Vibe Sound VS2001USBT 2 Speed Turntable

You can't beat it for the price.

I read the negative reviews and I decided to give it a try anyway.

Plug & Play worked simple under WinXP. No issues.

I didn't install or use Audacity; I use Goldwave for capturing and editing sounds and it works great. The process is a little time-consuming: Recording the records to wav files, then breaking the wave files down to specific songs, converting the songs from wav to mp3 and then adding the tag information, but you would have to do that with any record player.

I only have two negative comments: 1) The needle is not high quality (but I got what I paid for), and 2) The motor on the turntable transfers a low hum sound to the recording. You can hear the hum between tracks and during quiet sections, but not during most songs. Make sure you trim the sound files close to the start and end of songs to minimize this effect.

Overall I think it's a worthwhile purchase for the low price. And it beats the heck out of paying for MP3s for records I already own. Give it a try.

I agree with the other reviewers that this specific turntable is a piece of crap. Since Amazon doesn't like us to recommend others by brand name, I won't. But the old adage is almost always true you get what you pay for! Don't expect something, especially an electronic turntable that regularly sells for 30 bucks, to be anything but garbage. Pay the higher price for one of the other 'brand name' ones that was built to higher standards. It's like expecting Coby to be Sony.

Now, on the other side of the coin, I have found the Audacity software to be unbelievably useable but it does take some getting used to, as does ANY good software. I have used it with my old but reliable portable AIWA cassette player to convert many of my old cassette tapes (those that simply aren't available as CDs or MP3s) to VERY good quality digital output. As I said, it took time and effort to learn how to make it work well, but I couldn't count the hours I spent learning how to use Microsoft Word to fullest advantage instead of what most people stumble through. If you're not willing to take the time to learn how to do something as technologically difficult as transferring LPs or tapes to high quality digital output, then you should pay for someone else to do it for you instead of complaining about great software you didn't take the time to learn. Once I learned how it's done, it was easy to connect my 30 year-old Sony stereo turntable to my computer in the same way I did the AIWA and convert my LPs using Audacity.

That said, there are some great tutorials available for Audacity. One of the best is found at nsftools.com. ANYONE taking the time and making the effort to experiment using that tutorial will come away amazed at what this FREE software does. And NO, I am NOT affiliated with the company that makes Audacity in any way. I just stuck it out the same way I have with all good software with a high learning curve and am not only pleased but AMAZED with what I have been able to do with what I once thought was a throw-away collection of treasured but 'useless' LPs and cassette tapes. Not so with Audacity and a little perseverance.

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If you are considering this, DO NOT buy unless you are very computer literate and technology saavy. I purchased this on impulse at an electronics store (on sale for about $60, full price about $80). I'm not sure it is worth the aggravation of the conversion process. First of all, the manual that comes with it is a JOKE! The online software guide for the audio conversion software, Audacity, wasn't helpful either. (The step by step instructions don't match with what I'm seeing on screen in the actual software.)By trial and error i learned that to create individual tracks from an album you have to either stop both the recording software and the turntable after each song (difficult since I haven't figured out how to listen to the songs via the computer speakers while recording) or record the whole side of the old vinyl album and cut and paste each song as a new file. Then you have to export as a WAV file, since the MP3 converter doesn't come with the program on the install CD, then drag the file into iTunes and further convert it to an AAC format. There is no tech support number, email or even physical address listed in the manual nor can I find a website for Vibe. I don't have that many albums I want to convert, but the sheer number of steps and time makes me really consider taking it back and just buying downloads from Amazon for the songs I want. It is faster and easier. The only drawback to that is many of the old albums my parents own and I grew up listening to aren't available in digital format. I looked at other USB turntables on Amazon that purport the same functionality and those I looked at all come with the same Audacity audio software.

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Nice turntable that plays 33/35/78s. The manual is useless. Throw it away. It comes with the Audacity shareware software. Be aware that when you install this software it will close all your browser windows without asking and then make BING your default search engine.

The only functions that work out of the box were making WMV files. (To make an MP3 file you need to download and install software from another company.) All the special effects are grayed out.

Plug the supplied USB cable into your computer. Note that you will not hear any sounds through your computer's internal speakers or headphones while recording. You need to buy an RCA cable and connect it to an external speaker. I bought a dual RCA phono male to a 3.5 mm stereo male. (Radio Shack #42-495). Don't connect the audio out on the turntable to your computer's mic in. The signal is too strong and causes a lot of distortion.

You also need to setup your computers input recording source. I used Windows 7, your computer might be different. Go to Control Panel / Sound / Recording and check Integrated Microphone Array as the input.

There is a "warranty" but no company address, website, or email to contact them is given on the box or in the manual. So I don't know how you will be able to return it to the factory as they request.

Finally, while you have the turntable plugged into your USB port your computer's speakers do not work. Unplug the turntable if you want to hear your WAV file after you are finished recording.

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I purchased this from an outside source as a cheap way to get some audio for my friends and family onto a computer in a digital format, and possibly pick up some rare older music on vinyl to rip to digial format.

So far, I'm pleased, but not ecstatic. It does its job of ripping the audio properly. I wasn't expecting studio quality form a $30+ record player, nor was it promised. The USB on Win7 HP and Pro (64b) is plug and play, which will make the device appear as both a speaker device, and a microphone array. I disabled it as a speaker device, and through the recording devices, I set the microphone array to "play through" and I can get sound from my computer's speakers, even when recording, without the RCA cables. Thus, in spite of what some reviewers say, yes, you can get it to play without the RCA cables--at least in Win7.

Secondly, you may not need to use Audacity if you have other programs, like, say, Creative WaveStudio (assuming you have a Creative soundcard). I personally didn't install it because I use Audacity already, and you can rip to MP3 by downloading the proper plugins from audacity's site. However, this may not be easy for those not computer savvy or those who've never ripped audio manually.

Moreover, the stylus catridge is ceramic, which from what I hear, will wear out your vinyl. And lastly, I was getting a resonance from within the unit itself that would "play" the audio really tinny and quietly, which could be a distraction or distract from listening. If you want to use this as a device to play your treasured vinyl through your computer, you might want to look elsewhere and spend a bit more. If you're looking for something cheap to convert the music, playing the record once or twice to just capture the audio, it may be an option if a straight rip is what you want or need, and know or are willing to learn how to use Audacity or another wave editor program.