Transfer vinyl singles to a musicphone - just
Product: Ion TTUSB05 USB Turntable
Manufacturer: Ion
Web: www.ion-audio.com
Price: £89.99
Supplier: Maplin
Specs: Here
THE TASK of transferring old vinyl recordings to MP3 format for a mobile phone is a labour of love. The TTUSB05 USB turntable from Ion makes things easier, but only just.
The TTUSB is a great idea which is virtually ruined by the accompanying software which is full of bugs. A trawl of the net will inevitably turn up some better freeware, but that's hardly the point.
One tip. The accompanying information tells Vista users to download the latest version of the software. Yet it works equally well with XP, however.
The first gripe is that for best reasons known only to itself the simple utility supplied with the unit- the EZ Vinyl/Tape converter by MixMeister - is reliant on Apple's Itunes software.
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It utilises Itunes to convert received audio input into an MP3 format. There's also a link into the Gracenote Music ID facility which helps recognise tracks but doesn't add a lot.
Given that a large number of potential purchasers of the USB turntable will also be Cupertino fanboys and own an Ipod, it does make some sense.
For the rest of us – who want to transfer their old singles to a musicphone such as the Nokia N95 8 GB – then its all a bit of a pain having to battle Itunes for Windows.
There's a claim on the packaging that the accompanying software can handle 78 rpm records through the software. [There's button on the turntable to swap from 33 rpm to 45 rpm].
Apparently, to do this, users have to set the turnable to 33 rpm and let the software carry out the conversion.
Connected the TTUSB to a PC was fun given that the first machine the INQ tried it with just would not recognise it as a USB audio device. Weird.
Using the originally supplied software, it was necessary to disconnect the turntable to listen to captured tracks in Itunes but the upgrade fixed that.
The upgrade also cured a weird bug where a series of tracks recorded in sequence somehow all got the same name in Itunes.
That might get rid of some of the obvious crackles in the captured audio. The reality is that the TTUSB is an acceptable product let down by shonky software. µ
The Good
Plugs right into USB port. No separate amp needed.
The Bad
Needs Itunes to be loaded
The Ugly
Spoilt by accompanying software - EZ Vinyl
Bartender's Report
Six out of ten
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Any old turntable and an integrated hifi amplifier (or phono preamp) with a line output, plus the program Audacity is all you need to do vinyl transfers.
The coolest turntable to use is that disco pro favourite, the Technics SL1200 which allows near instant stops and starts (and doesn't sound bad either).
... that this review is about as shonky as you claim the bundled software to be, that I can't even be arsed to pick nits.
3/10 -- must try harder. Much harder.
This is so wrong...
Vinyl just won't go away, along with the army of moronic "audiophile" anoraks that say cables (yes cables) have to be broken in by playing music through them for a day so before they sound their best.
Lets face it, vinyl was always crap, even those people who paid 1000s for a Lynn Sondek still played crappy vinyl records pressed in some factory somewhere by a worn out machine.
The same army of people who spent hundreds of pounds on metal cones to stand their CD players on because it made it sound better....
tut tut.. give me strength...
If you have vinyl you like the best thing you can do is find the digital version "online" somewhere... and bin the waste of analogue space... or flog it to some other succour on ebay.