Customer Reviews
Obtuse directions 
2008-08-31
Turntable itself is fine. The directions were either written by someone for whom English is a second language or written for too many models and lumped into one booklet. Trial and error and common sense prevails.
Ion USB Turntable 
2008-08-27
I recently purchased the Ion TTUSB turntable so I could transfer my vinyl to digital. I was very pleased with the unit, the design is user friendly, with two large stop/start buttons located at the corners so one doesn't disturb the stylus when finding and recording tracks.
The software makes transfer a breeze, just sit back and listen to your oldies and allow the memories to flow back!
You can also use Audacity if you want to record and tweak the recording or record 78's by recording them at 33 or 45 and re doing them at 78. Very nice feature for those with 78 records out there.
All in all, I am very happy with the unit, the price was right and use is a piece of cake, just plug it in and go!
Ion TTUSB Turntable w/USB Record 
2008-08-27
I could not get this to work with my computer. I kept getting error messages about reinstalling Quicktime and/or iTunes. None of it made sense. When googling the error I read that this tends to be a problem with this product.
Now the company I got this from, Electronics expo, is giving me a hard time about the return, and refund.
Good USB turntable 2008-08-26
very good turntable just plug in to usb port works great
Read instructions carefully about the weight of the turntable arm.
Tom
Patience makes it work 2008-08-18
First the cons; It's not automatic so it requires monitoring during recording. The RCA cords are permanently attached and somewhat in the way. If you are using a MAC you need a lot of patience. It took me three days and tech support to get it working. Audacity can be just that. MAC's need LameLib in order for Audacity to save as MP3. After three days I finally got LameLib downloaded and working with Audacity. However, than all I could get on the recording was heavy static after 5 minutes. I found that The MAC needed to be set at 48000 in order to stop this from happening. After a week of a lot of frustration I finally got everything working. Saying it converts to MP3 on a MAC is somewhat misleading.
Now for the PRO's; The software and player do a good job. I have gone through a number of LP's with good success. Practice makes it better once you get it working. I am not disappointed in it.
Mac users: Not for the faint-of-heart 2008-08-15
Hear Ye, Hear Ye! See the first USB turntable for converting your old vinyls directly to CD or MP3 with the included recording software (No special drivers needed!). It includes Audacity software for Mac/PC for recording and a trial of Bias Soundsoap 2 for cleaning and restoring vinyl quality. In addition, the ION iTTUSB turntable also has line level output for connecting to any home stereo with CD or auxiliary (AUX) inputs. It is compatible with any software that supports USB audio input sound cards. CD with Mac/PC recording software 33 1/3 and 45 RPM. Adjustable Anti-Skating control for increased stereo balancing High speed vinyl recording Line level RCA outputs 1/8 stereo line input so you can digitize music from cassettes or other sources Computer Requirements - PC running Windows 98, 2000, or XP / Mac running OS9 or greater / One available USB port Set-up required to mount turntable and adjust tone-arm
ION gets the job done 2008-08-13
I've got a huge vinyl library that dates back to my life in the 60s. We've moved a few times and always carried our collection with, damp basements, hot barns, the records have been everywhere. We've added music over the years because some things are just not available on CD. Well, recently we changed our audio setup and we no longer had room for our turntable. I use a Mac so I picked up an iMic but was never happy with the quality or the software.
I decided to go with the the Ion because it looked like a simple setup and it worked with Macs. It is a little larger than I expected, but I got over that. It came partially disassembled, but the directions were clear and the setup was easy for me. The adjustment of the tone arm took the longest, but I wanted to make sure it was right.
The Audacity software loaded and works fine on my MacBook Pro running Leopard 10.5.4. It was intuitive and easy to learn although I have not used it to it's full capacity yet. What I like about listening to records is to hear the faint pops and cracks and the full deep tones. Audacity lets you clean all of that up, but I chose not to.
Once you rip the album to your hard drive, you can do the cleaning, add track numbers and names or add some of the many filters available. The ease of importing to iTunes was important for me, too, and it works great with Audacity.
I should mention that the ripping is done in real time, but the software allows you to speed it up is you wish. Again, I chose not to because I wanted to listen to the music as it was transferring.
I'm very happy with the purchase and find myself just listening to music that I haven't heard in years, even if I decide not to transfer it to my Mac. The turntable also has regular RCA connections if you'd want to add it to your stereo system.
So-So Product 
2008-08-01
To me a good product is 4 star, something exceptional to make it 5, one off for each significant drawback. The two with ION TTUSB:
-the EZ Vinyl Software generates frequent 'cannot convert file' messages when converting to itunes, whereupon it must start over converting the LP, even if it successfully converted several tracks. Eventually it gets through all the tracks in an LP, then you have to sort through and get rid of the tracks it successfully converted on the failed tries, to avoid clutter in your itunes: workable but annoying. I've heard suggestions this is caused when itunes was already installed before you got EZV, but it's just poor design not to have thought somebody would already have itunes installed and not want to mess with it.
-faint ground loop hum noise on the recordings. Again possible extraordinary measures would fix it, but it just shouldn't be there.
Otherwise the EZ Vinyl software is also clunky to use in more minor ways (for example inevitable long pause in your MP3 file at end of an LP side while you quickly flip the LP), but workable. The turntable basically works. My old LP's have wear and occasional damage, a super quality turntable wouldn't help that much. Besides the two specific problems mentioned it would be a 'get what you pay for' situation in a fairly cheap product. But I'd check out competing products which might not have those problems.
turntable with USB record 2008-07-17
I had so much hope for this turntable, which would have enabled me to listen and convert my beloved lps to cds. What a disappointment when I hooked it up and found out that it doesn't work. I had to return it for a refund. The one good thing about this purchase/return experience is the amazing speed that Amazon processed my order. The product arrived within a day of ordering, and I received notification of my refund days after I returned the product. Oh well.
confusing 2008-07-05
Hello, this seemed like a good idea, but we've spent so much time fiddling with the thing trying to get the program right in the computer for it actually to record. I'm sure it works, but it's been so much hastle trying to do so that I've had it sitting under the plastic for 6 months collecting dust.
