The Turntables That Transform Vinyl

By ANNE EISENBERG

(See Featured Product: Audio-Technica LP2Da)

LONG-PLAYING records are gathering dust in the homes of many music lovers, who hope to hear their contents one day on a CD player or iPod.

Now, an updated version of another audio relic, the phonographic turntable, may provide a fairly inexpensive way to do that. Two new consumer turntables on the market at $200 or less connect directly to computers to transfer cherished vinyl to MP3 files and CDs.

The machines aren't for audiophiles who have the skill to rig their own systems with special cables and preamplifiers. But they may offer a doable way for nontechies to thrill again to their favorite bit of analog Beethoven or Dylan.

Learning how to use these systems takes time -- up to three or even four hours. The turntable has to be assembled, and the LPs cleaned carefully to remove the dust of ages -- two jobs that those over 30 might remember well.

Then the recording software, which comes on a CD, takes about a half-hour to set up properly -- or three times that if you skip the ''frequently asked questions,'' as I did, and then sheepishly return to them when you get stuck.

The software requires some attention even after you learn its ways. For example, it can't automatically detect the end of each track between two songs or movements of a symphony. You have to mark these spots yourself in the program before burning a CD or making an MP3 file.

Still, once the learning curve is vanquished and the sounds of much-loved old recordings fill the air, you may wonder why you waited so long. . .

. . .another new turntable, Audio-Technica's LP2Da ($170 to $199) works with PCs but not with Macs. And it has a sturdy dust cover, unlike the coverless Ion. The Audio-Technica's tone arm comes assembled and can be set to raise and lower itself from the turntable automatically

The Audio-Technica model has a pre-amplifier, but no USB connection. It plugs into the computer the old-fashioned way: through an analog line input jack. That means that it won't work with many laptops unless special hardware is bought, for laptops typically have a jack only for a microphone.

THE accompanying software, Cakewalk Pyro, is easier to use than Audacity: burning a CD, for instance, requires only one click for the entire LP, while Audacity requires that you send along each track separately. And it includes software for converting .wav files to MP3 files; by contrast, Audacity requires users to download a free plug-in in order to do this.

Ion users may soon have software that is easier to handle: in April, the company plans to replace Audacity with a program that detects tracks automatically and allows recording in MP3 format without a separate download. Buyers of the iTTUSB will be able to download the update at no charge. The company also plans to ship two models that are variations on the basic iTTUSB, both with dust covers.

Of course, there are other ways to digitize old LPs. Commercial services will transfer them, typically for $15 to $50 each, depending on the number of extra services. TEAC makes an all-in-one machine that doesn't require a separate computer to convert LPs to CDs ($400). It does some automatic tracking, although incompletely.

To see how the new, inexpensive turntables sounded once they were set up, I invited a friend, George Basbas, a physicist, to bring over some of his treasured LPs. One was an old Columbia Masterworks album featuring the countertenor Russell Oberlin. We recorded it on the Audio-Technica turntable, burned a CD from the .wav files, then played both the CD and the LP on the stereo.

We couldn't tell for sure which was the LP and which was the CD, although many experts probably could. ''Any digitization process imposes limits on quality,'' said Mark Schubin, a media technology consultant in Manhattan. ''Be prepared: it won't sound the same as you heard it through your analog system when you were playing back the record.''

But the new recording sounded good enough as we listened to Mr. Oberlin's exquisite voice fill the room, ready to be taken along by CD or MP3 in the car or on a walk, freed after more than 50 years from its vinyl confinement.

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