Sounds like a fantastic second system Dungassin! I had my n-set hooked up to my main rig for a while a few months ago- sounded way better than it had a right to. I suspect in a smaller room the effect would be even better .

Glad to hear that you are considering spending some cash on your Sondek...Radikal and Urika would bring it all together beautifully ! Oh, and have a listen to what a Super Sarum lead from Urika to 552 brings ...in the words of our newly elected President- Its HUGE !

ATB,

Mark

Thanks.

My study system is now my only system.   The only bits I've kept are the LP12 and Olive HiCap.  Think I'll have to wait a few months, because if I do upgrade the LP12, I'm likely to do the Full Monty all in one go!  It would need Keel, Urika, Radikal and probably EkosSe and replacement cartridge.  The Te Kaitura has about 2000 hours on it already from when I digitised my 4000+ LPs - well, I wanted to listen to them in my study!)

nSats are probably one of the few speakers that would work well in this small room.  They've certainly responded to every upgrade I've thrown at them so far

Dungassin posted:

Study system now consists of :

LP12/Ekos1/Te Kaitura Rua/Prefix S/Lingo 1, Olive HiCap; NDS/555PSDR; NAC552 DR; NAP 300 DR; Naim n-System; Sarum TA lead for NDS; Arcam AVR850; Oppo 103D; PS4; XBox360; Wii U; NACA5 speaker cables; Korg MR2.

Wow! Rega P3, Nait2 and Kans it ain't  

C.

Very pleased with the LP12 in its new place.  Had a lovely couple of hours playing live rock/blues LPs this morning.  Gary Moore is sadly missed (by me)

I took it Cymbiosis along with some bits of the living room system, to get it checked over.  Managed to damage the arm clip on the Ekos in process, but Peter fixed it and extended my earth cable.

Just need to wait a few weeks then broach the subject of Urika/Radikal to SWMBO.  Te Kaitora (never sure how to spell that) OK into the Urika?

That's an impressive system. I suspect what you describe as a 'study' would more readily be called a 'man-cave' these days.  Good on you. 

That's right.  I still tend to refer to it as my study because that's where I used tomdo my paperwork, prepare tutorials and lectures etc.  Now it's where I go to play guitar, watch TV, play games etc,  It's also my grandchildren's favourite room.

Dungassin posted:

Finally finished messing about with the study system, following purchase of SimRak stands from Cymbiosis.   Have also fitted the Tiger Paw Vulcan in there, so my LP12 is back in action.  I'll miss the Active System in the living room, but bits have gone to a good home (SBLs and 52/52PS to my son-in-law).    The CDS and Nakamichi CR7 are boxed up and waiting for me to decide what to do with them.

SWMBO after grumbling about the disruption, is just happy to have much more space in there!  I've offered to get her a Muso for the living room, but she's obviously not interested.

Study system now consists of :

LP12/Ekos1/Te Kaitura Rua/Prefix S/Lingo 1, Olive HiCap; NDS/555PSDR; NAC552 DR; NAP 300 DR; Naim n-System; Sarum TA lead for NDS; Arcam AVR850; Oppo 103D; PS4; XBox360; Wii U; NACA5 speaker cables; Korg MR2.

LP12 at least equal to NDS IMO.  Perhaps the cartridge is getting a little tired?   Need to take it to Cymbiosis and ask them to fit a longer earth lead to it.  Currently connecting it to 552 via HiCap and a 2m 4>5pin DIN lead from Chord Company.  Couldn't site it any closer to the 552.

Bit of a faff fitting the Tiger Paw Shelf, and I may have to take it down and do it again.  Unfortunately the inner wall of my study is cement block (breeze block), so may not take the load for long - especially if my grandkids lean on it!  I'm going to see if I can get some suitable Rawlbolts to replace the supplied fittings.  Always had to do that in the end with these stupid walls.

To anyone contemplating the SimRaks, I would warn them to make sure the feet are sitting correctly when you stack them.  I had to dismantle one stack when I noticed that one of them near the bottom wasn't sitting properly.  Caused much bad language on my part.

I can see expensive LP12 upgrades in my future  ...  

A little off topic, but I wonder if you would be kind enough to assist ? I noticed you had "digitised" your LPs, something I would like to attempt. The  "Korg MR-2" (which seems to be no longer available) seems to be portable and perhaps straightforward to use ?

Some suggest buying a DVD recorder, copying LP to CD - taking it to PC - dbPoweramp .....................

I am trying to find out exactly what I would require :-

Can one connect direct to NAC82, put on an LP and record the output to the recorder ?

What cables are required?

How many LPs would say a 32Gb SD card hold ?

Copy SD card to PC hard drive - then what ?

Is there anywhere one could get advice on this?

Are the results acceptable?

Being pointed in the right direction would be much appreciated - I don't mind spending a few hundred pounds on the recording device

Thanks

Al

al9315 posted:

A little off topic, but I wonder if you would be kind enough to assist ? I noticed you had "digitised" your LPs, something I would like to attempt. The  "Korg MR-2" (which seems to be no longer available) seems to be portable and perhaps straightforward to use ?

     Easy to use.  The Korg MR2 isn't the only digital recorder out there.  I just think it's small and very convenient.  I use it now for the occasional live recording of local music ensembles (with a Rode microphone rather than its own one)

Some suggest buying a DVD recorder, copying LP to CD - taking it to PC - dbPoweramp .....................

     DVD recorder would only record at CD level - i.e 16bit, 44.1kHz.  dBpoweramp is very nice to use, especially for changing the metadata, and I use it myself for that purpose (especially batch editing), as well as for converting files to other formats (without losing the original), and for ripping CDs.  Some like iTunes for this purpose, but not me!

I am trying to find out exactly what I would require :-

Can one connect direct to NAC82, put on an LP and record the output to the recorder ?

     Yes   Connect your digital recorder like any other 'Tape' recorder to one of the appropriate sockets on your 82.  Check the 82 manual or look at the back of the 82 for the little diagrams under the DIN inputs.

What cables are required?

    DIN to 2 stereo minijack.  I use a lead from Chord Company.   Tell them (or Fastbacksales) what you need it for, and you'll get the correct lead.

How many LPs would say a 32Gb SD card hold ?

   Depends what quality level your recording at.  You can record anything from really crappy MP3 files up to full def hires ones (24bit, 192kHz), or use DSD files.  Can't recall exactly how many, but using DSD 88kHz, IIRC correctly, I could get about 10+ LPs on a 32GB card.   I just put an LP on to record, came back when the side had finished, turned it over - without stopping the recording.   Did all the splitting after finishing a session using the Korg software/Audacity.   I'd have to check the manual, but I think the Korg only does about 6 hours recording at a time.   Still got ALL the unedited ripped files on some external hard drives just in case I want to redo the final output at a higher resolution than I originally opted for.   Took me 2 years to do it - and bear in mind that I'm retired and hence could do about 8 hours of recording a day unless SWMBO made me go out somewhere.

Copy SD card to PC hard drive - then what ?

   There is Korg software supplied with the recorder which lets you split the file(s) and then re-output them to various formats, as well as a few other tricks.  You could keep it as DSD files, but I just converted to 24bit 44.1Kz files, and then loaded these into Audacity (freeware - a digital audio editing tool), did a little editing to remove any severe defects (just used the manual editing 'draw' tool) split them into tracks and added the metadata to each track.  There are other digital audio editing tools available, but Audacity is free and was perfectly adequate (and easy to use) for me.   I edited the worse cracks, they always hit the 'end stops', and so I couldn't change the level of the recording easily unless I did so.

I would suggest adding metadata to the file before splitting, then you won't have to enter some of the data again for each track.   When finished doing an LP, put them all in the same directory, give the directory a name (of the LP), put it in another directory named after the artist, and add them to your NAS (where you keep your ripped CDs etc).  If you do keep as DSD files you'll have to ask someone else how you edit them.

I'll emphasise that any editing of scratches etc should be done very carefully, as you can make the sound much worse.   When in Audacity, after I'd edited out the worst of the unwanted noise, I usually increased the level.  Some LPs are recorded at a very low SPL.  If you do this for an LP set (e.g classical), then I would suggest doing this to the whole piece as one file BEFORE doing any track splitting.  This is just to keep the level consistent across the piece.

Is there anywhere one could get advice on this?

    I'll let you look for yourself on the web.  No doubt others will chime in with advice, some of which will probably contradict me.

Are the results acceptable?

   Very, but YMMV.  Highest res files are better, but IMO the differences between. 24bit 44.1kHz and 24bit 88.2kHz are minimal.  When I got my LP12 up and running a few days ago, I did a short comparison of some music which I had digitised myself and the original LP (using the same turntable set as I digitised them with).  Differences were very small, and not enough to bother me.   Although I have a preference for my LP12 over the NDS, I could happily live with either.   Of course, this opinion may change as I get round to updating the LP12.

 

Al, coincidentally I just recorded a couple of LPs to 24bit 96kHz digital WAV files a couple of nights ago.  In the past I have used a Terratec 6Fire DMX 24/192 connected to a laptop and this has given excellent results along with Audacity. I also have a Sony PCM-M10 portable recorder and it was using the other night, mainly because it's quick, convenient and gets great results.  You can record at either MP3, CD, or Hi-res 24bit 96kHz quality.  It has a line in and a line out, both on 3.5mm minijack, so my old Walkman Pro Chord Chrysalis tape lead works perfectly.  You can monitor directly what you're recording and losses are very slight, which is a great result.  There's no dither options like there are with the Terratec and Audacity but this is probably less of an issue with recordings from tape or vinyl where there's a decent noise floor anyway. You can do some basic editing onboard or else transfer the files to the computer and edit in something like Audacity.  Once you learn your way around, it's very quick and easy.

I like the Sony very much.  It's small, neat, beautifully put together and deceptively capable.  Not expensive either, so a low risk blind try/buy. 

I would def. wait for the Sweetvinyl Sugarcube box- even Michael Fremer from Stereophile was quite enthusiastic about it.....it does it all in one step: noise/click remover- riper-tagger-store! If I understand their business model right, they will launch the system  in two flavors in this year.

Dungassin posted

Richard Dane posted:

Al, coincidentally I just recorded a couple of LPs to 24bit 96kHz digital WAV files a couple of nights ago.  In the past I have used a Terratec 6Fire DMX 24/192 connected to a laptop and this has given excellent results along with Audacity. I also have a Sony PCM-M10 portable recorder and it was using the other night, mainly because it's quick, convenient and gets great results.  You can record at either MP3, CD, or Hi-res 24bit 96kHz quality.  It has a line in and a line out, both on 3.5mm minijack, so my old Walkman Pro Chord Chrysalis tape lead works perfectly.  You can monitor directly what you're recording and losses are very slight, which is a great result.  There's no dither options like there are with the Terratec and Audacity but this is probably less of an issue with recordings from tape or vinyl where there's a decent noise floor anyway. You can do some basic editing onboard or else transfer the files to the computer and edit in something like Audacity.  Once you learn your way around, it's very quick and easy.

I like the Sony very much.  It's small, neat, beautifully put together and deceptively capable.  Not expensive either, so a low risk blind try/buy. 

Thanks very much Richard - as I said above - only problem now seems to be finding the recorder ?!

Regards,

Al

Ah, OK, yes, I see it has now been discontinued.

Well, there's the rather tasty looking PCM-D100, which although twice the price, does seem to offer improvements including 24/192 and DSD as well.

Don't know what country your in, but if UK there are Korg MR2 and Tascam DR-100MkII recorders on Amazon.  You'd have to go on line to check the Tascam specs - I'm not familiar with that item.