Recommendations for a high-grade ADC

[Gerry_the_Merry]

I recently bought a very high quality cassette deck Akai GXC-39D, and want to convert some of my better recorded cassettes into digital. I can stick the analog out into my iMac, and use Audacity. I can also use a contraption which I bought long ago, called iMic, made by Griffin Technologies, and record on a Windows XP laptop. But such arrangements are I feel, an insult to the deck and the tapes, and a better ADC would do a great job. Since it is only for convenience, and tapes and the deck seem capable of delivering for the next 30 years, I want a relatively inexpensive solution, especially if good deals on ADCs happen once in a while. Is there anyone with expertise in this area? Any suggestions would be most welcome.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Looks to be posted in the wrong section.

 

[jls001]

How about PC sound card? assuming you have a PC.

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

Yu mean the juli can do the add as well?

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

JLS, Sorry, I meant that are you meaning to say that a card like Juli can do the ADC as well?

 

[jls001]

All sound cards have analog in. After all, there has to be input for microphone. Of course the included breakout cable should be replaced with a better one (typically D-type connector at sound card end and phono at the other end - quite easy to put together). If you should decide to invest in sound card, I volunteer to make a better breakout cable for you.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

a card like Juli can do the ADC as well?

Absolutely.

http://www.esi-audio.com/products/julia/:

Juli@ features highest quality 24-bit 192Khz ADC (114dB) and DAC (112dB) for the best quality audio.

I have not so far come across a sound card that will not. This is why I always refer to DACs as "one-way streets."

You may like to also look at some of the companies that I mentioned in this post

If you want to go upmarket, my suggestion would be RME, but the problem with their range now is it is hard to find one that you can simply do unbalanced stereo analogue i/o.

Of course the included breakout cable should be replaced with a better one

With the Juli@ you can take the RCA connectors on your cable of choice right to the card itself. One of the advantages of the Juli@, as I see it, is that you are paying for wht you want: stereo input and output, and not the dozens of channels of i/o, or the non-domestic digital protocols that a studio would require.

And this endears a company to me straight away:

• Windows 98SE/ME/XP/2000/Vista/7 compatible
• compatible with Mac OS X 10.1 and newer (Power Mac G4/G5)
• Linux compatible (ALSA)

Audacity will do fine for cleaning up, dividing into tracks, etc

Get it done for archiving, as well as convenience: I wouldn't rely on tapes lasting thirty years.

 

[Audiodoc]

Believe me any pc with mike or line in will do more than fine. The audio spectrum on the tapes is very limited reaching 15 kilohertz in the best ones (those marked as metal) from the good old days while the local ones like t series, hmv, Venus hardly go beyond 12. Not worth spending a fortune for no gains.

An analogy will be burning bluray discs from you old VCR or VCD collection.

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

Thanks guys for the quick responses. Seems straightforward now. Audiodoc, thanks for the pointers. I was planning to add a PC a la FM Bhagwan, and had planned on Juli but the ADC bit had escaped me. Looks like the different pieces of the puzzle are falling in place. JLS, thanks a ton, will approach you for the cable when I am ready.

 

[reubensm]

Gerry, why dont you post some pictures of your Akai GXC39D in the showcase section. Would love to see this deck after so many years. We used to visit a family friend who owned one and recorded a lot of tapes for my father, on it. (this was in the late 1970s, very early 1980s)

http://www.hifivision.com/cassette-tape-decks/22691-showcase-your-cassette-deck.html

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

Good Idea. had not seen this thread. will do soon.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Believe me any pc with mike or line in will do more than fine. The audio spectrum on the tapes is very limited reaching 15 kilohertz in the best ones (those marked as metal) from the good old days while the local ones like t series, hmv, Venus hardly go beyond 12. Not worth spending a fortune for no gains.

An analogy will be burning bluray discs from you old VCR or VCD collection.

I think it is worth spending at Juli@ budget levels, though I'd probably agree that it is not worth spending two, three or four times as much climbing up the pro-audio ladder.

I'd say it's a damn nice thing to add to any PC. But I'm biased: I like soundcards