[ music ] ^m00:00:04 >> Hey I'm Donald Bell, senior editor for digital audio and MP3, and today we're taking a first look at the Numark TTI turntable. The TTI's a traditional, record playing turntable with an iPod dock and a USB output, priced around 450 dollars retail. We're seeing the TTI go for around 250 dollars realistically online, which is a much more reasonable price to pay for this considering you're really only getting an average turntable, despite all the bells and whistles. Now if you've ever tried to turn an old record into an MP3 to play on your iPod, then you probably understand the appeal of a product like this. The TTI offers 2 ways to digitize your vinyl; either by connecting the turntable to your MAC or PC and using one of the included recording programs, or - and this is probably the more interesting feature - connecting iPod directly to the turntable and recording your vinyl directly to the iPod. Unfortunately neither option is super convenient. If your record to a computer, it's easier to edit and tag your recordings but most people don't like keeping their turntable next to the computer or vice versa. If you record to your iPod, there's no way to enter the artist or title information of your recording, so you end up creating a list of time stamped recordings that you later need to import back into iTunes, tag with the right info, and re-import back to your iPod. So neither method really saves you much time, but it's nice to be able to rip your recordings right to your iPod without having to keep your computer right next to your turntable. Other unique features on the Numark TTI include an AUX input for recording sources other than the turntable, there's a strip of controls here that let you navigate your iPod while it's docked, and there's an adjustable gain setting on the back of the turntable that lets you control the volume of the recordings that you make. Other than that, the TTI is just your basic belt driven turntable, made mostly from hollow plastic. The sound quality you're getting here isn't much different from the hundred dollar decks we've seen from Sony, Ion, and Audio Technica, but the novelty of having an iPod dock built into it might be worth the price for you. I'm Donald Bell, and that was a first look at the Numark TTI turntable. ^m00:01:57 [ music ]
