"Michael Chare" wrote in
message
"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 converter 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.

That's a stupid problem that was created by badly engineered products. It is
a situation that is easy enough to address with a simple attenuator.

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:

If it still works and if you can find appropriate drivers for it, yes.

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?

Whatever works.

Because of the LP format's inherent technical failings, digitizing LPs is
not all that challenging of a task for even an one of those on-board audio
interfaces that comes with most motherboards.