given my TT’s specs ? Is there also a need to do any Grounding on the UFO202 ?

Thank you in advance for your help… (16 Aug 2022) :slight_smile:

The combo jack on a laptop is WRONG. It has a mono microphone input and a regular stereo line/headphone output.

The Behringer will be much better. The UFO 202 has a switch for a line input (so you can use the preamp built-into the turntable or receiver) or a phono input (so you can bypass the turntable’s preamp and use the one built-into the Behringer).

and the Receiver’s phones jack volume to about 35 and hit record.

Most receivers have “tape out” or “record out” which can also be used into the Behringer’s line-input. But, the headphone-out has a volume control which is an advantage in case you need to reduce the recording level.

It’s common for the “line out” (“tape out”, “aux out” or “record out”) to be better quality than the headphone out. The reason for this is that the headphone out has to be able to supply enough current to drive (relatively low impedance) headphones, whereas “line out” is generally designed to drive a fairly high (~20 kOhm) load. Connecting a headphone out to a line input is not ideal (though it will usually work), “line out” to “line in” is better.

@DVDdoug & @ Steve,

Thank you for both of your advice … :smiley: