If you look at the back of most of the best turntables, you’ll see the familiar shape and color of the RCA outputs, with their red and white insets. They’ve been around for almost a century, and they’re still the most common way to connect turntables to other audio gear. But they’re not the only option you’ll find on some turntables.
Some turntables also offer additional options, such as optical outputs. And many offer a connection that you would normally expect to find on a computer, not an audio component: USB. So do you need a USB port on your next spinner? Let’s see why people want them.
A quick guide to connecting turntables
The RCA connectors on the back of virtually every turntable were invented by the Radio Corporation of America in the 1930s – exact dates vary, but they were certainly in use by 1937 – as an easy way to hook up audio hardware. And they’ve endured because they’re simple, straightforward, and widely compatible.
There are newer options, however. Some manufacturers have also created turntables with digital-optical outputs. These outputs are designed to connect to systems with digital inputs – primarily home theater receivers, but also some sound bars and other audio hardware – and come with analog-to-digital converters that convert the audio signal into digital data.
Usually, a lot of turntables have USB. And the reason they have a USB interface from a computer is so that you can easily connect them to computers.
Why would you connect your turntable to a computer?
The main reason to use a USB connection is to convert your vinyl records into digital formats that you can then play on your phone, laptop, any of the best music players, and so on.
Without USB, that’s a real pain. Some desktop Windows PCs have RCA inputs on their sound cards, but such inputs are becoming increasingly rare. And even those that do have RCA usually don’t have phono inputs, so you’ll usually have to amplify the signal from your turntable via a built-in or standalone phono stage.
With laptops, you don’t have that option. Many laptops are designed without any audio inputs; good luck connecting anything to, say, a current MacBook Air.
That’s where USB comes in. A USB turntable lets you connect directly to a computer, even if it doesn’t have audio inputs. And it’s not just turntables: a whole lot of music-making hardware is USB, too. That’s because USB is the computer equivalent of RCA connectors: simple, straightforward, and widely compatible.
Do you need to rip your records?
If you don’t plan on ripping your records, you don’t need a USB port. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy a turntable that has one – mine does, though I’ve never used it – but it does mean that USB shouldn’t be on your list of dealbreakers if you’re planning on buying one.
Should You Rip Your Records Via USB? The short answer is “maybe.”
Ripping records is great if those records are currently the only way you can hear those specific songs: creating digital versions expands your listening options, letting you enjoy the music in places a turntable can’t reach, like in your car or on the commute to work or school. But ripping takes a lot of time, and if you’re doing it at the highest quality, it also takes up a lot of storage space. So it’s worth asking: do I really need to rip this?
For widely available commercial music, that’s probably not the case, especially if you use one of the top music streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify Premium, TIDAL, Deezer, or other streamers.
For example, I have the 30th anniversary edition of U2’s Attention Baby on vinyl – but I also streamed it in Apple Lossless format as part of my Apple Music subscription. If you want to hear the latest reissue of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors for Record Store Day 2024 you can leave it sealed and stream it Rumors, Rumors (Deluxe Edition), Rumors (Super Deluxe Edition), Rumors (Live)… You get the idea.
Even if your vinyl collection is a bit more obscure, you might be surprised by what you can find in streamers’ catalogs. For example, a very obscure band from my area of Scotland called the Nyah Fearties released an album called A tasty Heidfu’ on vinyl in 1986. And while only six people have heard of it, you can now stream it in lossless audio quality on Apple Music.
That’s not to say streamers are perfect. There are gaps in their catalogs, especially when you step away from the most mainstream and commercial genres. Licenses expire, causing some records to disappear from their catalogs permanently. And of course, you need a subscription to keep listening to streaming music: no money, no music. So you can see why some music lovers want to rip their records.
How do you do it?
How to Rip Vinyl Records with a USB Turntable
There’s a bit more to ripping than just plugging your turntable into a USB port (or, if it’s not a USB turntable, into a USB phono stage that connects to your computer). But there’s not much more to it than that.
The other thing you’ll need is software to handle the encoding process. You can do this fairly well with free software like the excellent Audacity audio editor , but if you’re willing to spend a little money there are programs that offer more advanced features and more convenient ripping, such as VinylStudio (starting at $29.95 for Mac or Windows) or Channel D’s Pure Vinyl Recorder ($379 for Mac).
That last option is a lot of money, I know, but it does have a lot of features: it can automatically label albums and tracks, remove pops and clicks, and perform all sorts of audio optimization and processing. There’s even a special mode to get the most out of pre-1955 vinyl and shellac records.
Which USB turntable should I buy?
We recommend the Audio-Technica AT-LP120XBT-USB as an excellent affordable turntable choice. In our 4.5-star Audio-Technica AT-LP120XBT-USB review , we said it “brings ultimate convenience to the world’s most awkward audio format without sacrificing sound quality, the Audio-Technica AT-LP120XBT-USB does more than meets the eye – and in a way, does it stylishly.”