USB Phono Pre-amp to digital input

[Sashoir]

Hullo all,

my wife would like a record player (she's not really old enough to remember when FM and LPs were the state of the art (and how much of a pain that was)), so I was thinking of getting her one for Christmas.

I haven't a phono preamplifier, so I was wondering whether a USB phono stage like this one (https://www.rega.co.uk/products/fono-mini-a2d) can be connected to a digital input (I've a MiniDSP SHD Studio which serves as my preamp) to play "live"? All I see regarding things like this (or record players with USB outputs) seem to be geared toward archiving records on a computer, not using the digital output to connect to a digital input.

I have seen there is a pro-ject phono stage with optical output, but I'm already using my toslink in connexion for my compact disc player (and my coaxial digital is likewise also taken up), so USB would be preferred (I know there are optical switch boxes out there, but I already have a zillion boxes and would prefer a zillion+1 rather than a zillion+2).

Thanks in advance,

Sasha.

 

[M00ndancer]

First an apology, I have spent the last 20 minutes being stupid...

Connect the USB from the record player to the MiniDSP SHD Studio. As you so clearly stated about. (Some day I will learn to read the WHOLE text)



Second stupid post... first one below.

The solution is dead simple. The MiniDSP SHD Studio have a USB A port in the back next to the Ethernet port for streaming and general USB use, including USB Audio in from a streamer or sound device. A USB based record player works the same, regardless you connect it to a PC or the SHD
Studio. So one extremely simple solution would be connecting a USB based Record player. Impossible to add more boxes.


Hopefully you want read my excellent foot in my mouth post and have a good laugh.


The simplest and cheapest way is this: Honestly, compared to every other more expensive solution, it's good enough to get all the good things about vinyl and almost none of the bad things. Good enough and I still use my record player when I get the urge to play any of my records.

Why would you not use the analog output of an USB equipped player? LPs as a medium doesn't have the sound quality as digital media anyway.
Many of them (don't know if all of them) have everything built-in, USB and phono preamp. Record player -> any line in. (unless you don't have any analog inputs free.

Fun facts: I have also re-recorded my LPs to cassettes. With my really good tape deck (to save the LPs from wearing out and still having the "old" experience with analog gear from the LP to the sound that comes out of my speakers.) Analog Master recording -> LP -> Tape Deck -> Passive analog volume control -> Active Speakers

Unless you want good looking record player or getting the best sound technically possible and recreating how it was and how we use to do it with all the hassle, then we are talking about something else. I like the Rega planars.

Sorry about the long text.... have lots of time on my hands and nothing to do.

 

[watchnerd]

Hullo all,

my wife would like a record player (she's not really old enough to remember when FM and LPs were the state of the art (and how much of a pain that was)), so I was thinking of getting her one for Christmas.

I haven't a phono preamplifier, so I was wondering whether a USB phono stage like this one (https://www.rega.co.uk/products/fono-mini-a2d) can be connected to a digital input (I've a MiniDSP SHD Studio which serves as my preamp) to play "live"? All I see regarding things like this (or record players with USB outputs) seem to be geared toward archiving records on a computer, not using the digital output to connect to a digital input.

I have seen there is a pro-ject phono stage with optical output, but I'm already using my toslink in connexion for my compact disc player (and my coaxial digital is likewise also taken up), so USB would be preferred (I know there are optical switch boxes out there, but I already have a zillion boxes and would prefer a zillion+1 rather than a zillion+2).

Thanks in advance,

Sasha.

Another option:

There are multiple TT's now on the market that have built in ADCs that output USB natively.

 

[Sashoir]

Dear M00ndancer, thank you so much for both replies. I fondly (if mostly for nostalgic reasons) remember taping my 33s and 45s so that the record would be preserved, and saving the discs for "special occasions". I was indeed thinking of getting my wife a rega planar, as my old record player was a rega which I bought second hand in the early 1980s with my paper round savings and is still going strong in my brother's house after a new belt sometime late during the Clinton administration. I stuck with records until then because they were so much cheaper where I lived than compact discs (second hand). Now I see the price of records and hope my wife doesn't want to build a collection or we'll never be able to afford our mortgage payments!
Dear watchnerd, thank you for your reply. I've looked at these, and it's certainly the logical choice, but I would like to buy the deck from a local shop just to support the local economy (and they are lovely guys there who service my amplifiers & cetera at a very reasonable cost), and they don't have carry any digital out phonographs (it's 80% second hand there).

 

[M00ndancer]

Another option:

There are multiple TT's now on the market that have built in ADCs that output USB natively.

Ninja post!!

 

[watchnerd]

Ninja post!!

 

[M00ndancer]

Now I see the price of records and hope my wife doesn't want to build a collection or we'll never be able to afford our mortgage payments!

The same here basically, I've used cassettes from the age of 13 when I got my first boombox. My parents had a nice system when I was really young (9 years old) and I would use the gear without permission when they were working and listen to Beatles and Exception.

So two years ago my youngest daughter wanted a special edition Shawn Mendez Vinyl for her birthday, I had to get a new TT for her but the old good ones is prohibitively expensive (Technics 1200, Thorens, DUAL) at least here where I live.

The cheapest way was a TT with the phone stage integrated to be able to connect it too the gear she already had. The one that I got had an ADC and USB. But new vinyls today are really expensive. So I'm kind of glad that she lost interest in vinyl and I can borrow it from time to when I get the analog itch and want to bring out my records. Also, there are lot of lost music out there that never got transferred to CD or digital files. I have a few.