This is a special port designed for turntables with an inbuilt preamp. Amplifier/receiver: look for a port called Phono on the back of the unit.To check whether your home hi-fi has a phono preamp: These range in price from around $150 to as much as $25,000! The following setups may or may not require a preamp, and those that do probably don't really call for a model that pushes into the tens of thousands. If your turntable and amplifier do not have an inbuilt preamp, you will need to purchase an external one. If it has one, it will record in mono, which is not suitable. Check the pin, if it has two black lines it will record in stereo. The 3.5mm end must be able to record in stereo. This will connect your amp/receiver (stereo end) to your PC or Mac (3.5mm end). 1x stereo audio to 3.5mm stereo cable or 1x stereo audio cable with 3.5mm stereo converter.If your turntable has an inbuilt cable, you won't need one of these. 1x stereo audio cable to connect your turntable to the amp/receiver.

Receivers include a built in radio, which is the only difference. NOTE: Although we will use the term amplifier for the rest of this tutorial, a receiver can perform the same task in its place. If your amp doesn't have a phono IN port, you may need to buy a phono preamp or turntable with an inbuilt preamp. 1x amplifier or receiver, preferably with a phono IN port and stereo audio OUT port (usually labelled REC).

This is sometimes called line IN (Not sure if your computer has Line IN? See step two under Connect your turntable to your computer).

1x turntable with stereo audio output or inbuilt stereo audio cable (these are usually red and white).

See 'Should you clean your records?' in our Turntable buying guide. Also, if your records are looking a little worse for wear, give them a good clean-up.

Next, make sure the turntable's tone arm is weighted and that anti-skate and tracking force are set correctly to ensure optimum sound quality. Conversion takes place in real-time, which means 25 minutes worth of music will take 25 minutes to record. Connect your turntable to your computerĬlear a big working space that you can occupy for extended periods.

Usb preamp for recording to my mac