I typically don't do this, but I treated myself to the remastered vinyl edition of Sweet Baby James on Rhino/Warners. Read some nice things about it, and I've always loved that album, so I splurged (Merry Christmas to me). I've still got a working turntable, but I almost never use it. I just sampled a few cuts, but it does sound pretty great. It really does have a vinyl "warmth" that I miss.

Now I'm determined to FINALLY put some work into figuring out how to copy my LPs to CD. What I really want to do is burn this to CD and compare it to the standard CD version. Just a matter of doing my homework and investing a little cash. I do have a handful of records that have never come out on CD that would be fun to have, like Buckingham Nicks (bought the crappy Australian CD release a few years ago, but it's obviously mastered from vinyl and the sound is pretty flat; I'd love to see if I could get a better sound transferring from my vinyl).

Sometimes I miss my records (even though they're just downstairs in the basement).

http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_ ... s=NL092807

Greg, if you're trying to compare audiophile vinyl to cd, DON'T DO THE TRANSFER ON A PC WITH A CRAP USB TURNTABLE.

For a useful comparison, you'll need at MINIMUM an entry level high end turntable (Rega, Thorens, Rotel, etc), same in cartridge (Blue Point??) some sort of half decent phono preamp. & a stand alone cd recorder (I'm told the Alessis is currently the one to get) & use premium blanks (Tayio Yuden, Mitsui, etc).

Otherwise, your comparison will skew strongly towards the pressed cd. Vinyl requires high quality playback equipment to shine.

BTW, I've learned through lots of trial & error the best sounding cd rip & burns are ripped by EAC (freeware) & burned at 4x with any audio modification offered by the software disabled onto Tayio-Yuden discs wih a Plextor burner. If your stereo is any good at all, many people will hear a significant difference comparing the above with a 40x burn done on store bought media in disc copy mode.

Wow. Thanks for the advice, Geff. Sounds like I need to invest some serious bucks to do this right. Probably not really worth it for me. I've got a decent, not high-end, Yamaha turntable with an Ortofon cartridge that's been on there for many years now. I was hoping to connect my amplifier to my Mac and burn from there. I thinking about buying Toast 8, 12 ft. RCA cables, and an external sound card that would let me plug into a USB port on my iMac.

I'd better figure out how many LPs I'd really want to copy, and if it's really worth it.

Greg, what you're planning will definitely work & give you enjoyable cd's; my point is a comparison done that way would be pretty skewed though towards the factory pressed cd.