Audio Technica AT3600 Standard Mount Magnetic Cartridge Review

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(More customer reviews)Have had an old Sony stereo system since 1987 and the needle has (had) been broken since 1995 or so. Recently replaced the needle (just unscrew the top black piece, pull off the yellow piece, and detach the clear plastic cover carefully--slides under and locks into position the tonearm, but will take some patience) and it works great. The single yellow piece will cost much less and would have bought on eBay but don't currently have an account with them, so all thanks to Amazon. Fortunately, this particular stylus is easy to find compared to some other/older styli. Have purchased some rare vinyl records on top of that as enjoyment. I digitize the records to iPod with MicroMemo accessory and sounds great on a computer. Just use an audio editor and burn to CD if you want. (Just a suggestion--what I do.) Generally, if the album is available on tape or CD as well and you don't have a turntable with a working needle, a vinyl record wouldn't be appropriate. Some might choose vinyl for its so-called warm audio tones and cover art that differ from other formats. Probably little demand for this nowadays but you never know when obsolete technology has a minor advantage over the newer stuff. Vinyl records are still in production, but cassette tape is becoming harder to find now, even online! Blank CDs and DVDs don't have the archival life of tapes and vinyls because they scratch too easily. Vinyl is very sturdy but certainly not compact, and you can't record your own records as you can tape and CD/DVD. Having said that, more than likely you would buy vinyl than tape, but it's a matter of need and interest. I would recommend this Audio Technica product if you have the equipment for it.

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These are AT3600 standard mount (two hole with 1/2" spacing) moving magnet cartridges that will replace virtually any brand cartridge in any turntable which uses a removeable headshell and many that don't; if you see two screws holding your current magnetic cartridge in place, this Audio Technica will replace it. Don't waste time searching for a replacement stylus for your current cartridge when you can simply replace the whole thing for the same or less money!!!

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Ortofon Omega Single Pack - 1 x Phono Cartridge fitted with stylus Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this cartridge because it was cheaper that a replacement needle. for an orthophon I have... I do not play records that often any more so I saw this as a safe inexpensive bet for casual listening at least temporarily till I can afford a replacement needle for my Sure ML140 HE...I was shocked at the sound quality in my Dual turntable...After installing the cartridge and alignment and setting the counter weight... I listened for about 2 1/2 hours, to old LP's that had not been played for a while, I was so pleased with the sound, you would probably have to pay more that $80 to get a better cartridge than this for home record playing...

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Ortofon proudly introduces the Omega – a universal ½" mount cartridge designed to fit literally hundreds of consumer turntables (including many of the most popular USB turntable models).The Omega is not a DJ cartridge, but instead a low-mass, low-wear elliptical turntable cartridge designed to provide a remarkable, yet cost effective upgrade in sound quality (over stock cartridges).With vinyl and consumer turntables making a comeback outside of the DJ market, Ortofon created the Omega to satisfy the abundance of customers looking either to revive their vintage turntables or to jump head first into the multitude of USB turntables that have become available even in the most common electronics stores.

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Behringer UFO202 Audio Interface Review

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(More customer reviews)Over last few years we replaced all desktops in the house by laptops. One day I decided to convert an old audio cassette into MP3 like I used to do on my desktop. I realized that it was not going to be possible as the 'line-in' input which was available on desktop was missing in all the three laptops in the house. After some futile tries of trying to record through mic-in, I started researching. I somehow stumbled upon this device and decided to give it a try. All I can say is this is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Here is what you need to do if you wish to convert audio cassette into MP3 -
You need -
1. Audio cable with one end 3.5 mm jack and other end with red & white L-R audio. You may have a spare A/V cable which comes with camera or dvd players etc. (W R and Yellow ends, you do not need to plug the Y end as it is for video)
(With 'line-in' on desktop, you simply needed an audio cable with 3.5 mm on both sides)
2. Boom box or tape deck (I used boom box)
3. U-Phono202 device
Plug the 3.5mm end of the cable in 'headphone out' of the boom box. Plug the L-R inputs in the L-R inputs of the U-Phono202 and plug it into a USB port of the laptop. Play the audio cassette. You cannot hear the sound through laptop speakers, you have to plug in the headphones in 'headphone out' of the U-Phno202 in order to hear the cassette playing.
If you are using Vista, right click on the speaker icon in the bottom tray and select 'recording devices', change the recording device to the '2USB Audio Codec' (at least that's how it shows up on mine).
I haven't yet used the packaged software. I useed Audacity instead. Open (or download if you have not) Audacity. Go to 'project', select 'new stereo track' and hit record. Whatever is playing on your boombox is now being recorded on your laptop. Hit stop when your recording is done. Export the project as 'Mp3', save it in your desired location.
I suggest making some few minute test recordings to make sure your recording sounds fine or you need to reduce/increase recording volume etc.
It worked exactly as above for me and worked perfectly too. The boombox gave a terrible hiss and an extremely annoying constant background noise while playing the cassette, however the U-Phono202 filtered almost 99% of it and the final MP3 sounds extremely clean.
I wrote detailed review as I had all these questions in my mind before I began searching for the right product. Hope this helps in case you are also looking for a solution to convert your cassettes to Mp3s. Thanks for reading.
UPDATE : UPhono202 is working perfectly fine! Just wanted to mention that if your recording appears over loud and there is jarring even after reducing boom box volume and the PC volume very low, here is what you shall do - Keep the boombox and computer volumes at decent levels but reduce the microphone input 'level' - Rightclick on the speaker icon in the tray. highlight the Uphono device. Click on properties. Select 'levels' tab and reduce the level all the way to 5 or 7 and then record your clip.

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High-quality USB Audio Interface with Built-in Phono Preamp and Massive Software Package for Digitalizing Your Tapes and Vinyl Records

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ART V2 USB Phono Plus DJ Preamp Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been monkeying with the Artcessories USB Phono Plus for about 10 days now. I bought it for the primary purpose of recording some LP records to my laptop. My ultimate goal was to make CDs and decent MP3s from my old vinyl. In combo with Audacity (free audio editing tool) and my Project turntable, this ARTcessories product has worked extremely well in every respect. I have not yet found a single shortcoming with this solid and portable little box.
A few things you should know:
1. This is a stand-alone phono pre-amp. It will RIAA adjust for phono before sending audio to your computer via USB. THIS IS GREAT FOR LAPTOPS -most laptops have only a mono microphone in miniplug that's pretty much good for nothing!
2. You could use this box as nothing more than a phono pre-amp. It has RCA inputs for phono AND a ground screw. Cool, huh? At $100 it would be a good deal if it did nothing more than that. I loop from the Phono Plus back into a Marantz receiver and then listen through some fairly decent Wharfedale speakers. I'd say that sound quality is every bit as good as the phono stage built into my Marantz.
3. This device allows you to monitor the phono input (or other input) either by means of a stereo miniplug connection or by way of a pair (L and R) of RCA outs. You could hook up typical PC speakers or subwoofer sytems to this box if you don't want to loop out to a stereo amp. You can also listen to the Phono Plus with headphones. The Phono Plus has a gain knob to ontrol output level. This is critical for headphone listening as well as for making good captures in Audacity.
4. This device will take input from line level RCA, digital toslink, digital coax, as well as from phono sources. Crazy, huh? I plan on using this box to record some local radio and TV audio by connecting it to either my tuner or by putting it where a cassette recorder would normally fit in a tape loop.
All in all, what a great toy! There is so much you can do with this unit. I've really only scratched the surface (no vinyl pun intended). I've been playing with this thing and talking about results and LP recording experiments at shiromaguro.com. See my work there. With a clean LP, I have found that recordings through the Phono Plus captured by Audacity can be ripped to CD or MP3 with no editing at all(except for maybe chopping big grabs into tracks). Sound qulaity of the product WAV or MP3 files is great.
Installation and setup are really non-issues here. Plug it in and connect all the cables. It just works.
Bottom line: if you want to grab vinyl to your PC laptop or to a PC that lacks a good sound card (one with stereo inputs) this is a great way to go. In a few weeks of shopping for my solution, I found nothing else comparable.
Why not 5 stars? My mistake. I should have given this unit 5 stars. Then again, I personally never read 5-star reviews....
Ultimately, I hope that this product will make it easy for lots of people to make some cool and unique MP3s, not just the usual CD rip stuff. Seriously, this product could single-handedly be responsible for the digitization of piles of old analog material that would otherwise be left to fade from existence. Personally I have made it a point to find out which of my old records never made it to CD --those are the ones that get digitized first!
Bravo to ART for a great product.

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The ART USBPHONOPLUS V2 is a long awaited solution to the problem of expensive USB interfaces that don't have phono preamps.The PhonoPLUS V2 is designed with DJs for DJs.Not only can you use it as a USB audio interface, but it can also be used as a standard low noise phono preamp, converting the low phono level into a line level signal.

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ART DJ Pre II Phono Preamp Review

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(More customer reviews)Recently I sold off my high end stereo preamp and power amp to transition to a multichannel home theater environment. The stereo preamp had a very nice phono stage and after reviewing the specs and prices on countless generic and hybrid phono preamps I decided to take a chance on the ART DJ Pre II. Am I glad I did. Even though I was prepared to drop some serious cash on one of the more esorteric audiophile preamps I had wondered whether any inexpensive phono preamp could provide reasonable playback quality.
As I'm now streaming audio and video to my home theatre from my home computer network (via wired ethernet) I wanted a simple device that would enable me to playback and/or digitize my LP collection (numbering over 1000 albums). After interfacing the ART DJ Pre II to my home brew computer's Audigy 2 music card via a quality shielded mini-cable and adjusting and matching the signal levels appropriately on both the preamp and my computer software I was pleasantly surprised at the purity of reproduction.
While this arrangement may not approach the most sophisticated levels of vinyl reproduction possible, for one who attends live orchestral music concerts and plays SACD's on a regular basis the ART DJ comes darn close. When adding the fact that I've avoided spending several thousand dollars on an audiophile quality phono preamp I'm left with a very pleasant smile on my face.

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The ART DJ Pre II should be in every DJ's gig box!Vinyl records have drawbacks. Bass compensation can be needed during playback. Records produce a certain amount of hiss, and magnetic cartridges produce a weak signal. A separate RIAA preamp is necessary when you are connecting a turntable to a mixer that does not have one built in. The ART DJ Pre II features an RIAA-type phono preamp circuit with full patching facilities for connecting a phono turntable and mixer.The DJ PRE II (formerly named thePhono MicroPRE) acts as an interface between your turntable and your audio recording / playback system. The analog input capacitance can be switched between 100pF and 200pF to optimize your phono cartridge response. A switchable low cut filter removes turntable rumble while leaving the audio pristine. The front gain trim control and signal/clip LED allow you to optimize the preamp's gain for a wide range of input sources. The built-in low noise phono preamp circuitry is highly accurate and precisely conforms to the RIAA standard. The line output jacks are low impedance and can be used with any sound card.Housed in an all aluminum black anodized case, the DJ PRE II can be powered by a wide variety of external supplies. If you need to amplify and EQ your vinyl records to interface with your audio workstation, sound card, home stereo system or main monitor system, the DJ PRE II gives you flawless audio reproduction in a rugged and reliable package.ART DJ Pre II FeaturesDual RCA-type inputsDual RCA-type outputsGround terminalPower: 12V DC (Adapter included)ARTcessories Series OverviewCreative audio solutions in cool little boxes.ARTcessoriesare taking the audio world by storm and quickly becoming a popular brand with musicians, DJs and studio engineers everywhere around the World. Split, combine, mix, power... you name it. On stage, in the studio, in your liv

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