How to Digitize Vinyl Records

Digitizing a record means getting a line-level, RIAA-corrected analog signal into an analog-to-digital converter. Everything else is a detail about which box does which part.

There are three routes. They differ in convenience, in what they cost, and — critically — in the resolution ceiling each one imposes, which is a published number on all three.

Route 1: a turntable with a USB output

The simplest path. The deck contains a phono stage and an analog-to-digital converter, and appears to your computer as a recording device. One cable, no additional purchase.

Here is the specification almost nobody looks up. Audio-Technica’s own manual for the AT-LP120XUSB publishes its USB output as:

“16-bit, 44.1 or 48 kHz selectable, USB 1.1”

Sixteen bits, at CD sample rates, over USB 1.1. That is the ceiling of the convenient route, and it is stated plainly in the document that came in the box.

Two things follow from it. First, no amount of software will extract a 24-bit file from this path — the converter is 16-bit and the format is fixed at the hardware. Second, and more usefully: for most records, 16 bits is not the limiting factor anyway. The arithmetic below says why.

Route 2: separate phono stage into a separate ADC

Turntable → phono stage → an analog-to-digital converter. More boxes, more control, and the route that removes the 16-bit ceiling.

The reason to do it is not bit depth, though. It is the phono stage. A dedicated stage gives you things the converter inside a USB turntable does not:

• A subsonic filter. Warped records produce large, inaudible sub-20 Hz excursions that eat digital headroom and force you to record at a lower level. Schiit publishes a selectable 6 or 12 dB/octave filter at 15 Hz on the Mani 2; ART publishes a switchable low-cut at −3 dB at 22 Hz on the DJPRE II; Fluance publishes a selectable high-pass below 20 Hz on the PA10. This is the single most useful feature for digitizing and it is on the cheapest stages.
• Selectable gain. The Mani 2 publishes 33, 42, 48 and 60 dB. Being able to drop to 33 dB when your converter is clipping, or lift to 48 dB for a quiet cartridge, is how you set a sensible recording level without touching the signal digitally.
• Correct loading. Cartridge makers publish capacitance recommendations that disagree with one another — 100–200 pF for Audio-Technica, 150–300 pF for Ortofon, 100 pF for Nagaoka. A stage with selectable capacitance can match yours; a fixed one cannot. See moving magnet vs moving coil for what loading actually does.

Route 3: a streamer with an analog input

Two of the devices we cover will digitize an analog signal as part of their normal operation, which turns the job into a network task rather than a computer one.

The WiiM Pro Plus publishes a line input digitized by a TI Burr-Brown PCM1861 at 192 kHz/24-bit. That is a considerably higher ceiling than the USB turntable route — but it is a line input, so a turntable still needs a phono stage in front of it.

The WiiM Ultra publishes a dedicated phono input, which removes that requirement. It is also the one place we have to flag a gap: WiiM publishes no gain figure, no RIAA accuracy, no input capacitance and no MC capability for that phono stage. It is the feature that justifies the price step over a Pro Plus, and there is no published number attached to it. We are recommending the box for what it does; we cannot tell you how well that particular part performs, because nobody has said.

The three settings that actually matter when you record

Recording level

Aim for peaks somewhere below the ceiling rather than as close to it as possible. Digital clipping is not a soft limit — it is a hard one, and a clipped transient on a record you have already recorded means recording the side again. Given that the source’s own noise floor is around 69 dB at best, there is nothing to gain from crowding the top.

Sample rate

If your route can exceed 44.1 kHz, using 96 kHz costs disk space and buys headroom for any filtering or processing you do afterwards. If your route cannot — the USB turntable path cannot — this decision is already made for you and it does not matter much.

Do not apply noise reduction on the way in

Click removal and hiss reduction are destructive and irreversible. Record flat, keep that file, and do any cleanup on a copy. The whole point of digitizing is that you now have something you can copy.

Clean the record first

This is the one step that changes the result more than any setting on this page. Surface noise you record is surface noise you have permanently. Brushing a side before you record it takes ten seconds — the method is in how to clean vinyl records, and it is free.

The same applies to setup. A stylus tracking at the wrong force or with anti-skate set badly produces distortion that no post-processing removes, and you will be recording it into a permanent file. Set the deck up properly first.

The honest summary

Buy a USB turntable if digitizing is a main reason you are buying a deck at all, and accept 16-bit/44.1 kHz as the ceiling — Audio-Technica publishes that ceiling and it sits about 29 dB below where the record itself gives up.

Use a separate phono stage into an external converter if you already own a deck you like, and buy the phono stage for its subsonic filter and selectable gain rather than for its bit depth.

Either way, the thing that will most improve your files is the ten seconds with a brush before you press record.