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   MrFF says:

   

   Go put your records on

   So you’ve got a stack of Dan Fogelberg LPs the size of the Burj Khalifa. Or perhaps you have taste and they’re actually a stack of old Miles Davis records. Either way, I’m not judging — you just want to get those old vinyl records converted over to a digital format so you can listen on your computer. The good news is you don’t need to be a rocket scientist, audio engineer, or computer programmer to figure it out — you just need to spend a little cash.

   DIY conversion

   Until the last couple of years, if you wanted to do this you had to take your existing turntable and plug it into the audio input jack on the back of your computer — but first you would have to find an audio preamp, since the standard turntable generates a very low level audio signal. Without this your digital recordings would sound quiet and tinny. Not to mention the maze of cables and adapters and… well, you get the idea.

   Fortunately, give electronics manufacturers a hint of a niche and they’ll fill it — quickly and with lots of different products.

   Now there are turntables out there with a direct USB output — just plug it into your computer using a standard USB cable, install some software, and away you go — all for about $100, depending on the make and model.

   A quick search on amazon.com yields many results, with this model from Audio Technica leading the way in reviews and popularity. Close on its heels are this one from Jensen (which can do the conversion without a computer, a bonus for some folks), and this model from Sony which includes some easy to use software. All of these as of this writing (January, 2012) sit right around the $100 mark and have good reviews.

   None of these are endorsements, of course, merely examples of what is out there and what you can expect to pay for this product — do your own research and determine which is best for your needs.

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