Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent sound quality, 19 Aug 2007
I don't have a home stereo any more, but still wanted a way to play my big vinyl collection - this turntable is great because you can connect it to your computer (in my case a Mac) and play the records through your computer's speakers.
You also have the option to 1. rip your vinyl onto your computer to play digitally and 2. connect the turntable to your old fashioned stereo - if you still have one!
The sound is very good and the set up was simple - it took me about 30 mins to sort out my computer speakers before I could hear the sound but this is because I didn't read the instructions rather than any hardware problem...
On your computer you can listen to the records, and / or rip & convert them - using Audacity software, which is supplied. You need an additional file to download from the company's website if you have an Intel-based Mac, but this is all explained and was easy to execute.
Although I bought this turntable to play records through my computer speakers rather than convert them to play on my ipod, I did have a go at transferring an album out of interest.
The instructions on this were very easy to follow. It transferred the music as a 'WAV' file which was then easy to convert into a compressed MP3 file - again, I had to download a bit of software to transfer to MP3 but this was all signposted in the instructions and easy to execute.
As for the looks of the turntable, there are 2 choices - go for the more old fashioned version with the dust cover, or this more modern one without a dust cover. I ummed and ahh-d for a day or so before going for this one and I think I made the right choice. I think it looks quite stylish.
All in all, a good turntable - and a great way to play your vinyl if, like me, you ditched your stereo to manage your music digitally, only to experience a twinge of nostalgia when you cleared out the loft and found your old vinyl!
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ION TURNTABLE, IN NEED OF WELL DESERVED MERIT, 7 Oct 2008
Well, having read the good and poor reviews about this product, I have to say, all I can give is full marks to the turntable. It is a full size turntable, (which is rare even these days), a belt driven turntable for low rumble and the turntable itself has a high torque, which handles albums perfect, and the test for high torque is of course to see how much the belt slips. This one was perfect.
Setting up was a cinch, plug in the USB plug, install the Audacity software, (by the way the turntable also has phono plugs to play your records on a normal hi fi system - great extra!)
Once audacity is setup, just a few tweaks to the software itself, to change it from the default MONO recording, to STEREO recording, and then search for the lame mp3 dll encoder, which was straight forward.
(NERO had the dll in its COMMON FILES folder).
Creating the first album, was superb, I press the RECORD on audacity, it makes an entire WAVE file of the whole album, I then asked audacity to search for the track silence breakpoints, which it did perfecttly, (analyse : silence finder), then went into FILE : EXPORT MULTIPLE which made an mp3 of each of the tracks on the album at 192kbps (which is the ideal asetting) - 128kbs is the default.
The only bad points, and they are not that bad, the arm could do with a good old fashioned manual lift and lower device, and the arm does not eject at the end, so if you fall asleep during recording it could well cause stylus problems, but overall i have to give this 9.5 out of ten, and its truly very stylish indeed, and looks great just anywhere.
By the way, any silence at the beginning and end of the album can easily be edited out using SELECT AREA : CUT.
Another good idea is you can place the stylus on the disc, whilst not rotating, and then manually start the motor using one of the two start buttons on the left of the player. This uses the same system as good old fashioned disco-dj decks.
ANDY M WROB
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Capable of unexpectedly high quality sound, 31 July 2007
Having owned true hi-fi products in the past was more than a little skeptical when this turned up in my Christmas stocking. The arrival on my new Mac Pro and Bose Companion 5 'speakers prompted me to set it up and I have to say I am more than impressed with the quality. The packaged software is a let down as on my Mac it is unstable and of pretty poor design. I substituted this with GarageBand (for playing) and Amadeus Pro (for recording) and the results were good. For those a little more adventurous it is possible to upgrade the cartridge. I installed an Ortofon 5E (about £25) with no trouble and the improvement is significant providing a rich and stable sound-stage making a mockery of the modest price. On audiophile LP pressings I much prefer the music from my Ion than from a CD or Apple Music Store purchase. Am now re-discovering my record collection. Yes, it's plasticy. Yes the software sucks. Still deserves a 4* in my book. Set it up properly and enjoy.
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