I have used Dart Pro to convert vinyl albums to digital. In general, it has been pretty successful, but - incredibly time consuming.

The package itself has got a lot of recording and audio processing features that make it easy to capture, split, de-click, compress/decompress etc. your recorded music. You do need a lot of space to capture individual albums. As I said though, the biggest problem has been the amount of time it takes to "RIP" the music - it is usually a whole evening of pretty hard work (at the start) just to do one album. Although I started out this way, I am beginning to consider simply re-purchasing the albums on CD (where they are available, of course).

As for the hardware - I have just taken the Line-out from a Yamaha phono amp (nothing special) and a Dual turntable. This goes directly into the Line-in input of my sound card, a 16-bit ESS on-board system. I have found that there is a slight level problem that means I have to boost the input level a bit. Otherwise, it's OK. I usually spend some time cleaning the disk to get the worst rubbish out and reducing static before playing.

I have found that by sampling at 22 kHz instead of 44.1, I can get better sounding results by using the sound processing tools of Dart Pro, but this is only my experience - no doubt people here will have different opinions and results . It also saves a lot of disk space.

So, on balance, only reasonable results (so far) for a lot of effort. My 500-strong LP collection is beginning to look like a mountain, and not a molehill after all. To make things worse, my Dad caught wind of what I was doing and asked if I could do his collection - around 2,500 Jazz and classical records dating back to the 20's...

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015