Less concerned about recording at this point, but have a turntable that I might want to add to my digital system.
It’s an NAD D7050, which has NO analog inputs. Toslink/optical, and USB among others.
Wondering if you’ve had any luck with a reasonably priced phono preamp that has a good digital out. Accommodating MC carts would be nice, but I do have a step-up amp for the Ortofon MC20 (an Ortofon MCA76).
Looking at these:
Pro-Ject AD Box S2 ($220)
Pro-Ject Phono Box DS2 ($600)
NAD PP4 ($200)
My PS Audio NuWave Phono Converter pleases me a great deal. It is a very fine phono preamp as well as a great digital converter. They are no longer in production but it seems like they are still available at a great price. Highly recommended. It has analog, usb, and i2s outputs, as well as phono and analog inputs.
Love my NuWave as well, I but have found that the digital out does not sound as well as analog out. This is with using I2S, which is the gold standard for me. Maybe this is the case with most phono pre-amps, that analog trumps digital, really could not say.
You may be preferring the analog out because the level is so much higher than the level you get from the digital out and the Directsrteam DAC. Levels must me matched to withing .1 db for any comparison to be valid!