Audio Technica ATLP120USB USB Turntable

So, what do you do when you want to get current with a new turntable
and you find the field swollen with overpriced gear and on the other
side, cheap Junk??
You shoot for a Technics SL1200....at least that's what I thought..
Sorry, but at $7+ bills-for a guy who never
spent over $170 for a turntable back in the day they were King, not going
for that. So what we have here with the Audio Technica AT LP120 USB
to be realistic, is a chinese knockoff of theFamous Technics Table.
So I bought one!
The bad first: On my unit, the finish on the top
of the turntable at three spots shows signs of the 'finish paint' not being
properly sprayed. In another words, it looks like someone took a pencil
eraser and went back and forth a few hundred times over the top finish
and wore out the finish coating. Ok,not good but something I could live
with cause it's not that bad, but, it doesnt make it look splendidly new either!
Do I want to take the time to send it back, no. I'm 51 and I still love my wife.....so
who cares????
Now the good: Ok, after reading many many Amazon customer reviews and others
on the Internet, and knowing a little bit about this thing I unpacked it, which, speaking
of packaging was good and bad. Everything was packaged very well but the styrofoam
they use broke in like 6 places, but the good news is that the turntable itself was not
damaged, nor were the parts like the counterweight and such.
Put it together and I will say, definitely, it IS a very good looking turntable!! Different in
composition than the Technics: whereas the platter on the Technics is a Part of the motor,
the AT is not. The motor is mounted well to the top plate of the TT and the Platter itself
is kinda not heavy, but is much beefier than 90% of the USB turntables out there, and at
a $200 priceline, is MUCH more than expected!! And it is brushed Aluminum and therefore
looks like the real deal, just a few oz lighter than my older Pioneer PL550's MASSIVELY
heavy platter. But that was 1976 and this is 2010, times have indeed changed.....
Now, many others have talked about the stock cartridge in the AT120. For DJ'ing
it's ok. But for TLC of vinyl for Audiophile purposes it's out of the question. I got the
Shure 97 on j&r for $59 and two 78rpm stylus's on Amazon for $22 each.(!) The stylus
is interchangable, so if you want to play 78's, just get the stylus for it and plug it into
the 97's body, re-adjust the stylus pressure and go for it!! At least that's what i've read
on the internet so we'll see if it actually happens. Worst case I'll have to pop for the 78
cartridge and have two spares, not bad actually either way.
I then ran the turntable for 13 hours at the 78 speed forward and backward to see if
the motor would fail, it Didn't. Turned it off, went to work, came home, turned it back
on, 33/45/78 all nailed-no drift, no slowdown or speed up. So Ok, the Motor seems
heavy duty, should hold up to years of use.
The tone arm is very well made and calibrated. Going down to 1 gram of stylus weight
just to see, the balance and bearings were very fluid, which tells me that if they didn't
know what they were doing, the tone arm would choke under a slight weight balancing
test-it didn't. The arm slowly went up and down with my changing oh so slightly of the
counterweight with no points of friction. Good Bearings and initial calibration at the
factory!!!
Tone arm lift is gentle going down and very firm going up, with how fast your finger
is telling it to go.
Platter is as stated solid. When going to 78 the mis alignment in the dots does rear
it's ugly head, but then again, at 33 or 45 you hardly notice it, no big deal.....
ONCE AGAIN, THIS IS A STREET PRICED $200 UNIT COMPARING IT TO A $700+ UNIT!!!!!
Very favorable imho. To get this kind of quality at a $200 realistic price point, is
very impressive. And the Technics does NOT play at a 78rpm speed. For me, this was
a major issue. I did not want two turntables to deal with!!! (Oh yeah, I'll impress people
with my $29 bsr poc next to my Mirage Speakers!!) NOT!!
And I must admit, AT did their homework. Again, not in the same OVERKILL QUALITY
league as the Technics 1200, but in all honesty, almost Overkill at a $200 price point.
Lastly, I opened the sucker to see if any screws were loose, which has been a factor
with EVERY piece of Electronics I've bought in the last 5 years that was made in china.
A B+ grade on this. Some screws needed very little tightening and the motor screws
were dead on snug! The construction inside was around 7 years behind the times
but clean. Compared to modern day factory construction of electronic gear, it wouldn't
win any prizes, but then looking at the guts of the Pioneer 550, judging it in this present
day, it wouldn't either. So there you go. For me, it fits the Bill perfectly, it's like the girl
you really think is hot except for her slightly crooked nose, you sort of accept it, but
you wish it was perfect, but you know it's not going to be. This Turntable is exactly
that. You'll probably fall for it and wish it was a Technics, but day after day, you'll
look at it and say, 'Damn, what a cool looking Turntable', and when you install that
Shure 97 and put on your old Mobile Fidelity copy of Steely Dan's AJA, you'll smile
all the way to the bank. Hell, you might even buy an extra one if Amazon ever
decides to make it a 'Deal of the Day' for a cool $100!!!! I would!!!!
I could go on for ever, but then I would bore myself to death........
Enjoy this Turntable and the Music.
MasterG

July 2010 Update:
The AT continues to rock my world. On 78's with the Shure 78 stylus, it operates flawlessly. And there have been No incidences of tonearm meandering or anything like that. This is a very good turntable and at $200 it's an absolute steal!!

December 2010 Update:
This thing is STILL Rocking! In the last two months I've purchased four Jimi Hendrix Vinyl Box sets, (West Coast Seattle Boy being one for $64!! on Amazon!!!!) and SunDazed Records 10Lp MONO Vinyl Bob Dylan set for $149!!!! (And yes, you get TWO more lp's than the Columbia box for alot less, the remastering is exquisite!!!) and more Hendrix vinyl from other retailers to pass on to my kids when I croak. And except for finding a good turntable mat, (this one comes with a felt mat, which is fine, but i'm a real nit picky type of schmuck so I search and I search for the holy grail without ever finding it...go figure.) it still is not giving me ANY problems. So, overall, after a year or so, It's still soooooooo worth the money I paid for it.
I wish you ALL a VERY MERRY Christmas!!!
Gerry

January 2011 update:
Have gotten alot of questions about hookup, obviously there are alot of people not familiar with the old fashioned record player so here it is as simple as I can put it,
This Record Player/Turntable is a Stereo 'Component', which means that you HAVE to connect it to some kind of Amplifier or Stereo/Home /Theater Receiver in order to hear your records being played. It's NOT like an iPod, which has an internal amplifier and you pop your headbuds on and your in business.
So, you can't just pop a record on this and really hear anything, you have to connect it to some kind of amplifier in order for it to work properly.
Now go and hunt down those cool records you've been dying to here!!
Gerard

Overall I'm fairly satisfied with this turntable. It has a nice strong motor, a decent solid metal platter, and an okay factory cartridge. I say Okay because AT makes much better cartridges (like the AT95 series, that are still fairly inexpensive) than the one that comes on this thing and for this kind of spend, it wouldn't have killed them to throw one in. Plus the included cartridge tracks at "3-5" grams. That's a viciously high tracking force. I have an AT95HE that I mangled the needle on...once I replace the needle, I plan to swap it in. Hey, at least it really includes a magnetic cartridge and not the typical crap ceramic cartridge that the vast majority of these USB turntables come with, and at least it's a standard mount so you can swap it for something better, which you also can't do on most of those crappy tables. This is one of the few USB turntables out there that actually let you adjust tracking force and antiskate at all.

One other nice feature is that the table plays 78's, though you'd probably want to get a needle that was better optimized for them.

The turntable is easy to set up and operate. Some assembly and tonearm calibration is required, but the instructions are crystal clear. The controls are easy to use. It sounds really good through my amp and that's how I mostly use it. One major complaint, however, is that the audio cable is both too short and not removable/replaceable. I was able to kluge it longer by stringing together all the included adapters and use another RCA cable I had lying around, but that's not very satisfying as a long term solution.

I've had some issues with the USB recording as well. For reasons that no one can seem to explain the thing sends a very low amplitude recording out the back end of the A/D. I've got the input level cranked all the way up in Audacity and it still comes out very quiet. There don't seem to be any means of adjusting the amplitude. This limits the ability to make a high quality recording on a computer. The alternative, running the audio signal through the audio input on a sound card works great, if you use the line out level option on the table, but for someone looking to do it through USB this seems to be a problem.

What i noticed right away when i am setting up was that the AC cord keeps on detaching from the AC input located at the back of the turntable. I sent an email through the Audio Technica website regarding stylus cartridges. Here's what they said:

"Do not use a moving coil cartridge on the LP120. The noise floor of the turntable is too high for an MC, which requires quite a bit of gain. The noise will be amplified right along with the audio signal and you will not like the results. The turntable accepts standard half-inch mount cartridges of any brand. I recommend The AT120E/T if you are looking for a lighter tracking A-T model. It is a better high frequency tracer (due to the nude 0.3 x 0.7 mil elliptical stylus) than the supplied ATP-2 Cartridge and it tracks at a considerably lighter tracking force"

Overall the product is excellent.