Need Help isolating noise in Analog to Digital conversion

[tmy23]

Greetings and happy thanksgiving to all. thanks also for any help. "rediscovered" my turntable and have been trying to convert LP to digital. Am getting high end noise on "S" sounds in vocals, symbols. Sounds like extended hiss, although I don't know if this is what is technically referred to as hiss.

In terms of setup, this is the same turntable that I have always used to play this same vinyl. Many years old, but still functioning. noticed the hiss on recordings and so played again without recording tryign to eliminate software impacts and still get this hiss.

 

I then cleaned the LP with diskwasher and the stylus with a little alcohol on a q-tip. Re-seated all the cable connections.

 

Am running through a small dedicated recotron RIAA equalized amp into the line-in port on a brand new Dell XPS 8100 with Soundblaster Xtreme audio (on the motherboard) with realtek ALC 877 chipset. Current setting is 44100.

 

I have exhausted my expertise, and wanted to start eliminating things.

 

So seems noise could be:

1. stylus/vinyl, record condition, etc?

2. cabling?

3. the standalone amp.

4. the sound setup in the PC.

 

Anyone have more experience at this than I?

 

Another point. I have an older PC (the one this new dell replaced). At the time the sound card didn't do analog-digital conversion. I bought a dedicated card that plugged into the line in of the soundcard that did the conversion. that worked well. I am tempted to see whether using that card would make a difference, but again, in case anyone has run into this and has a hunch, I'd rather make an educated guess than just start changing things.

 

Again, thank you.