The SugarCube has landed... SC-1 Plus

[BlazeES]

Ah nice. Nice reminder nudge too! I still own my original copy of that album, received circa 1974. And it's a popping mess. Going to give that one a spin soon!

So many great performances on that record. Leon Russell was hitting it on all cylinders...

 

[mlucitt]

I suspect the SC-1 may be DSP based...

That's exactly what it is Joe. They A-to-D the incoming signal, apply their algorithms in the digital domain and then pass it back out a number of ways. And they do it all, introducing no more than a 5 second delay...

Hey, my SAE 5000A has (3) LM339 Comparator ICs and they function as AND gates, doesn't that count for a little DSP? Plus, I have only a 100 uSEC analog delay, so no waiting around for a 5 second A-D conversion...
Plus, the clicks and pops are analog signals picked up by an analog phono cartridge into an analog preamplifier feeding an analog amplifier into analog speakers. Who need stinkin' analog to digital and back again conversion anyway!
Rant over.

 

[Elite-ist]

I don't think it's a 5-second delay. With my SC-1 set in the default mode of 5 (midpoint of sensitivity) it's less than one second.

Nando.

 

[Gepetto]

I don't really care about the delay in my SACD player...

 

[J!m]

These are cool gizmos I can certainly use but no budget for such investments...

 

[BlazeES]

Digital dissidents are the worst... No convincing them.

 

[Bob Boyer]

Out of curiosity, am I correct in assuming you can capture a 24/192 file of the de-clicked album on your computer if you use the USB port on one of these? And if so, can you use it to listen to that file from the computer on your system? Asking because Tascam does not have updated driver software yet for my UH-7000 A>D/D>A interface and if they don't come up with something I could be in market for a new digital converter/interface. I can go the Focusrite route for that but if this would do the same thing - allow me to record vinyl to the computer and then play the cleaned up file from the computer - I might wait and find the dollars to upgrade to an SC-1 Mini when they get back to manufacturing them again.

Thoughts? Thanks as always...

 

[BlazeES]

Out of curiosity, am I correct in assuming you can capture a 24/192 file of the de-clicked album on your computer if you use the USB port on one of these? And if so, can you use it to listen to that file from the computer on your system? Asking because Tascam does not have updated driver software yet for my UH-7000 A>D/D>A interface and if they don't come up with something I could be in market for a new digital converter/interface. I can go the Focusrite route for that but if this would do the same thing - allow me to record vinyl to the computer and then play the cleaned up file from the computer - I might wait and find the dollars to upgrade to an SC-1 Mini when they get back to manufacturing them again.

Thoughts? Thanks as always...

Yep. 192K/24bit A/D-D/A is the domain, full stream. And you can port out through USB and Digital links - post clean up - and prior to the final D/A - to capture/record on a computer,

record on a fancy piece of kit like this:
ttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPH2RFY/?coliid=I1IORUA5560P03&colid=MJIZQXLUL2LF&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

or simply play back through some final digital transport of your own.

 

[Bob Boyer]

Yep. 192K/24bit A/D-D/A is the domain, full stream. And you can port out through USB and Digital links - post clean up - and prior to the final D/A - to capture/record on a computer,

record on a fancy piece of kit like this:
ttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPH2RFY/?coliid=I1IORUA5560P03&colid=MJIZQXLUL2LF&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

or simply play back through some final digital transport of your own.

Kind of why I asked the question. I use a software-based solution where the A>D file writes to the computer's memory, is normalized and edited in the software (Amadeus on my desktop and Audition on my laptop), and then stored on external hard drives. Right now I can play from my amp to my interface, record directly on the computer, then play back from the computer through the D>A side without going through any external recorder. I'm hoping the SC can do this along with it's pretty amazing de-clicking capabilities.

Edit: and yes, that DA-3000 is an awesome stand alone recorder. A friend bought one on my recommendation and once he figured out how it worked, he can't say enough good about how it sounds. If I still had my home recording setup, that would be my 2-track mastering recorder, hands down.

 

[laatsch55]

Yep. 192K/24bit A/D-D/A is the domain, full stream. And you can port out through USB and Digital links - post clean up - and prior to the final D/A - to capture/record on a computer,

record on a fancy piece of kit like this:
ttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPH2RFY/?coliid=I1IORUA5560P03&colid=MJIZQXLUL2LF&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

or simply play back through some final digital transport of your own.

So that's a digital recorder, recording to what?

 

[BlazeES]

So that's a digital recorder, recording to what?

Not sure I get your question Lee.

The Sugar Cube I have doesn't record anything... so just think of it as a digital processing stream. Raw data on the digital out and over USB - analog out of the banana jacks.

On the computer side, you just need one of many pieces of software to record that input.

 

[J!m]

The Tascam is a recorder. It has a removable card for file storage.

Basically one of their field recorders in a 1u package.

I use the Alesis Masterlink for the same purpose. It can also do high res files but I don’t bother since I’m either making tapes or redbook CDs anyway.

 

[BlazeES]

Thanks for the clearing that up J!m - I didn't even read it in the spirit of that Tascam.

 

[BlazeES]

... Lee ! You should have actually read the specs on that Amazon link... you knucklehead!

 

[laatsch55]

I was at the bar for datenight and Amazon wouldn't let me in on my phone..

 

[BlazeES]

I was at the bar for datenight and Amazon wouldn't let me in on my phone..

You were on a Date Night with Jani ... and your lurking on the Phx Forum from your phone. I'm calling her right now!

 

[laatsch55]

She was well aware...she's a keeper man..

 

[Bob Boyer]

Believe I'm gonna look into one of those next year. I moved my big hard drive and the UH-7000 over to my laptop, which is still running whatever OS Apple refers to as Catalina. Maybe Tascam will release a firmware update that will allow it to work with OS 11.6, which took 5 hours to load Friday night/Saturday morning and wiped out the printer and the Tascam interface capability on my Mac Mini. Got the printer working by connecting over a USB cable instead of blutoof, but the Tascam wasn't having any of this Big Sur stuff.

So I can listen just fine again from a computer, which saved me some money that can now be pointed towards a Sugar Cube if they ever start making them again.

 

[BlazeES]

Going on a few months of ownership now and have to say, this thing is amazing. Also - having it always connected to the home network allows it automatically download any firmware updates SV pushes out, which there was one just last night. Looks like they tweaked the Noise Reduction process. Seems to work a bit better now but I'm still noticing that it slams the dynamic range pretty hard as a trade off to reduced gain, in pursuit of hiding some noise. I actually prefer to leave it off and do. But maybe I'll come across one particular LP that benefits a lot from using it. Time will tell...

Groove noise and faint recording hiss (from the studio mastering...) doesn't bother me in the least. And it adds to the whole organic experience of vinyl anyhow. No clicks & pops but still having some 'mechanical' noise means it doesn't sound completely digitized. Bam !

*

Been spinning 'Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys' constantly... because it sounds so damned good.

 

[laatsch55]

Ahhh....indeed a classic, love it..