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Are those cheap analogue to digital converter boxes any good?

JTC

JTC

PFM Villager...
You know the ones, very small boxes with RCA input and digital coax and/or optical output? Anyone tried one? For twenty quid it's tempting as a stop-gap whilst I wait for a better solution to playing vinyl through my MDAC... but if they're likely to sound awful I might pass... then again, maybe they'll sound good, or good enough perhaps?

Anyone?
 
Had a Behringer USB thingy a while back, can't remember the exact name, but it looked VERY similar to the present "Behringer UFO 202" which costs about half as much as I paid for mine then.

It was excellent.
Recorded a few LPs to FLAC with it, and was very surprised by the outcome.
The DA part was equally good, which is why mine ended up in the computer audio system of a friend.
 
The Behringer USB powered ADC has worked well for me.

I use Audacity to record with rather than the supplied software.

Just Google U-CONTROL UCA202.

Jono
 
Will those Behringer boxes work without the interface being 'activated' when connected to my Mac Mini? I just want to turn an RCA phono input into a stable digital output (coax preferred) with the least signal degradation. However, as it's a stop-gap I don't want to spend too much. These Behringer boxes look decent - can you confirm that they work without active software control?
 
pick up a sony minidisc deck, will cost very little and do what you want with no computer in the chain!
 
JTC said:
You know the ones, very small boxes with RCA input and digital coax and/or optical output? Anyone tried one? For twenty quid it's tempting as a stop-gap whilst I wait for a better solution to playing vinyl through my MDAC... but if they're likely to sound awful I might pass... then again, maybe they'll sound good, or good enough perhaps?

Anyone?
Click to expand...

they work wonderfully.
 
I used a no-brand non-Behringer one. to get sound out of a Dell computer.

It was worse than the headphones out, I went back to the headphones out socket.

These sort of things won't work without USB power / computer connection, to answer a Q up thread is it.

DS
 
JTC said:
Will those Behringer boxes work without the interface being 'activated' when connected to my Mac Mini?
Click to expand...

What do you mean? Will the interface work without the interface? I don't get it.
If you mean software.... if I remember correctly you did not need any drivers for the mac, you could just record as is to GarageBand or whatever else you fancy.
 
@JTC - The Behringer ADC can be plugged either into the line out of your amp or inline from the source being recorded as a pass through device. The output from it goes via USB into the Mac/PC that is being used to capture the music. You can then edit the captured music as required.

It also has a digital output if you want to go via optical to a recorder of some sort.

As the device itself is powered by the USB bus it needs to be plugged into either a PC/MAC or a wall mounted USB power supply.

I hope this helps.

Jono
 
Hi - thanks for the responses thus far.

What I'm trying to achieve is a way to listen to my vinyl in a (temporarily) digital only system - i.e. MDAC. I need a device that can take RCA analogue inputs and convert it somehow into digital form without using any software, which can then be plugged into the back of the MDAC.

Note that this is most likely a stop-gap whilst I wait for the CDQ+ rebuild that is due late this year or early next. So absolute sound quality isn't as important, though it would be good if the sound quality was roughly as good as you'd get on a domestic CD Recorder (e.g. my old and long gone Marantz DR6000, which produced digital copies from my vinyl setup which were almost (but not quite) identical to the vinyl setup itself). Something like that I could live with and it'd mean that I could use the MDAC in the main system and the CDQ in the second, and swap them over when the CDQ+ is available.

So, Jono has more or less confirmed that I can use the device with a wall-mounted USB power supply (removing the need to have it connected to the Mac Mini) and all I need to confirm is whether it will be able to do the analogue-to-digital conversion (using the optical output) without it being connected to a computer - i.e. stand-alone.

Can anyone confirm before I take a punt at one?
 
Even though it claims not to need drivers? Or do you mean that it simply works to a standard audio i/o protocol of some sort? It'd be a pity as I'd be unlikely to have the Mini awake whilst listening to vinyl, though it would be an option I guess...
 
That would do the trick I think. And I'm fairly sure I saw something like that on E**y yesterday also. The big question is whether it'll destroy the sound or be fairly transparent....
 
I have not really done a sound quality check I'm afraid
I use it to take the L and R channels from an AV pre-amp and take the signal back to my Devialet.

In that context it works very well so I would say it doesn't destroy the sound and makes a pretty good job of doing the conversion

Neil
 
JTC said:
You know the ones, very small boxes with RCA input and digital coax and/or optical output? Anyone tried one? For twenty quid it's tempting as a stop-gap whilst I wait for a better solution to playing vinyl through my MDAC... but if they're likely to sound awful I might pass... then again, maybe they'll sound good, or good enough perhaps?

Anyone?
Click to expand...

Sorry, it's not actually any of my business, but I don't get it... Do you want to convert your LPs into digital on the fly and then replay them through a DAC into analogue again?
What's the reason for that, if I may ask? Wouldn't any RIAA preamp be cheaper and simpler?

M.
 
NO, I've explained myself quite clearly before. I want to be able to play analogue records through a digital only preamp. Quite simple.
 
JTC said:
You know the ones, very small boxes with RCA input and digital coax and/or optical output? Anyone tried one? For twenty quid it's tempting as a stop-gap whilst I wait for a better solution to playing vinyl through my MDAC... but if they're likely to sound awful I might pass... then again, maybe they'll sound good, or good enough perhaps?

Anyone?
Click to expand...

Hi JTC,

I can "tweak" one up for you, send me a link, I'll buy it and have it shipped directly to Czech Rep. for tweaking (I'm sure shipping more then the unit)...

John
 
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