"Tony Houghton" wrote in message
...
I'd like to make some recordings, maybe transferring some gems from my
vinyl collection to digital etc. I'm wondering whether I should use a
better sound card than the onboard sound.
I know one of the regulars here occasionally posts about an almost
universal design flaw on sound cards where the input circuitry clips
well below the potential ability of the A/D convertor or something. I
did try recording from vinyl via a T/T preamp to a basic onboard sound
card a few years ago. The preamp has no gain control and ISTR the result
did sound slightly distorted as if clipped.
I've got one of those old Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury cards lying around,
which were reckoned to be pretty good in their time. Would it be worth
installing that for recording? I found an old review:
Audio Converters: Dual AC-97 2.1 audio codecs with hardware full-duplex
for simultaneous record and playback and up to 48 kHz sample rates.
18-bit A/D converters for high-resolution recording. 20-bit D/A
converters for high-resolution playback of up to 6 independent streams.
Alternatively I could probably borrow my friend's EMI external USB sound
adapter which he bought especially for semi-professional recording a few
years back. Significantly better still?
--
TH * http://www.realh.co.uk
Try uk.rec.audio
--
Michael Chare