Assuming I do not own the hardware required, what/where is the best way to convert some old vinyl LPs to mp3?

You need access to a USB turntable. There’s probably a recording studio or other sound shop in your area that has one. If you’re not going to buy one, then you need to poke around and find access to one.

There are plenty or conversion products out there. I have converted hundreds of vinyl to digital and the audiophile I am still buy vinyl.

An inexpensive way is to borrow a turntable and get something like this. There is plenty of free software to digitize the input signal once you have it connected to your PC. Use the highest level quality bit rate that your disk space can afford. You can always take the bit rate down once you digitize it if you want it to fit something lower.

I personally bought a turntable that has USB output. Here is a good site, but you can get them at even Best Buy and similar.

I still prefer listening to the vinyl, but I can’t take it with me.

For the amount of money it would cost for a good turntable, a good ADC and time spent, you’d be better off buying digital versions. You’d also have much better versions that were meant for mp3 compression.

The turntable you might borrow from a DJ friend might not have a digitizer built in, which is really what you need to get the music into mp3 form. Also look out that just plugging the turntable input into an input jack on a computer won’t work well because vinyl records need to have a specific equalization applied to take out an equilization that they are pressed with.

The USB turntables can be had for less than 100$ so unless you have less than ten albums to upload then buying one of those could be cost effective.

You will have to pay some attention to cleaning the records and will get pops and scratches digitized along with music. You might want one of these if you don’t have one left over from the pre-CD era.

Go to the local recording studio ( we have three in my city ) have them digital record it on a CD or mp3 format for you.

@Silence04: I have a collection of rare vinyls of French fold songs that I bought in the late 1950’s. They are not available commercially in any other form.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you can find a used USB turntable, because a lot of people are in the same situation: they have a pile of old records they want to digitize.
They will do that just once in all likelihood, and when they’re done the turntable is collecting dust along with the records.

You don’t need any special USB turntable for this, the ideal thing if you have DJ friends is to connect the Booth output from their DJ mixer to your audio in or mic in line on your PC. Then use audacity to record the Vinyl. With audacity you can then chop up the recording into it’s individual tracks.

Audacity is very nice free software that eliminates the need for hardware equalizers, compressors, etc. If the only audio input jack is ”mic,” however (like on my laptop), then you’ll need an adapter to record true stereo. Follow the link in @blueiiznh‘s posting, or take a look at the similarly-priced iMic. You’ll need a turntable with an audio output cable, and possibly an RCA-jack to 3.5 mm plug adapter like this.

With such a setup, the audio quality of the MP3s you create is limited mainly by the quality of the turntable and its cartridge, so borrow a good one!

@gailcalled then obviously you would should spend the money on a good turntable, a good ADC and spend time converting them right! LOL

Regardless, people that are suggesting the OP uses a USB turntable or a line-in jack on a computer will definitely net terrible results in comparison to the source and mp3s you’d typically buy.

@Silence04 the OP was about minimizing cost as a component of the question.
There are many rare and unavailable recordings that one simply can’t get digitized commercially available copies of. I own hundreds in my vinyl collection. Much of it is not available. Even if it was, it would cost thousands to buy if it were available.
I am quite happy with the output when played in the car or on mobile player. Much of the quality of listening pleasure has to do with the devices you play it from anyway.