Sound Blaster X-Fi USB

I'm not going to go into much detail on my early efforts. Using the AT LP120USB for most typical vinyl pressings I'd set the input gain on 0.2, drop the needle and let it run into Audacity. Then get rid of the needle drop noise and extra silence at the end of each LP side. Label the tracks (quicker with ctrl-b rather than the menu). Pull down "Export Multiple" from the file menu and create Microsoft WAV files in a Media Center  library folder. Burn to CD and done. One useful tip is that double clicking on the input mic icon allows you to set the input gain exactly. The DG Mahler Third (Bernstein) required dialing down to 0.13.

This LP exposed the limits on dynamic range I was trying to deal with. After some shopping I found Creative Labs X-Fi "USB Soundcard" at Amazon for $80. I recommend this heartily. I did the initial install with the Windows drivers (not the one from Creative) since some internet discussion kind of trashed the more complicated software from the manufacturer. This works, but you still need the onboard phono preamp on the LP120 which is something I'll want to get around later. The Soundblaster is probably worth the money for the headphone amp which comes with it, It just sounds better than the built-in on my Lenovo G780.

The real advantage shows up when you hook the line out of the turntable with the SoundBlaster. Remember to change the input to 24-bit at 96 kHz. Dial then input to 1.0 in Audacity. The results are quite nice. In addition, the X-Fi happens to include a headphone amp which is worth a listen. Clearly a vast improvement over the onboad one on the laptop. 

First Cut

Good news is that the Windows/Audacity/AT-LP120USB combo works out of the box.  Bad news is that you will get, at best, adequate performance. Just remember that if you'd llke to listen to what you're doing then turn on monitoring. Not sure why you'd want it off. I digitized a couple of LPs for my sister-in-law and it's clear that the gain in the system is really high. Using the USB directly I had to turn the input to 0.15 to prevent clippin. The data stream is, for obvious reasons 44KHz by 16 bits. So if you dial in an input level that's wrong some dynamic range goes away. If you set it too high there'll be clipping.

Even this naive usage revealed turntable weaknesses. You can physically observe turntable rumble. The music in quiet passages is surfing on a few dbs of sinusoidal rumble at a few Hertz.  It was really eye-opening when I applied a 48db/octave filter in Audacity at 16Hz. The underlying low frequency sine wave melted away. Thank you mister Fourier! I haven't gotten the right settings down on click removal, but if there aren't many you can actually get rid of them by hand. Takes about thirty seconds each using the pencil tool on the dashboard.

I think I've found a fix - more next time.

Setting Up

Aha! Just taking a look at the Thorens thinking maybe I'd fiddle with it and try to get it working. I had forgotten about the cartridge, just vaguely remembering I'd gotten a great deal on it. Turns out it's an Ortofon M15E Super from way back when. I'll be trying it out. Also, I may have found that the Thorens wasn't as broken as I thought. After some minor fiddling with the belt it seems to be working. I still need to repair or replace the cable.

When looking at the reviews of the turntable AT-LP120  it was made clear that the ATN2 cartridge was just not good for archival work, or even serious listening. So I added an Audio-Technica AT95E after concluding it provides the most bang for the buck. Apparently I should have read a newer review because Audio-Technica has been shipping them with the 95E for a while. Now I have two, which is fine as they have finite lifetimes.

The gear arrived and setup is a breeze. No sense going into detail, there are youtube videos or you can just read the enclosed directions. I'm going with 1.5g tracking on the cartridge and will save the ADC ZLM for future comparisons when and if I pass the audio through a better pre-amp. I hooked up the usb connector and booted my W7 laptop and ran into problem one: the Audacity CD enclosed was an old version (1.3). The look and feel of the current version (2.0.2, which I had pre-loaded) is really different. It is intuitive however and the only reason it took half an hour was that I had to figure out that turning on "monitor" would be a good idea if I wanted to hear anything while recording. Next entry I'll systematize what I did so the reader will not need to suffer through this.

Getting Started

About twenty years ago I stumbled upon a Deutsche Grammophon Beethoven Bicentennial LP collection for a price I could not pass up. Mostly it has sat un-played as I've been to lazy or perhaps too busy to get my Thorens 125 MkII turntable repaired. Yeah, it just sits there in the corner. First thing's first, I need a plan.
I don't like to spend money, except in the abstract. When I do end up making purchases I take pride mostly in efficiency. I like to think that I'm not compelled either by excessive thrift or pride in owning the most esoteric and expensive things. Having the old turntable fixed seems inefficient. So here's what I purchased:

• Audio-Technica LP120-USB Turntable
• Audio-Technica 95E Cartridge
• Audio-Technica 6012 Record Care Kit
• Sennheiser HD201 Headphones

The whole package came in around $300. In retrospect the AT120E cartridge might have been a worthy upgrade. I didn't go that way because I concluded that the major difference between the cartridges was some additional frequency range which is inaudible to me. I'll be using Audacity and storing the data using their proprietary format and then exporting in whatever format is best for the application at hand. The main part of my project will involve the Beethoven, but the rest of my collection will need to be done as well. Should take a while.