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ADS Tech Instant Music RDX150

Manufacturer: ADS Technologies

By Jerry Richards
SPot Senior Editor

Model number: 

2004-12-22 - " ADS is a large Asian manufacturer with a great number of digital products that the reader may be interested in browsing. Their web page is www.adstech.com "

Review:

USB audio appears to be the latest buzz, and this unit provides it at a modest cost of about $40-50 list. I had more than just a passing interest in checking out this unit since it is presented as an easy way to record your vinyl LPs and cassettes to CD. Like many Spotties, I have a fair library of old records and tapes, cassettes and open reel, that I don’t want to give up on, and I have yet to find a truly easy way to record them.

Hardware:

The device is very simple, with analog audio L/R and SPDIF (Toslink) inputs and outputs, plus the usb output that hooks to your computer usb input. It features sampling rates, in and out, up to 48khz, but 44.1 is the highest I have tried thus far. See Features below for specifications.

The front panel has only two lights: a red power led, and a green one for toslink input. The green one is supposed to light when that input is active, but mine stayed on even though I haven’t tried it yet.

Supplied accessories include a 6ft usb cable, 6ft RCA audio cable with ground adapter, a CD with Nero software, and a small user guide. You can save your music as MP3, WAV, WMA, or AAC formats. That’s all there is to it physically; it just sits there quietly doing its conversion, with no buttons to push or switches to set.

Software:

This is where things got dicey for me. If you have a previous version of Nero, you must uninstall it first. After I installed the new Nero, things never worked right and I eventually ended up with a failed burn that would not play. I suspect the program did not install correctly on the two computers I used. I found two update files on the Nero site (29 and 10 Megs each, so a high speed download is recommended. After the update, things went much smoother and no more coasters were made. The Nero site is http://www.nero.com/us/nero-up.php. I used package 1 and 4.

The software is fairly complex but not to the extent of some I have tried. It does have a noise reduction feature, auto track detection, tick and pop removal, and a few more. I didn’t use the auto track detect because you have to set the parameters yourself, such as gap length, minimum noise level, etc. There is an automatic pause mode, when selected, if 20 seconds of silence is detected. I don’t recommend this feature for classical music, because the level sometimes drop low enough to fool the software and it will go into pause and you may not notice. You will need to practice to learn its quirks and procedures, and the help files were only of marginal help, IMO. I used manual track insertion points, but as I added new ones, the old ones got jumbled out of place for some reason, so it took some redos to get them all in the proper place. From here I saved the file and tried another burn. I was hoping the file would save with the track markers in place, but it didn’t. My goal was, and has always been, simply to get a cd with the tracks corresponding to the tracks on the source record or tape. I don’t think that is asking too much, but it is deceptively difficult to do, esp. for a newbie, like me. What finally did work was an option to save all the tracks as separate files and put them into a playlist for burning. Who knew? As I said, the help files weren’t. You might need up to a gig of free hard drive space to record the original file, and then all the tracks separately again. You can delete them when finished of course.

These problems are not the fault of ADS, but the recording and burning software Nero, but since it is sold as a system, I have to present all the facts. If you are experienced with Nero, you probably won’t have the difficulties I did. The version I ended up with is Nero 6.6.0.3, and NeroMix 1.4.0.26; both dated 12/3/04. The original software may work fine on another computer, but mine had problems. Now that I have something of a handle on procedure, I am enjoying my recording sessions. I have recorded two records, and an open reel tape to CD. The finished product sounds like a virtual exact copy of the originals to me, including the surface noise and any other problems with the source. (Try listening to a record with headphones to time travel back to the analog days and see why cds were so enthusiastically welcomed.).

Overall I would rate the hardware 5 Spottie paws (perfect), and the software 3 paws, for an overall rating of 4 paws. I don’t think you should have to d/l patches to get Nero to work properly, however these problems may have been the fault of my computers. The patches did correct my problems, and I’m looking forward to many happy recording sessions of my “old” music, much of which will never be released on cd.

Features:
  • Audio IN: RCA Stereo (Left and Right); SPDIF (Toslink)
  • Audio Out: RCA Stereo (Left and Right); SPDIF (Toslink)
  • Power: USB bus power (no external supply needed)
  • USB: USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 compatible as a Full Speed Device
  • Capture: 16 bit
    • Sampling Rate: 8, 11, 16, 22.05, 32 44.1 or 48 kHz
    • THD+N = 0.01%
    • SNR= 89dB
  • Playback: 16 bit
    • Sampling Rate - 32, 44.1, 48 kHz
    • THD+N = 0.005%
    • SNR = 96dB
Rating:


Hardware:
Software:
Overall:

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