7. ION Audio TTUSB

ION Audio TTUSB

$119.99

I had this crazy thing happen the other day in the electronics department at the local supermarket. I went to buy a new keyboard, and there, sitting next to the checkout register, was a display stand filled with new LP albums. Well, new as in unused. They were mostly bestselling albums from the ‘70s and ‘80s, newly reissued on vinyl. According to the manager, the store accidentally received a shipment on vinyl instead of CD and, out of curiosity, he put them on the floor...where they sold out almost immediately. He ordered more...and those sold out. It seems there’s still a thriving audiophile market for those who prefer the warmth of analog over the clipped compression of CDs or, even worse, MP3s.

Regardless of buying new vinyl, lots of dads still have shelves or boxes filled with the LPs of bygone years—cherished media stranded beyond the reach of most modern PCs. You can remedy this with ION’s TTUSB, a fairly simple USB turntable. There’s still the capability for RCA audio output, but the TTUSB primarily plays over a USB cable. The unit is Windows and Mac compatible. With the bundled Audacity software, you simply record the live audio stream, slice up the side-long recording into properly-sized tracks, then export into WAV or MP3 files. Of course, WAV is lossless, but most handheld players don’t support WAV. Personally, I export into 320 Kbps MP3 for everyday use then into WAV, which I subsequently convert into Windows Media Audio lossless because it requires less storage space than WAV without sacrificing any of the initial quality.

Converting LP into digital is a lengthy process, so you might want to donate a gift card for a few hours of conversion labor along with the turntable. There’s no easy way to type in the album name and have all of the files’ metadata (artist, lyrics, recording date, etc.) instantly tied to the tracks as you’re used to seeing in iTunes. All of that has to be entered manually. A batch ID3 tag editor (there are many good free ones) can make this process easier. But it all starts with the LP player, and ION’s is easy and effective. Everything you need is in the box including a 45 RPM adapter. If you don’t know what that is, your dad probably will.