Question about transferring vinyl to MP3

Okay, this is just a curiosity. I'm not ultra technically inclined, but I've been thinking about this recently.

I am sure that your MP3s would not be the highest quality possible when transferring them from your vinyl, and I assume some equipment/programs produce better sounding MP3s.

But my question is, say you have something like an early Maiden LP. It is told that the CD remasters of those Maiden LPs are far inferior, compressed, no dynamic range, etc. All the things people say about remasters that are just loud.

Does your MP3 you rip from the vinyl, even though suffering in quality, maintain the properties that audiophiles covet? The warmth, range and so on?

Note: I am using those phrases with no real knowledge of what they mean exactly.

So to summarize: Could S.D. transfer his vinyl to MP3 and retain a sound quality that he would be satisfied/happy with?

If you are using one of those USB turntables, I believe there are programs/software which will convert straight to FLAC ? Which is better quality. I don't think you can convert analog to MP3 and retain the sound quality, but I could be mistaken.

Shawn will probalby be alot of help with this matter.

In my opinion, No. The record is an analog copy of the original master tapes, as well as a CD is. But the CD is skips a step from being analog to digital which would mean there is less chance of quality loss. Does that make sense?

I wouldn't go directly from an LP to .mp3, especially if the quality of the original LP was something I was trying to capture.

For best results that transfer should be to a totally uncompressed file format like .WAV or .AIFF. That is essentially the same as if you used a CD Recorder to copy the LP unto. In both cases you are doing an A/D conversion to an uncompressed format.

I'm not really a fan of these USB turntables, even the ones that copy directly to .WAV have too many other built in features that can alter the sound, stuff like anti-click filters to remove scratches and built-in EQ curves that boost the high end. I'm sure there are models out there that allow a straight transfer without any of these unnecessary bells and whistles.

When I do vinyl transfers I use a regular turntable, run that through a phono preamp to boost the signal to line level, plug the output directly into my soundcard and record it in 24bit/96khz resolution.

Once you have it in .WAV format you can then transcode it into any file type that you wish, I use 24/96 Apple Lossless or .flac usually.

Quote :

That is essentially the same as if you used a CD Recorder to copy the LP unto.

A buddy of mine did that with a Heaven album...it sounded huge.