Audio-Technica AT-PL120 Professional Direct-Drive Turntable

I have long wanted to replace my late departed three speed turntable in order to play my old 78s. I found this item on six different web sites and Amazon had the best price by far and the easy availablity of the monaural stylus and cartidge to fully use its capabilities. The unit is built like a rock. The controls are easy to use and relatively easy for a non "techie" like me to configure. It's a lot more sophisticated than any turntable I've ever owned and produces beautiful output. The only thing that would have made it easier to use would have been an extra head shell to mount the Shure monaural cartridge that Amazon paired with this item since the Audiotechnica uses its own stereo cartidge. I found such an item through an Amazon link, but it delayed my enjoyment of the turntable by another week waiting for the headshell to arrive. Minor gripe; basically delighted with quality, price and service.

Overall, I am very pleased with the turntable AFTER having figured out a few things regarding ripping vinyl to CD. This is NOT as simple as just plugging a cord into the back of your computer. First, one must acquire the Y-cord to plug into the input jack on the sound card from the RCA cords on the turntable, and for quality, it is advised also to acquire at least a 24 bit sound card. Secondly, one must also be familiar with sound controls for your computer, namely knowing how to un-mute the input adjustment, which is muted by default. This about drove me crazy! Thirdly, one must also acquire an audio editing program, hopefully, one with the capability of removing the crackle and pop from those old records, otherwise, this also will be part of your recordings. About the turntable, a great feature is the pre-amp, as this eliminates the need to go from turntable to amp to computer. For the money, this is a great buy, being a direct drive, and also having 3 speeds. Another thing, I bought the turntable with the idea of being able to rip from my old 78's, though nowhere in the literature does it state it is inadviseable to use the included cartidge and diamond stylus on your fragile 78's, and that you should buy an additional head shell, cartidge, and stylus specifically for use on 78's. If you are interested in using the turntable for ripping vinyl, expect to pay another 20-30 bucks for a quality Y-cord, and if you are interested in ripping from 78's, expect to pay another 30-50 bucks minimum for headshell, cartidge, and stylus. There is, however, a nifty little holder at the back of the turntable platform specifically for stashing that extra cartidge. Overall--worth the money. The positives outweigh the negatives, especially for the money involved. Oh, if your vinyl had skips before, it still will, so you may want to consider a linear tracking TT instead.

I have to agree with some other criticisms of this table. 1)The anti skate is problematic. I have a Grado cartridge tracking at 1.5g. I had to adjust it as far up as it would go (to 7) before it would kind of stay put on a blank piece of vinyl. 2) The hard wired cables are pretty cheesy. AT could do better. 3) My biggest complaint: there is definitely an audible low-mid hum (more audible the higher the volume is turned up). On my table this is worse when the tone arm is in the cradle. It lessens a bit as the arm is moved to the outside of the platter, almost goes away entirely about where the middle of a record would be, and comes back again as the arm moves toward the the inside. All that said, it is still pretty smooth sounding and is certainly a big upgrade from my antique JVC from about 1982. The built in preamp is nice for digitizing records and the price was right too. I will keep it and try not to get to uptight about its faults. This is a good choice for casual home use or the music lover on a budget. If, however, you are a true audiophile nerd and you have the bucks, bypass this one and just buy the Technics 1200mk2 of which this Audio Technica is really a cheap copy.

I am very satisfied with this unit. I think it is a great deal for the price. Operates forward and reverse. The pitch can be varied. To me the most important feature is the internal amplifier so that this unit can operate with any modern amp.

I did a lot of research before buying this for my fiance. Needless to say, we are still blown-away by the quality of the system and sound it produces. Highly recommended!