Ion TTUSB Turntable with USB Record
by Ion
List Price:
Our Price: $100.50
You Save: $99.49 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: CE
See more product details
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: IonFormat: CD
Release Date: 2009-11-01
Model: ITTUSB
Product features:
- USB 1.1 turntable that makes it a snap to convert vinyl collection to CD or MP3 formats
- Includes Audacity PC/Mac recording software and trial version of Bias Soundsoap 2
- Adjustable anti-skating control for increased stereo balancing
- Support for high-speed vinyl recording; works with both 33-1/3 and 45 rpm speeds
- Line-level outputs for easy stereo connection; 1/8-inch line-level input; weighs 7.7 pounds
- H2O Audio - Sport Series Headphones - Black
- Ultimate Ears MetroFi 150 Noise Isolating Earphones
- Logitech Cordless Number Pad for Notebooks
- Able Planet Clear Harmony Over the Head Stereo Headphones
- Case Logic TNR-15 15.4-Inch Classic Rolling Laptop Case (Black)
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Ion TTUSB Turntable with USB Record
Customer Review: Ah, the days when vinyl sounds so much warmer!
Summary: 4 Stars
Pros: Easy to hook up to computer with USB cable.
RCA cables make it easy to monitor recording process.
Relatively easy to get started right out of the box.
Good quality digital conversions are possible.
No messy analog connections to computer or computer sound card, bypassing any potential quality issues during conversion.
Audacity, as one option for capture edit software is a very powerful freeware program.
Inexpensive solution to making vinyl conversion easy.
Cons: Software. Audacity, the suggested capture/edit software does have a learning curve. Audacity also does not provide a great way to "mass remove" pops and clicks. The "getting started" EZ vinyl converter does not have any editing features at all. No way to avoid iTunes when using the EZ vinyl software.
This system will not allow you to automatically record a whole side of a record and then let it find the track divisions and titles on line.
Hardware: Turntable lacks much noise isolation. Probable cheap needle. Electronics background noise present at low level recording.
Can't use p-mount cartridges.
No dust cover.
Right out of the box, this USB turntable can provide an easy way to convert those old vinyl records into a digital format--limited only by the conversion software that you are using. Of course, quality is directly related to how well you have treated your vinyl over the years. Pops, clicks, and other surface noise will not magically disappear, and unless the pops and clicks are isolated, it is difficult to remove them all at once with the provided software solutions. This reviewer has tended to try to find the CD copy of any vinyl prior to spending time doing a conversion. Of course, there is always vinyl you cannot find on CD--and that is why this system is a nice way to preserve what you have on vinyl, cannot find in any other format, and allow you more flexibility in the digital domain.
Hookups were easy. This reviewer immediately replaced the USB cable with a longer one to provide better isolation from desktop activity and move the turntable a bit further away. You see, if you are clicking away on your keyboard and the turntable is connected in any way to your desk, you probably will hear that noise. As stated above, this turntable is not heavy, nor are the support pads all that great at isolating sound from the surroundings. I listened to the recording portion through headphones; I would be hesitant to crank up the stereo while recording with poor sound isolation. You will probably hear feedback.
Once hooked up, moving the preinstalled belt over to the drive motor, installing the needle, balancing the tone arm were straight forward activities. Cartridge pressure was set at 3.5 grams. No adjustments were made to the anti skating or level output on the back of the turntable. Feeling pretty nostalgic after these old timey activities! The back switch, since I hooked up to a cassette deck for headphone monitoring, was simply put on RCA rather than phono output.
Turning the turntable on, Windows XP plug and pray properly installed it, along with the USB codec necessary for recording. This reviewer uses Audacity all the time for other sound editing, so bringing this program up, making sure the I/O preferences were correct (switch input to the USB codec) was familiar territory. A test recording showed levels were close to optimal at 80-100%. Some minor left right balance bias was present--probably due to the needle being slightly misaligned. Rather than start playing around with this minor concern--recording balance was simply adjusted 10%.
If I was going to use this turntable to play the same records more than once, rather than record them right away, I might be inclined to do two things. 1. Replace the needle and cartridge with a higher quality unit. As I remember, it was not uncommon for good quality cartridges to cost over $80. There are audible differences between cartridges that critical listening will reveal. 2. During installation, calibrate and align everything properly. Calibration and alignment issues were one reason that p-mount cartridges were so popular as plug and play during their time. This turntable does not take p-mount cartridges. Alignment of the cartridge is necessary to provide the absolute optimal sound, and also extend the life of your vinyl records. For this review, records are played once and recorded--so this is less of a concern--and overall recording quality was acceptable during (critical) listening. Of course, it is always interesting to hear surface noise (again) after a near lifetime of listening to CD's...
One other source of noise on recording would seem to be the electronics themselves. This noise, sounding like a low level buzz, is audible at low levels (like before the music starts playing with the needle down and platter moving and at low level music), and can sometimes be discerned during higher level sounds. It is unknown if this noise is coming from the phono output or cartridge (highly likely) or is just noise from cheap isolation from the motor electronics--which I also consider highly likely. The noise is present at all times when the turntable is on, whether the motor is running or not. It is just bearable--if you can ignore the lead in to any music which drowns out the background. Oh well. For $100 what do you expect? A $1000 finely isolated turntable with top notch electronics and cartridge? It is possible that changing the cartridge might help, but I have no way to check that.
Hitting record in Audacity, and the play button on the turntable, making any necessary adjustment during recording, and then stopping the turntable after the song is over was straightforward. So is removing the beginning and end portions (needle coming down, etc) in Audacity. If the recording level needed more adjustment, selection of the track and using "amplify" helps. Just be reminded that any significant pops and clicks (extending to 100% of the recorded range) will prevent any significant amplification unless they are removed before the adjustment. With Audacity, if you only have one or two major pops (typical for even well maintained vinyl), you can "magnify" them and delete just that portion--one at a time. Oh, you can try the "noise removal" feature, but I have not had any luck with it--nor have I wanted to use it--ever. Saving the file is straight forward. Wave format is full resolution--highly suggested for primary copies. Then an mp3 version (or other available formats) can be stored. (Be sure to set the capture rate that you want in the preferences). Audacity allows you to add some title, artist, etc tags during storage. This is a manual process. If you used the EZ converter software through iTunes, conceivably this is more automated--but this reviewer skipped trying this due to high familiarity with Audacity.
Moving the mp3 versions into Window Media Player and letting it sit for a while found a number of album art covers--seemingly matching manually typed in titles. WMP is not perfect, but it has gotten progressively better over time.
One slight detail with Audacity that I did not know right away--when you record individual songs, be absolutely sure to make a NEW file for each one. I ended up with some songs that had the proper saved filename, but improper artist, title, etc tags. When storing mp3 files you should always have an option to enter more information (title, etc). If you don't then you probably did not create a new file, and the old tags may still be present. The filenames and tags can always be corrected after the fact, but it can be a pain.
OK, this reviewer has converted a bunch of albums so far. And, so far, so good. Despite the contention that this is a cheap cartridge and needle, sound quality is good. Considering that probably less than 150 albums might be expected to be converted over the next couple of months--I would expect that I may not replace the cartridge. On the other hand, maybe I will find a deal on that $100 primo cartridge that I just have to have.... Bringing back those memories of trying to find the perfect vinyl sound quality, Disc-washer (TM!) in hand, and wondering when the first digital recording will come out to get rid of those pesky pops and clicks that sometimes happened on the very first playing.
All said, the Ion iTTUSB turntable is inexpensive and with some compromises on electronics and cartridge an acceptable value. Some may find the background electronic noise annoying--and it would be interesting to hear from users that replace the phono cartridge, answering the question--will this reduce the electronics noise or not? While there is some learning curve on any new toy and with any software, there is nothing that the normal computer user should find too awfully difficult with a bit of playing around. Ultimately, spending hours doing something that can be enjoyable and rewarding.
ps, I tried something suggested here... notably: "Placing a layer of aluminum foil on the platter under the mat in contact with the grounded metal spindle reduced the hum noticably." Surprisingly, this does seem to reduce the electronic noise. More than likely this is related to a grounding concern.
Description of Ion TTUSB Turntable with USB Record
ION has created the world's first USB turntable allowing you to convert your old vinyl collection directly to CD or MP3 with the included recording software. (NO SPECIAL DRIVERS NEEDED) The ION USB turntable includes Audacity software for Mac/PC for recording as well as a trial of Bias Soundsoap 2 for cleaning and restoring vinyl. This turntable also has line level output for connecting to any home stereo with CD or auxiliary (AUX) inputs. This product is compatible with any software that supports USB audio input sound cards.The first USB turntable that lets you convert your old vinyl collection directly to CD or MP3, the Ion Audio iTTUSB is a must for people who don't want to deal with clumsy adapters or mismatched software when transferring formats. Requiring no special drivers, the turntable comes with Audacity, a recording application that works with both PCs and Macs, as well a trial version of Bias Soundsoap 2 to clean and restore vinyl recordings. As an alternative, the turntable also works with any other software that supports USB audio input sound cards. Once connected, the turntable transfers both 33-1/3 rpm albums and 45 rpm singles to digital formats in mere minutes.
The iTTUSB also offers a few hardware extras, such as an adjustable anti-skating control for increased stereo balancing, an adjustable pitch control (+/- 8 percent), and support for high-speed vinyl recording. And thanks to the line-level outputs, you can connect to any home stereo with CD or auxiliary (AUX) inputs--no phono inputs required. The turntable comes with a cartridge and stylus, 45 adapter, and USB cable and is compatible with PCs running Windows 98, 2000, or XP and Macs running OS 9 or greater. All computers must also have at least one available USB 1.1 port.
The iTTUSB's master carton measures 20.27 by 6.85 by 17.16 inches (W x H x D) while the turntable itself weighs 7.7 pounds.
What's in the Box
Turntable, tonearm counterweight, platter with belt, slipmat, cartridge premounted on headshell, RCA cable, USB cable, software CD-ROM, 45 adapter, quick-start guide, user's manual.
Digital Cameras & Photo Categories