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iMac audio in really suck!! Really?

brewno

brewno

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2007
461
18
Montreal, Canada
My aunt has an iMac - recommended by me - but now she regrets her purchase because she used to record audio from old vinyl records into Audacity using her old PC. Now with the iMac the sound is wimpy and sounds like a small radio. The audio in on the iMac sucks! Is that right? Whats going on, I thought people used Macs for audio recording? Im frustrated, I tried changing a few things here and there, but it stills sounds very crappy. I need urgent help. What do you suggest I should do? Tell her to return her iMac? Or there is a solution? Thanks!
 
i've always converted vinyls onto computers, back when i used a PC and now on my mac.

i cant hear any difference in sound quality from either.

i presume she's using garageband? the only thing i can think of it is changing the recording level control on the track. make sure its as close to red as you can possible get, if it peaks it'll start distorting, but if it's too low it'll sound weak as you described.

thats all i can think of, hope it helps.
 
She's tried Garageband and Audacity, but they both sound wimpy. Levels are up. I even tried installing Windows on her machine, but it sounds just as bad.
 
The fact remains that with the old Dell she had, she didn't need anything else but the cables directly to the audio in of her motherboard's sound card. Im guessing her sound card is defective, as her output is wimpy too.
 
Doubt it, if you know a thing or too about vinyl you'll know that what comes out of a deck is bass reduced to save space on the disc which is then eqed back in afterwards.
 
sabocat said:
A good sound card is what she needs. I have an imac and have been researching the possibility of recording my vinyl onto hard drive, and ppl I've spoken with say the mac sound card is mediocre. I'm considering the sound card below. Check out this review:

http://stereophile.com/computeraudio/1104echo/
Click to expand...

except the imac doesnt have a cardslot... you're going to have to use USB or Firewire ...

and i wouldn't trust anything by echo ...

EDIT:
Take that back, echo is a decent brand, but there are better out there...
 
Drumjim85 said:
except the imac doesnt have a cardslot... you're going to have to use USB or Firewire ...

and i wouldn't trust anything by echo ...

EDIT:
Take that back, echo is a decent brand, but there are better out there...
Click to expand...

Fill me in. The more choices I have the better. I'll probably go usb. That would be ok, right?
 
oh I don't know. That echo was $180 in 2004, so I imagine anything below $400 should give me something hifi.
 
sabocat said:
oh I don't know. That echo was $180 in 2004, so I imagine anything below $400 should give me something hifi.
Click to expand...

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html

probably something like this would do you well. There are better sound cards out there, but they have a lot more I/O than you need ... and i can tell you about some great 2 channel converters ... but they're all going to be 1k and up ...
 
Drumjim85 said:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html

probably something like this would do you well. There are better sound cards out there, but they have a lot more I/O than you need ... and i can tell you about some great 2 channel converters ... but they're all going to be 1k and up ...
Click to expand...

$100 for that one. not bad. I'll be running line out from the preamp and into the sound card, and then into the imac. Here's my set up:

VPI Scout Turntable with clearaudio wood virtuoso cart;
Conrad Johnson PV-15 pre-amp with tube phono section.

Do you think that little item will match the quality of info. coming from the pre-amp?
 
sabocat said:
$100 for that one. not bad. I'll be running line out from the preamp and into the sound card, and then into the imac. Here's my set up:

VPI Scout Turntable with clearaudio wood virtuoso cart;
Conrad Johnson PV-15 pre-amp with tube phono section.

Do you think that little item will match the quality of info. coming from the pre-amp?
Click to expand...

it has 104db dynamic range, and a pretty low THD .... (for a $100 unit) ... again, like i said , there are a lot better converters out there.. but you'll be spending 1k+ ...
 
There may be issues in other areas too, but this is unlikely as you stated that the system worked fine with a Dell.

The sound from a record deck is very very quiet and has massive amounts of treble and not much bass (this is characteristic referred to as the RIAA curve).

To fix this, and also to boost the signal to a useable volume, an RIAA amplifier is required (sometimes referred to as a phono preamp). Pro-Ject make a good one which doesn't cost much.

As I said though, this may not be an issue, but it's worth checking out anyway. It's possible her record deck has an RIAA amplifier built in anyway...
 
Use the application "Vinyl" over an USB Audio-interface

Turntables have an special equalization at the recording that must be "reset" at the playback: RIAA de-equalization.

Or you can purchase an separate RIAA-Equalization preamp (DJ-equip) and then plug via Minijack to the Audio-in of your new Mac. (only newer models)
 
I think I finally found the answer to my prayers, and this might be helpful to others seeking an audiophile interface between their turntable and computer. It's a cheap (under $200) phono-pre-amp with an adc and usb port:

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/80652

It's a Pro-ject phono pre-amp. Better than a sound card by far.
 
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