Product Review
Product name: Xitel INport
Product type: Digital Audio Encoder
Ports: USB, RCA out
Controls: Software user interface
Likes: Simple installation, intuitive user
interface, works as advertised
Dislikes: None yet
Review
The purpose of the INport is simple – create digital copies
of music found on tapes, LPS and coming over the airwaves. It is very analogous
to a tape deck in the sense that it can record anything coming over a line out
signal from your amp/receiver. This is a relatively simple function – one that
you may already have solved with the right combination of sound card and
recording software. If you haven’t solved this problem yet, or if you find the
software that you use today to be clumsy or frustrating, you should consider the
INport.
The product consists of a small box that connects to your
PC via USB cable and to LINE OUT on your receiver via RCA cable jacks. The
device is basically a USB-enabled external sound card. In addition to the
hardware, you get connection cables and a CD containing two software
applications: LPRecorder and LPRipper. The real benefits of the product package
reside in these two applications. LPRecorder enables you to record whatever
signal comes down the RCA cable. The user interface to the program is quite
simple and very intuitive, and the program can be used with your existing sound
card if you don’t want to use the USB INport device. Normally, rather than
trying to record a single song at a time, you would record an entire side from a
tape of an LP, or a lengthy segment from the radio.
The second program, LPRipper, makes it possible to manage
your recordings of entire tape or LP sides, or a radio segments including more
than one song. LPRipper senses gaps between songs and breaks your recording
into tracks. You can then trim beginnings and/or endings, or reset the start
and end points so the individual tracks can be easily extracted from the bulk
recording.
Summary: This is one of those rare products that
does a fairly simple job exceedingly well. And it avoids the Microsoft penchant
for throwing obscure and confusing options into the product simply to enable the
manufacturer to charge a premium. If you have tapes or LPs that you want to
convert to digital so you can add them to your whole-house digital audio system,
you should consider this product.
