Audacity - USB - Win 11 - hifi

[douglasb]

I'm looking at recording from vinyl to a Win 11 laptop using Audacity. I have a phono - USB cable . When I plug the USB end into the laptop and look in Settings I can see that it is recognised by Windows and when I look in Audacity I can see that it appears as an input device. However when I select it as the input and try to record whatever is going through the amplifier nothing happens: no waveform in the recording area and nothing on the input meters.

I've checked that the driver for the lead is up to date. Input from the laptop's built-in mic to Audacity works. I assume that the lead has something like a DAC chip that is powered by the USB connector and this is what is being recognised by Windows. Am I missing anything obvious and I need "something else" between the hifi amp and the laptop or should this work as is?

Any ideas would be very welcome.

[Billy Eyelash]

I have used one of these for the same purpose.
It does the job as well as I need.

[OutInTheShed]

That 'cable appears to be a DAC. You want an ADC.

When audacity recognises it as an 'input device' I think it just means it will take a bit stream sent to the the USB port as an input?

OR it's possible that the chip within the 'cable' has both ADC and DAC capability, and Audacity is seeing this, but it's the DAC part that's wired to the RCA plugs?

[douglasb]

Thanks both. I agree that the cable looks like it isn't bidirectional and is only for output from the PC to the amp. I also found the Behringer thing and thought that it looked like the missing link. Now to get it ordered and disappear down the rabbit hole of converting vinyl...