Vinyl sales may be on the up, but even the most ardent fans of the medium want to be able to listen to their favourite 33s and 45s on their computers and portable music players. This being the case, we can certainly see a market for Ion's LP 2 Flash turntable.
This looks very much like a standard deck - until you spot the connectors on its front panel. These enable you to plug in an SD card, USB thumb drive or USB hard drive.
Vinyl records can then be converted to a digital format (without the need for a computer) and stored on one of these devices. Tracks are automatically separated, so there's no need to worry about doing this later.
Once your music is on your card or drive, it can easily be transferred to your computer and then onto your music player. Alternatively, you can also hook up the turntable to your Mac or PC over USB and use the supplied vinyl to digital audio conversion software to archive your collection.
The LP 2 Flash also has a line level output, while the presence of a front-panel input jack means you can also connect up old cassette, MiniDisc and eight-track players and convert material from them.
More information is on the ION website. The LP 2 Flash is available now for around £130.
