Stanton T.90 USB Turntable

Reviewed by

Donald Bell

on 05/02/2007

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Page 2

Using Pyro 5 to record vinyl was a snap. You can record an entire side of an LP in one pass, then later go though and clean up the recording, separate tracks, and export them to WAV, MP3, or WMA files.

Performance
Connecting the T.90 to our Windows XP machine was an astounding success. The native USB audio drivers were recognized immediately, and no installations were required in order for our machine to recognize the T.90 as both a recording and a playback device. After installing and running Cakewalk Pyro 5 and selecting the "Make CDs from your cassettes and LPs" option from Pyro's menu, we were soon off and digitizing vinyl into WAV, MP3, and WMA files.

The sound quality was as good as can be expected from old, scratchy records. The built-in audio card records 16-bit at 44.1khz (which you can upscale to 48khz). Because the Stanton T.90 doubles as both a recording and a playback interface for your computer's audio, you can instantly play back the results of your digitally recorded vinyl through the T.90's RCA outputs--but there's more. The T.90 will even allow you to simultaneously mix your computer's audio and your turntable's audio into the same output--bridging both the analog and digital worlds. What DJs do with this feature is up to their imaginations.

Final thoughts
The Stanton T.90 turntable is a great tool for aspiring and professional DJs. If you're only looking for a means to digitize your collection of vinyl gems, you'd be much better off purchasing a simpler, consumer-grade USB turntable like the Ion iTTUSB or just purchasing a quality computer audio card and outfitting your existing turntable with a phono-to-line preamp such as the Rolls VP29.