ART USB Phono Plus

I purchased and received the ARTcssories USB Phono Plus in the past 2 weeks and used it today. It was easy to set up and I will not go into detail about specs as others have covered it well. I will instead use simple and plain lingo on my experience in using this product.I unpacked the unit, plugged in my Technics SL-1200M3D RCA plugs and the ground wire (yes, there is a place on this unit for a ground wire) to the back of the unit. I then plugged in an extra set of RCA wires to my mixer so I could hear LP's as I played them. I flicked the switch on the front so I could hear what was playing and then connected the USB plug to a USB port on my desktop. I downloaded Audacity from the internet for the newest version and opened it. This unit is powered by USB which is nice and does also have AC Adapter bundled. My computer recognized the unit and my computer automatically switched my audio to 'USB Audio Codec' and I was set to go.I put on an album and started to record the song in the middle in order to get sound level correct in the Audacity program. This Phono Plus also has a volume/gain knob so you can adjust volume input to your computer program that you choose to use. I set my input level very low on the Audacity software program so I can use the phono Plus's volume knob. Once I got the volume level I wanted, I erased what was recorded in Audacity and reset the stylus to beginning of track and hit record in Audacity again to record the song. (The Audacity program is one of many that you can use, but since I have Nero for editing my WAV files, I use Audacity only for just going from vinyl to digital. Audacity will also allow you to edit what you recorded).I exported my newly recorded song to a file on one of my hard drives as a WAV file. I then edit in Nero and cut out the silence and maybe adjust volume levels more. I leave in the abnormalities from my albums like small clicks or pops that happen here and there as my albums are in good condition and I enjoy the natural sound and do not want to edit this out. I then encode the WAV files to MP3-320 and MP3 Pro so I can play them on different portable devices. I save the WAV files too for making cd's.I am very happy with this unit and works as intended. Hell, I may even take out my 8-track player and record 8-tracks with this thing and record the tapes as they are but have them on cd. This unit will allow you to hook up about anything with RCA plugs. I also have an ION USB turntable that actually works very well, but it feels like a toy compared to my Technics. By the way, this Phono Plus unit does not feel cheap and seems quite solid. It is made with aluminum and rubburized sides, not plastic.

This little preamp is in itself a sound marvel. It has a superb phono preamp built in, which can be disabled if you like to use the preamp as a transfer device for a cassette player, or a Reel To Reel, for instance. It has an USB port to connect the preamp to the computer, so you can transfer any sound source to your computer without using the computer sound card.It has a output for headphones, with an integrated volume control for the output. You can even hear the sounds of your computer with it if you like, and it also has a switch which allows you to compare what you are recording in real time vs. the source. As you can see, this preamp is more like an external USB sound card, with a built in RIAA phono input.The gain of the preamp is fully adjustable via a gain pot and the help of a led indicator. If in some passages of the track the led turns red, that means that the gain is set up too high, so you can decrease the gain a little to avoid distortion.It has also a ground post to connect the ground wire of the turntable, in order to decrease any unwanted hum. It also comes with a free recording software, but I personally preferred to use Nero Wave Editor to do my transfers.All in all, you can't go wrong by buying this preamp. Even if you don't plan to do any LP to CD transfer, this amp is worth buying because it's superb RIAA phono input. It is really better than the other preamp I had previously, a Pyle Pro one, with better gain and better sound too.

After years of looking at my collection of LPs waiting on the shelf to be heard again, I finally researched USB turntables and USB preamps. I quickly realized that the Technics turntable sitting on the shelf all these years only neeeded a good USB preamp to come back to life. I narrowed my search to this Art V2 Phono preamp because it gave me the ability to connect to my PC for digitizing my album collection as well as provided a preamp I could use with my home theater setup that doesn't have a phono preamp input.After a couple of weeks of recording albums to my MP3 collection with this preamp I'm completely satisfied with its function and performance. It does everything I expected and needed from a preamp and analog to digital conversion device. The headphone monitor feature is a nice addition (not found on other preamps I researched)which I've found useful when searching for track breaks on albums while I work with splitting songs on the recording software (more on that below).The one blemish I do have to comment on with this product is that I had to return the first one delivered due to a malfunction. The left channel didn't work on that unit. That's the only reason I rated this four stars rather than five. Hopefully this is untypical of their overall product quality. Thankfully, Amazon's return process is very easy and I had the defective unit processed for return the same day and another one on order. Two days later I was busy recording LPs with a new unit that worked flawlessly.This preamp does come with a CD containing Audacity recording software. I never even loaded that on my PC. After some research on recording software I decided to purchase VinylStudio by Alpinesoft. I strongly recommend this recording software. It is extremely easy to use and does everything I could imagine someone would need for transfering their LPs to MP3.Overall, very satisifed with this product and very happy with the value for about $69.