After I retired, I started my mammoth A2D ripping project primarily to preserve a legacy for future generations - my daughter and son-in-law and now my granddaughter, who love music - particularly classical music, but are not inclined to inherit 15,000 records and 1000+ R2R tapes. Since ripping analogue is a real time endeavor, I took a lot of time and effort including hiring consultants who were much more knowledgeable than I to determine what equipment and process to use, including extensive tests and shootouts. Although the cost of the equipment and software was expensive, including hiring experts to teach me how to use all of this stuff, it was less than even a minimum wage cost of ripping the records. As I approach the 40% stage of the project (of the projected 10,000 titles that I am interested in ripping), with something like 14TB of rips ( all at 192/24), I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully, well before I "shuffle off this mortal coil."
Are my rips better than the originals? For the original R2R 15ips 2 track, no. For the vinyl after all the clicks and pops have been removed with Izotope RX2, I think yes, particularly for my collection of rare, used Decca, EMI, RCA and Mercury classical records from the 1950's to 1980 or so.
It was also wonderful to bring a couple of 3TB hard drives with me for my annual month in London, with my little Meridian Explorer DAC and have my entire collection of Decca SXL 2000 and 6000 and Lyrita records in my briefcase, with my MacAir and headphones. When I was interviewing the Decca engineers for the book I am doing with Winston Ma, it was great to be able to play a recording that one of them did more than 30 years ago.
If you want more details, you can PM me.
Larry
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