Hi, I have 2 questions!!

[Shaky]

Will do Steve, but it might take me a while to sort out my opinion of the card.

I haven’t done any real ripping in perhaps 8 years; then I was using an old Windows 2000 machine with a Soundblaster Live card and an I/O box attached in one of the drive bays.

I think that was state of the art when I bought it at least 10 years ago, but comparing the recordings I made then and now, the 'vintage' model seem to give a warmer, more genuinely analogue sound. No doubt this is at least mainly subjective, but I suppose there must also be some qualitative differences between different A/D converters. Do you know if some kind of comparison exists?

[kozikowski]

I still have one of those exact combinations and it works very well. I built the machine and I was careful to keep the sound card away from all the other cards like it says in the instructions. I recorded analog stereo like that for several years with no serious degradation. Windows 2000 was pretty simple and didn't make very many assumptions about the user or their jobs.

Unlike now.

A good portion of our Windows questions and answers have to do with fighting Windows, not Audacity.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

As Steve and Koz have said - and also I would make sure that your record deck / arm/ cartridge are set up properly. In particular:

1) Ensure that the cartridge alignment is correct (some cartidge manufacturers provide protractors to facilitate horzontal alignment). You can use a small mirror placed on the patter to checck the vertical alignment - lower the stylus very carefully onto the mirror - and make sure it doesn't slide off.

2) Make sure that the stylus is clean - but be careful if you clean it - I cleaned one of mine with an alcohol-based solvent and it dissolved the glue that formerly stuck the diamond tip to the cantilever arm.

3) Make sure that the arm is aligned correctly and than any counterweighting and anti-skate devices are adjusted properly.

4) Ensure the TT is grounded properly (my phono pre-amp has a grounding post for this).

5) Make sure the TT is set on a solid properly horizontal surface.

6) If you monitor while recording either use headphones or make sure that you keep the volume on the speakers reasonably low to avoid any sonic feed back to the cartidge/arm/TT.

WC

[Shaky]

Sorry to stray further off topic with respect to this thread, but my vinyl ripping efforts are ongoing and I have good and bad news to report.

The good news is that my new audio setup, including the Asus Xonar sound card, actually sounds great; I discovered this by something of an accident, when listening to recordings on my trusty old Sennheiser HD 25s, so as not to aggravate Mrs Shaky further.

The bad news then is that my old 4.1 pc speakers are not so much the high quality vintage items I had previously considered, as shot to pieces and in urgent need of replacement.

I know this is the wrong section, but I wonder if I could tap your collective experience and ask for advice on what to get; I don’t want to go completely over the top on Yamaha studio monitors, but I’d like something reasonably accurate on a budget that is flexible.

All thoughts gratefully appreciated!

[Edgar]

I don’t want to go completely over the top on Yamaha studio monitors, but I’d like something reasonably accurate on a budget that is flexible.

Budget? What outputs do you intend to use (balanced--XLR/TRS, RCA)? Do you want/need active (powered/builtin amps)? Do you plan on having a sub? This really is way off topic and should be moved to another section of the board.

[kozikowski]

We have two soft recommendations. In the $100 range, the Edirol MA-7A is not dreadful. They're far better than normal "computer speakers" and you can turn that default bass boost thing off.

http://www.roland.com/products/en/MA-7A/

For more serious work, we use Rokit5 for return voice on the larger videoconference systems.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/KRK-Rokit-P ... 1403132.gc

Those are about $100 each.

All these are self-powered. The Rokits demand a splitter cable for Left and Right and you need to change volume at the computer. The Rolands have one volume control.

Koz

[Shaky]

Thanks Koz, that is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.

I am in the UK where prices tend to be 1.5-2x those in the US, and with the Rokit 5s in the range of $400/pair over here it is a little more than I can really justify.

At the same time the MA 7s appear to have changed brand name to Cakewalk and been discontinued at least in the UK, but Roland have a current model called the MA 15D(igital) that looks interesting, not only in terms of price; it has dual digital/analogue inputs with separate volume controls at the front, and also a headphone jack.

See: http://www.rolandus.com/products/produc ... ductId=746

Do you have a view on that model?

Again thanks for all your help.

[steve]

I have a pair of Tannoy Reveal monitors (original model). They're a bit light on the bass (compared with bigger speakers) so possibly not the best thing if you're listening to bass heavy dance mixes, but they are very "revealing", not at all tiring to listen to and I really like them. The original model is no longer made, but there are several new versions, for example the active TANNOY REVEAL 601A for a little under £300 (GBP) for a pair (for example, http://www.thomann.de/gb/tannoy_reveal_601a.htm). These are classed as "near field monitors" and are designed for listening to quite close up (about a meter from your head). There's a world of difference between near field studio monitors and computer speakers or hi-fi speakers. Hi-fi speakers are designed to sound good (and will often be flattering of the recording), whereas near field monitors are designed to sound accurate (thus revealing all the flaws).

[Shaky]

Thanks Steve.

I’m afraid that my ripping agenda now largely consists of dance stuff, having done most of my disco/funk/rare groove already, so heavy base is the order of the day.

And since my basic objective is merely to make sure I don’t overbake that when applying post-processing EQs, it is hard to justify the expenditure on studio quality gear; not only to myself but also to Mrs Shaky, who is likely to find the distinction between nearfield monitors and my expensive Bose speakers in the lounge and the much better Mission ones squeezed under the stairs incomprehensible on several levels.

I think I might just plump for the Cakewalk MA 15s, although I am a little concerned they are underpowered relative to most of the alternatives on that great site you linked to -- seem to get good reviews though.

[Shaky]

Just to finish off my personal saga, I ended up ordering the Cakewalk monitors. They arrived Tuesday morning at 9am, were up and running by 10:30am and packed and ready to go back at 12:00.

Nice connectivity, size, and price but unfortunately heavily distorting at anything more than mildly loud levels.

Have now abandoned my - with hindsight silly - principles and am sitting with a pair of Tannoy Reveal 501s in front of me; I couldn’t be happier, they are just excellent!

One thing that had initially put me off ‘proper’ monitors was I had seen several comments along the lines of “if it sounds good on these, it will sound good on anything”. Sure I wanted accuracy but I also wanted something for general listening purposes that sound reasonably good. Fortunately the Tannoys in no way disappoint on that score. Wow.

One interesting thing came up in this process; with both digital and analogue inputs I was instantly unhappy with the Cakewalks when I started to turn the sound up even a little.

To try to confirm whether the problem might instead be my recordings I dug around and found the only CD single in my possession, which I also happen to have on 12” vinyl and cranked it up. Sure enough the distortion was horrible, but the interesting thing is that the same CD also sounds dreadful on the Tannoys--digital production, but evidently a crap mix; hopefully something I can avoid with these babies!

Thanks for your input everyone.