MC DAC

[thewinelake.]

Can anyone recommend a DAC that could take the output of an MC cartridge and convert to digital - optical or stream over WiFi?

happy to consider 2-box solutions.

And how much degradation would one get by going A to D to A?

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

You could try sony's new ps-hx500 turntable that has a review of sorts on the site...it has an analogue to digital converter on board and can hook up straight into a computer.wheather you can incorporate it into some kind of streaming system is another matter however.but that's all I can think of close to what your after.

 

[Al ears]

Can anyone recommend a DAC that could take the output of an MC cartridge and convert to digital - optical or stream over WiFi?

happy to consider 2-box solutions.

And how much degradation would one get by going A to D to A?

Perhaps you should be looking at something like the Furutech ADL GT40a, it's cheaper than the turntable.

 

[thewinelake.]

I already have turntable with MC cartridge etc.

But that GR40a looks like just the job. Quite expensive, though. Wondering if a preamp + a more general purpose ADC would be a better option. I see Rega do a pretty affordable device, but MM only. I suppose I could go back to MM, but I do like the MC sound (but am wondering if I'd lose that anyway if going through non-expensive ADC-DAC!)

 

[Al ears]

I already have turntable with MC cartridge etc.

But that GR40a looks like just the job. Quite expensive, though. Wondering if a preamp + a more general purpose ADC would be a better option. I see Rega do a pretty affordable device, but MM only. I suppose I could go back to MM, but I do like the MC sound (but am wondering if I'd lose that anyway if going through non-expensive ADC-DAC!)

You could get a cheap step-up transformer to take the mc output up to mm levels. This would save you changing the cartridge. Is it a low output mc?

 

[thewinelake.]

Ah - good idea. I must confess I can't quite remember - will check when I get home, but I think it's an Audio-Technica ATF something...

Another product that has popped up is the Thorens MM-008 (which, despite the name, can do MC). It has a USB out, which is not exactly what I want (it's clearly designed for those trying to digitise their vinyl collection) but I think some amps have USB-in, and so it'd likely work well with them, or I can use a laptop to stream the USB signal out to a Chromecast!

 

[cleggton]

I would be interested in what you are trying to achieve here. Is it that you want to be able to stream the output of your turntable around the house.

If that is the case I do something similar at home:

You can take the output of your MC pre-amp and feed it into an ADC (there are lots available of different qualities, i use a cheap behringer UCA202) I feed that into a raspberry pi and use dark ice radio server to turn it into an internal radio station, that I can add to almost any player as long as they support station URLs

You could of course use a PC to do the streaming with whatever radio software you chose.

With regards to audio quality. There will inevitable be some reduction in quality in the conversion to digital (these aren't high end ADCs after all) but in the most case i would have thought this would have been small and would only really show up on revealing systems. Probably a compromise you are willing to make to listen to a record in the bath!

 

[thewinelake.]

Yes, it's to get the sound in another room. However, not so much the bath as a lounge, where the requirement may be for something decent. I have heard of many raspberry pi projects, and they sound fun, but suspect that a Chromecast audio would probably be as good!

edit: I see that that ADC is USB out, so not Chromecast compatible (unless one can get a USB to optical adaptor!)

 

[Al ears]

Yes, it's to get the sound in another room. However, not so much the bath as a lounge, where the requirement may be for something decent. I have heard of many raspberry pi projects, and they sound fun, but suspect that a Chromecast audio would probably be as good!

edit: I see that that ADC is USB out, so not Chromecast compatible (unless one can get a USB to optical adaptor!)

Regards your edit many cheap ADC's are just that unfortunately which is why I suggested the ADL. Expensive I know but much more flexible.

 

[cleggton]

Where is your turntable and where is your lounge?

Would you not have to run a long optical cable, why not run a long rca into your tele/AV setup rather than converting to optical? There are obviously limits to the runs on optical and RCA before you get degredation.

Why have the chromecast in the loop?

The point of the PI was actually to encode the radio stream, rather than play it back. It means I can listen to the turntable from any device that can tune into "internet" radio, my phone, bedroom system, or my roon system endpoints.

The advantage to me is that this then becomes a really generic stream that most things could tune into with no limit on cable runs.

 

[cleggton]

It just occured to me that the chromecast is optical out only. So even if you piped optical out of your turntable the chromecast wouldn't accept it

 

[thewinelake.]

Doh! You're right! I was thinking that it was an input, but of course it's not...

Not quite sure where the turntable would go. It's all far from ideal - I guess I'm trying to get around uxorial objections to having a turntable in the lounge. Maybe I need to work on avoiding that first. I can at least store the records elsewhere - that's a decent concession, right?!