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----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]> > I'll add one more thing to this discussion. At least one of the many flash > recorders out there, the Zoom H2, can also act as a USB audio interface. > So you could have both a portable recorder (in the Zoom's case, a portable > recorder capable of 4-channel surround recording) and a somewhat quick and > dirty USB interface all in one device. I just recently used the Zoom to > make a bunch of cassette transfers, some music and some spoken word, all > of decent to very good (as good as cassette is capable) audio quality. I > transferred at 44.1kHz/24-bit and was very happy with the results. > What I'd like to know from the original poster, Bill Fliss -- what are > your intended uses and what is your budget? If you are doing high-quality > professional transfers, you'll want something much different (and, alas, > more expensive), than if you are "putting my LPs into my iPod" or > transferring a stack of worn 78's for personal use. Also, if your input > devices are balanced or unbalanced output, consumer or professional > operating levels, is important to know. That said, one thing to add to my > recommendation of the CardDeluxe is that you can jumper-set its operating > level and its input and output circuits are comfortable receiving and > feeding unbalanced lines. So to interface with consumer electronics, all > you need is to set the jumpers at -10 nominal level and buy four 1/4-inch > to RCA adapters. > I use a M-Audio 2496 exactly the same why John does -- as a > listening/preview workstation card. It does the job fine. One problem I > had using it for a transfer interface was that the computer's lousy > grounding structure created hum when connected to a properly-grounded tape > output from a well-made Japanese receiver (set up to tape FM broadcasts). > That problem was solved with Radio Shack's in-line audio transfermer > cable. > Passing note... What I plan to do is to terminate the cartridge leads from an older ceramic-cartridge "record player" in a "mimi-phone-plug"...which I can then plug into the "Line In" jack of my sound card, since a ceramic cartridge puts out a line-level (c. 1 volt) signal! I used a similar setup for many years...feeding the cartridge output from my c.1960 RCA "record player" into the "Line In" of a Sony r2r machine which was the functional centre of my "sound system" at the time (and could be hooked up to a Sony cassette deck, allowing me to put countless 78's onto cassettes!). Steven C. Barr