The version I have is Audacity 2.1.2 and the build date (found in About Audacity ➭ Build Information) is Jan 12, 2016, and it would appear the manual is written for a Windows version of Audacity, thus the reference to Preferences in the Edit menu. The version I have conforms to the Apple standard of placing Preferences in the Audacity menu directly below About Audacity. That leads to the question of what other differences there might be that are not correctly documented for Apple versions. This probably contributes to confusion about settings and where to find what. 😡

I found two different places to configure input and output devices.
  1. Audacity ➭ Preferences ➭ devices (⌘,)
  2. Drop down menus, four rows down from the top of the Audacity window
  • There is only one option for the Interface — Core Audio.
  • The terminology seems a bit confusing but the only items appearing under "Recording Device" are audio inputs and should be your turntable
  • On the drop down menu the next item is stereo or monoaural
  • Finally the output device (I believe this should match the output device selected in System Preferences âž­ Sound âž­ Sound)

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein