Amazon.com sells hope for the vinyl crowd

Next time my Mom threatens my Dad to toss his hundreds of vinyl LPs that he's collected over the last 20+ years, I am going to direct him to the latest in turntables -- one that allows users to convert LPs to digital files directly from the platter onto one's hard drive.

Today's Sunday New York Times reports on two new consumer turntables on the market at $200 that will let one's memories re-live in a digital format, including the iPod.

One of the new turntables is called the Ion iTTUSB Turntable with USB Record and it is listed for $199, but can be bought for around $150 on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). This turntable is compatible with Macs and PCs. However, one downside is that the process of converting these old LPs can be time-consuming. The turntable has to be assembled properly and the LPs must be thoroughly cleaned. The recording software which comes on a CD takes about a half hour to set up properly, and may take even longer if you have a slower learning curve.

I know my Mom will be relieved to know that there's hope that the many apple crates packed with LPs gathering dust in our basement may soon be gone. (Though I think my Dad cherishes the album cover art as much as he does the music, so the battle may not be totally won.)