Going digital with your turntable
One of the things I frequently get asked by knowledgebale visitors is how come I play my turntable through my DAC when the DAC has no analogue input. I tend not to answer the question.
But it's that time of the year when I take my equipment off the rack in order to give everything a good clean. So I decided to wire up my turntable setup on a table and take some pictures for you guys to see how I do it. Please note that this method of connection will work with most DACs.
http://www.homehifi.co.uk/images/caiman/ad1.jpg
The turntable phono connectors are connected to a phono preamp, which is connected to an A to D converter, which is then connected to a digital input on the DAC.
One thing to note is that a TT signal to noise ratio is about 70dB. A 16 bit analogue to digital converter is 90 dB or better. So the A to D converter can also pick up some hum and noise from the TT. However, with a bit of careful grounding and equipment positioning, most of this can be ironed out.
The above A to D converter was sold by Maplin under part number QQ82. I am not sure if they still have them, but I mention it for reference.
The A to D converter in the above picture is the one I prefer. It has a sync rec switch, which seems to interact with the zero signal detect function on the Caiman and TC-7520. Thsi mutes the turntable in between vinyl tracks.
The 2nd A to D converter I have found is one I had to get from the US. See picture.http://www.homehifi.co.uk/images/caiman/ad2.jpg
It is not as good as the first A to D, but it does the job quite well.
How does it all sound? Well, the setup is quite good and detailed, with no loss of quality if you are using a decent A to D converter. It's a novel way of listening to your vinyl collection if you do not have an analogue preamp, but do have access to a DAC with a variable analogue output.
