Honestly I was looking for cheap not high performance as I don't have too many records and those are pretty beat up. Having said that I was surpised at the performance of the cheapy approach. I have a Technics SL-J2 linear tracking turntable with a cheapy Amazon needle as my good old Pickering needle was trashed.

My next step will be to ground the inputs and characterize the A/D converter noise (because I'm a nerd). I'll really be suprised if there isn't a couple bits of noise injected by the unit.

Well I have about two months before I can even use mine. I have a pretty decent turntable and phono cartridge. Not real high end but good enough to sound good. Let us know how your evaluation goes.

Well, like I said at the beginning of the thread, mine was a bargain-basement option also…I purchased the NAD preamp thinking I'd have to have it repaired. Somehow I managed to get really lucky.

If only I could will that to happen more often…

Measurements complete.

With both inputs grounded and the switch in Phono I'm getting the noise floor at about -66dB.

Same config with the switch in Line the noise floor DROPS to about -78dB.

These are peak levels. RMS levels are less which get you close to the spec in the datasheet in the Line position.

Zooming in reveals that the noise in the Line setting is pretty much all 60Hz noise.

I'm happy with this performance for what I do.

Just got back from NC. Used the Behringer UFO202 to record some vinyl over to digital. When I first hooked it up to the output of my table it generated a 60 HZ hum in my system so I wasn't impressed at first. I rearranged it so its line in was coming from the record out on the 990 and Voila!! it worked like a champ. My PC sensed the USB connection and when I started the included Audacity software the system was ready to rock (literally). I recorded 10 albums digitally and was able to use the software to edit the music. The UFO202 worked flawlessly and the software was easy to use. It let me edit out the clicks and pops manually or automatically. It provides a lot of control features which I will likely never use but some were really cool. It takes about 45 minutes for each album to get recorded and another hour to edit each one. You can then a=save them as WAV or MP3 formats. WAV took up about 400 MB for each album. The raw data files created by Audacity use about 1.8 GB each. It really helps to have an external drive to store them on. I have a 1 TB drive and it worked real well. I found the digitizing process reminded me of recording via reel to reel many years ago, but a lot simpler and easier to make corrections on the fly.

As far as musical fidelity, its all there. Playing the file back in Audacity reveals all of the foibles of vinyl as far as noise floor and clicks, pops and other junk. I was able to remove as much or as little of the junk as I wanted. If you take your time it is possible to make the recording sound as quiet as a CD. When I played the recording back through the 990 it sounded the same as the vinyl without the annoying junk and I didn't have to get up to swap sides and I could read the liner notes and lyrics.

If you want a quick, easy to use device to digitize your vinyl without spending a lot of $$$ the UFO202 can't be beat. I am very impressed with the usability and accuracy and the price was right.

Thanks for the review on the Behringer! I was thinking about this thread a week or so ago and wondering if you'd had the chance to try out the UFO202. Again, $35 and a little time seems such a small price to create digital versions of prized vinyl. I wonder why running the line out to the 990 resolved the hum. Ground loops can be a bear to resolve but I'm glad you found an easy solution and I'll keep it in mind if I run into the same problem.

I bought a vintage (circa 1978) Pioneer PL-610 turntable a few months back and it has a Shure M97xe on it so it sounds pretty nice. It needs to go into the shop as the auto return recently stopped working but even in full manual it is a worthy turntable. I've been keeping my eye out for a NAD PP-3 but none have showed up on ebay or audiogon since this discussion started so, based upon your positive results I'm off to get a UFO202.

I eventually will want to get the digitized vinyl into iTunes in AIFF for ease of use. I can use MAX to convert WAV to AIFF. Have you found a way to get the metadata (including album art) for the songs or did you have to plug that info in manually?

I would think that the metadata is available but it isn't going to be automatically input. I will probably not put the data in manually. When I recorded the albums I didn't break them into individual tracks, so the recording is basically one big file for the whole album. If you wanted to spend more time on it, the individual tracks could be broken out. Since I usually listen to an album as a whole it makes it easier.

Hooking the UFO202 up to the record out basically isolated the ground loop from the source, which is the turntable. Once I converted the datafile to WAV iTunes played it fine.

Hey AvFan. tru blu here. There's a new NAD PP3 on eBay right now, though at $189, it's close to full price. Just a heads up…

I wonder what software the NAD uses. By the way the Audacity software is available for free on line. I had it installed on my PC beforehand. It was the same version that came with the UFO202. It also came with software to allow musicians to capture their instruments digitally and to create music electronically on the fly. It was easy to install and use. Since the 990 has a phono amp already, I don't see an advantage to the NAD over the UFO202 except it costs more.

XenonMan, CD Wav Editor is free software that slpits big wav file into individual tracks. You need to do it while still a wave file though...very easy to use and you can rename the tracks as their song title.

Its free: http://www.milosoftware.com/en/index.php?body=cdwave.php