best sound card

[ShadowBlade]

A friend of mine has a bunch of old albums which he wants to convert to CD. What is the best sound card for this purpose? I told him it should be under $100, so probably not X-fi.

 

[ones3k]

Audigy2 is good

 

[piasabird]

You need to think this out a bit. How do you plan on doing the conversion.

By this I mean what is the interface between the Stereo and the sound card going to be. Do you have RCA Jacks, Mini-Plugs, Svideo plugs, Digital Audio Jacks or something else. You want to buy a sound card well adapted for this. The Sample Rate is an issue for the soundcard side. Some sound cards are really good for games and some are more adapted for stereo or other sound interfaces.

Another issue is what kind of Dolby level do you have and what kind of speaker system does your friend want? Does he plan on using a computer to play the music or a stereo CD or DVD Player. Not all devices will play all computer recored CD's. It might be worth considering a sound card slightly more expensive than $100.00.

Some motherboards have built in sound cards, and might be worth trying first.

This is a 7.1 sound card with a Hardware Dolby Decoder for $90.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829121123

The model you shoose should suit your need and your expertise level. There are a lot of sound cards out there to choose from.

You might want to find someone who does this like a DJ or an audiophile.

 

[flightlesscake]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829120103

 

[piasabird]

I have recorded sound off of a VCR with a plug I purchased form Radio shack which had the two RCA Stereo jacks on one side and a mini stereo jack like they use on soundcards on the other side. I only used a soundblaster 16 sub $20.00 OEM PCI Sound Card but it came out surprisingly well. Some more expensive sound cards come with better software so look at the software too.

 

[orangat]

Shadow, read this - http://home.insightbb.com/~stephenwmoore/Speakers/LP_to_CD.htm
And defnitely don't get any Audigy or any creative card for that matter since they resample sounds and don't do 44.1khz natively.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

Yes, Creative cards are not suited to professional audio. They're best for gaming. Good pro audio cards at this price point are made by M-Audio and Audiotrak. They have very high-quality components and DACs. Since your friend doesn't need surround sound, he might be able to find a used M-Audio card in his price range.

On computer speakers, it won't make a difference. But it sounds like your friend wants to play the CDs through consumer hi-fi, and that will show up flaws in the copying process, so I'd use the best card I could afford.

Edit: How are you playing the albums? I assume they're vinyl. A good turntable will be essential, and be aware that soundcard inputs can't accept a phono-level signal. You will have to pass it through a phono pre-amp at least, or hook it up to a hi-fi amp and connect the soundcard to the tape monitor outputs.

 

[ShadowBlade]

He already has a turntable he wants to use, I don't think its extra-special, but I did one album for him and it came out fine (using his turntable) and adapters to convert the output to stereo-mini

The sound card he has now is some pos that came with his dell xps and I cant even figure out how to get any sound to go into that card.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

The sound card he has now is some pos that came with his dell xps and I cant even figure out how to get any sound to go into that card.

Look for a circle with an arrow pointing into it. Be prepared for shi!tty sound quality. Those things are almost invariably a software-based codec, built with the cheapest components the Pacific Rim can offer.

He already has a turntable he wants to use, I don't think its extra-special, but I did one album for him and it came out fine (using his turntable) and adapters to convert the output to stereo-mini

The soundcard accepted a phono-level input? Or you used a pre-amp? Phono input is at a much lower level, so unless you use a pre-amp you might find that in order to get decent gain, the signal/noise ratio is unacceptable.

 

[ShadowBlade]

Mine did, i think the turntable has a built-in preamp?? It has left/right RCA lines coming out of the back which are hardwired in (not ports) which i connected the adapters to and plugged into my line in. Worked fine.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

Mine did, i think the turntable has a built-in preamp??

Normally they do not. If they did, they would probably also have a phono-level preout because turntable manufacturers know that lots of people have expensive amplifiers they would like to trust with their preamplification, rather than whatever the turntable manufacturer has decided to build in.

But I've never heard of a hi-fi turntable with a line-level output. What does it say above the ports? Phono, MM/MC or anything like that? What turntable is it?

 

[Malladine]

Turtle beach - santa cruz

 

[ShadowBlade]

Originally posted by: Fresh Daemon

Mine did, i think the turntable has a built-in preamp??

Normally they do not. If they did, they would probably also have a phono-level preout because turntable manufacturers know that lots of people have expensive amplifiers they would like to trust with their preamplification, rather than whatever the turntable manufacturer has decided to build in.

But I've never heard of a hi-fi turntable with a line-level output. What does it say above the ports? Phono, MM/MC or anything like that? What turntable is it?

Dont know, I dont have it right now.
The turntable is my friend's and he just brought it over temporarily so I could do the one album for him.