ION Audio Vinyl Forever | Digital Audio Turntable Adapter

This product is so much better than some negative reviews would have you believe. Yes it looks a bit silly having a tiny interface box shaped like a turntable, but it is clear in the description that it is not a real turntable. It connects easily to my iMac, enabling me to record straight from my record deck with no hifi system involved. It has very good gain control to help you get high volume without distortion at the top end. I found I could not load the software from the supplied CD but it was very quick and easy to download and install the latest version from the Ion's website. It is very good that there is the option of either getting the software automatically decide where tracks finish or to let you do it manually - the latter is best for any music with very quiet patches in the middle of a track. In automatic tracking mode it adds an unnecessary blank track at the end of the side but that it easy to delete in iTunes. It numbers tracks from 1 on both sides of an album but it is easy to change the track numbering in iTunes. Some reviewers said you can't change the track titles once entered - rubbish - it is so easy to change them in iTunes.Overall verdict, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to digitise their LP collection. Great cost effective product.One suggestion for improvement in the next version - please add balance control so you can adjust the balance between right and left channels.

Don't be fooled by the picture,this unit is actually an interface to go between an old turntable and a p.c. I am sure that it is a good product and does the intended job,but not much use without a turntable Like a fool I thought that I had found a cheap solution. alas it is now on its way back to Amazon

First and foremost - this is NOT a turntable. Anyone who expects that for £20 is living in a different world to me.This is a conversion box. It sits between your audio device and computer. And, on the whole, it does a good job. But it has a couple of quirks, and for that reason I can't really give it a full 5 stars (nor am I an out-and-out audiophile, so I can't comment on final quality; I bought this to transfer my wife's and my old vinyl to digital, so that we can play it in the car and so forth, and it does the job well enough for that purpose, at least).Firstly - like any kit, you need to make sure you set it up right. For example, it wants you to select between line and phono input. Pick the wrong one and you may still get sound of a sort - but the quality will be appalling. Pick the right one and fail to set the recording volume correctly, and you'll likely get nothing at all. OK, that's mostly common sense, but it seems to be defeating one or two people, so it can't be ignored. Basically - connect it up; launch the software as far as the screen with the record button; start playing something; turn up the recording volume control on the box until the audio levels at window-right are bouncing up and down nicely but not going over the top. Turn on your computer speakers and make sure that what's coming through is clear - and if it's not, try the other input setting. THEN start your recording-proper.Secondly, and more serious - whilst the supplied software has an automatic "split into tracks" option, it doesn't always do what it says on the tin. Nor does it simply give too many tracks. It took me several failures (including a few when I seemed to end up with nothing more than a single track consisting of one minute of silence), and then a bit of digging on Ion's web site, to realise that, basically, any audio with long, quiet stretches in it - which includes quite a lot of the classical stuff in my collection - isn't going to be correctly processed. In the end I've mostly given up using that option for anything more subtle than, say, a pop album with nice big inter-track gaps, as I often either end up with the wrong number of tracks or even the complete failures alluded to earlier. It's often easier, in the end, to just rip a whole vinyl side as one "track" and then use software such as Audacity (free, and which I can heartily recommend) to split it up. And that gives me an opportunity to clean up things like basic vinyl rumble/noise and the inevitable clicks as I do anyway - which is both great and very easy.With those caveats, though, it's easy-enough to use, and a decent-enough solution for the money.

An excellent product - does what its supposed to very well and very good value. Very easy to connect to laptop and turntable and leads are provided. The included software is very easy to use and it automatically adds recorded songs to iTunes. Recommended.

The software refuses to recognise their own device. Until you disable or remove any other audio codecs, average user will be lost!There is then no choice of encoding, meaning a pcm file that windows will not play.I have used it with success but only because I use Audacity as the software.Their proprietary software is utter garbage, no moving recording levels or indication that it’s even recording.2/10

This for me was a waste of money as all you need do is put a phono preamp between the turntable and computer, suppose a good quality preamp would cost more!

One channel stopped working after a day and the software does not work on the latest MacBook Pro operating system Big Sur. Big disappointment!

This wasn't what I expected, it did not show clearly on the amazon listing that it required an existing turntable to work. The picture on the listing made it look a large size that would be able to play records but it is actually so small it fits in the palm of my hand.