Hey, I'm not really sure what section of the forum this should go in. I have a sister who wants to digitize her entire LP collection. She's considering buying an ION.

As I understand it, the ION and devices like it convert to MP3 format. She's not into Hi Fi, but even so, I fear she will be disappointed in the result since MP3 will not sound nearly as good as a full uncompressed WAV file. Not only that, but I am guessing that the tone arm and cartridge on the ION are not very high quality.

Has anyone used an ION or similar? Can you help me explain to my sister what she is likely to get out of the ION compared to what she might achieve via some other mechanisms that won't cost too much more, e.g. a decent TT/cartridge like a Rega P1, playback through an integrated amp that has phono inputs, and out via the TAPE OUT outputs to the PC line-level input?

I don't know, maybe an ION is really great. I have no experience with it, but I just find it really hard to imagine that the resulting digitized MP3 music could sound as good as full WAV output recorded using better equipment.