Convert your LPs into CDs

Choosing the Turntable

Turntable, record player or pick up are synonyms and is where you play your vinyl records.

Now that you know which sound board to choose, you must also know how to choose a good record player to play your records and for you to be able to record them. If you have any friend who is a DJ and that could lend you a professional record player (such as the famous Technics SL1200 MKII) it would be simply great.

However, the thing that really matters to measure the quality of a record player is not its brand and its model, but the brand and the model of the cartridge and the stylus used. The keyword here is the frequency response. Simpler Styluses used by the cheapest record players have a typical frequency response from 20 Hz to 15 kHz. The problem is that the higher sounds (above 15 kHz) will not be reproduced and, therefore, will not be recorded in the Wav file that you will create in your computer to, later, transform it in a CD. The ideal thing is that you use a cartridge/stylus that allows to obtain a frequency response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, that is the frequency response the human ear is capable of hearing. But if you use a cartridge/stylus with response from 20 Hz to 18 kHz you will get a very good result (but not the “perfect” one).

Notice that the cartridge can perhaps have a different frequency response from the stylus. The lowest value is the one that counts. For example, a stylus with response up to 15 kHz installed in a cartridge with a frequency response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz: obviously the frequency response of the whole set will be from 20 Hz to 15 kHz.

It is relatively easy to know the frequency response of a cartridge or stylus. First, you need to know the brand and the model of your record player’s cartridge and stylus. This is easy, because most of the times it is written there. Next, check this characteristic in the manual of the cartridge and stylus. You can also find this information on the Internet, at the manufacturer’s site. For example, at the Stanton site (https://www.stantonmagnetics.com), one of the most well-known cartridge and stylus manufacturer, we found that the frequency response of the cartridge/stylus 680 EL II is from 20 Hz to 18 kHz, for example.

Another trick to find the frequency response of a stylus is looking for the same stylus at specialized stores. This information is specified on the stylus’s box, together with a graphic.

If your record player uses a cartridge of the kind that comes attached to the record player’s arm itself, so those specifications are in the record player’s manual.

By the way, the ideal is that you used a new stylus to convert your LPs into CDs, to avoid sound imperfections (muffled sound, for example) due to an old stylus.