Turntable to Digital to get a long run.

[Utterchaos]

Hi All,

this post might expose large holes in my hifi knowledge but here goes....

I have a revived passion for my old records but I have REALLY bouncy floors. Even my windows rattle if I step too hard. I've not tried much isolation yet as it will have to be really effective to work at all. The wall my amp/TV/Speakers are against is stud and so will probably not isolate as much as will be required to remove foot fall problems if I wall mount there.

Plan A is to wall mount with as much foam/springs/rubber etc as possible and hope.... but plan B may also work and be more aesthetic (wife friendly).

I have a really solid wall on the opposite side of the room I could put a shelf on, but I cannot move my Onkyo AV amp and 20m of analogue cable be way too long.

My solution? I use a good ADC to cover to digital then use run a long digital cable (HDMI/COAX/Optical) into my amp? Surely the amp converts the phono analog into digital internally at some stage anyway so if I do it externally and feed it a digital signal what's the difference?

thoughts will be greatly received....

Cheers.

[Macca]

The amp will have analogue pass through for the phono stage so it won't convert a signal going into the phono-stage to digital. But there is nothing wrong with what you are doing, the conversion to digital and back is highly unlikely/impossible to be audible in any way. Don't forget that this has already happened with any record pressed after 1980 (and some before) as the cutting head uses an A2D convertor, true analogue 'purity' is only available from older recordings and pressings.

[Utterchaos]

Cheers Martin, I also figured that because the amp is not valve, it must be essential digital anyway?

There are loads of cheap ADCs on the market - I know DACs vary hugely in quality as do Phono amps but is it the same with ADCs? or is the process simple enough to be handled by less sophisticated kit?

[Macca]

Cheers Martin, I also figured that because the amp is not valve, it must be essential digital anyway?

There are loads of cheap ADCs on the market - I know DACs vary hugely in quality as do Phono amps but is it the same with ADCs? or is the process simple enough to be handled by less sophisticated kit?

No it isn't anything to do with it using valves or not. An amp like the Onkyo is no different from any other solid-state amp. It just has analogue to digital and digital to analogue converters built in. IIRC the Onkyo has a 'direct' switch that will bypass these convertors entirely if you are using an analogue input, say from a tape deck or turntable. In that situation there is no digital conversion going on at all.

[walpurgis]

I'm not aware of any digital amps on the general market (no doubt somebody will find something obscure to prove me wrong ). Even Class D/Tripath type amps are not digital, although some seem to think they are.

Class D are no more digital than FM radio for instance, where the waveform envelope is created by a rapidly oscillating/switching signal. SMPS power supplies use something similar too.

[Utterchaos]

Which goes to perfectly highlight my miss-understanding of how Amplifiers work! - I figured transistor=on/off=Digital

So.... my goal should be to stay analogue and try to isolate the deck.


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[Macca]

I think it is a hangover from the 1980s when almost everything had 'DIGITAL' plastered all over it as though it meant something profound. Now if it also had 'TURBO' writ large in several places then you were really rocking.

[walpurgis]

Notice how many headphones (especially cheapo ones) have 'digital' written on them. It's bollocks!

[Macca]

Indeed. In the 1980s I had some Studio Power speakers that were 'DIGITAL', at least according to the writing on the front panel.

[CageyH]

Notice how many headphones (especially cheapo ones) have 'digital' written on them. It's bollocks!

I disagree, they are either on your head, or off.