Audio-Technica LP120XUSBSV Manual Direct-Drive Turntable (Analogue & USB) Silver

Nice looking unit, sounds ok from box. Even better now that I put an Ortofon cartridge in, 1 thing though the switch for the line and pre-out works in opposite way round. Out of the box very easy to set up, the arm could prove difficult for some. But plenty of You Tube video to help. Highly recommend this Deck.

The first review I wrote on Amazon was for an Ion record player which I was rather disappointed with. After a belt issue, I decided to get a motor driven turntable, and I saw this Audio Technica was highly rated. Now owning it, and having used it for about a month I can safely say I made the right decision. I managed to grab this for about £215 and it was well worth the money in terms of quality. The playback is perfect and all my records that used to skip on old turntables now play flawlessly (one is very scratchy but I am certain that is due to a bad pressing). I've played records including: heavyweights, 12" singles, 10" and 7" singles, I've played at 33 and 45 and everything sounds great. It has the ability to play at 78 but apparently you need a different needle for that. It has lights on the platter so you know if the speed's correct and can easily adjust. I have not had a single issue so far after hours of use. After you balance the tone arm (easily done by watching a YouTube video from their official channel) operating the player as a newbie is easy. Raise the arm, line it up with the record, hit start and lower the needle. Whilst it is sometimes a hassle removing the arm at the end of playback, I knew that is what I was getting in for. It is rather large and heavy if that is something you are concerned about. The power lead is also much shorter than I was expecting. Luckily I still managed to make it fit in the spot I had allowed for my older, smaller player. I use the built in pre-amp so I can play the audio via aux out of a portable stereo speaker I bought and it handles that great. Worth noting the output is stereo so you may need a stereo to aux lead, there are no built-in speakers. I just wanted a quality turntable to stand up to the somewhat heavy use I give it and this fits the bill. In my experience, record players now are a novelty and if you buy cheap you do not get quality. This turntable is sturdy and dependable and I cannot recommend it enough for anyone in the same boat as me. As a final note, some people say to buy a rubber slip mat, maybe this is my green showing but I am using the included felt slip mat and it hasn't presented any problems, so don't feel obligated to buy any extras, this is a full package (aside from the previously mentioned aux adapterif you are planning on that). I am very pleased with this player and wish I got it sooner! 5/5

Amazing turntable. Sounds great and looks good, feels premium. Fully manual with counterweight which was a nice upgrade from the lp60x. Instructions to set up were difficult to follow as a person who prefers visuals but nothing YouTube couldn’t solve. 10/10 would recommend.

Fantastic quality. The sound is excellent. Easy to set up. Good value for money. Very pleased with it.

A very up-market stereo player at a price probably lower than some other well known makes and with subtle extras that make it very stylish and useful to have, such as a strobe, easy to use speed control and a small spot light at the start of play. There is an on/off switch for deck play so do not have to rely on the tone arm to start the player. which I find useful. Another good point that the Dual didn't have, is the head shell assembly is keyed and pushed onto the tone arm and held in place by a screw thread which means there are no exposed wires to worry about getting damaged There is one DOWNSIDE in that the tone-arm play control lever isn't in the best of positions. If you are conversant with this type of player, you will know that anti-skate and tracking needs setting up before use and to use an unwanted 33 LP in case of a mishap. I have found it is VERY IMPORTANT to keep the play lever locked in the RAISED position at all times when not playing. The retaining clip for the tone arm cleverly works ok to facilitate this. I had a similar Dual 505 deck many years ago, and was fairly confident I could set it up easily enough but unfortunately it didn't go to plan. There is what I consider one design fault as the raise/lower needle is at the back right next to the tone arm. which my other record decks had at the front of the deck, and easily accessible without nudging the tone arm. Was reaching for for the lowering lever and I touched the tone arm which leapt into action and skidded across the LP and damaged the stylus. They are extremely fragile and bend out of shape easily, SO BE WARNED. Other than that well perfect, with a good sound reproduction, so I do recommend purchasing a player that punches above it's weight for under £300

I’m a procrastinator so I procrastinated long and hard before purchasing this turntable; I’m glad I did (buy it, that is… I’m gutted I procrastinated for so long). BACKGROUND – I collected a bit of vinyl in the early 2000; mostly 45s because I’m a bit of a completionist and some releases on my favourite labels were only available as vinyl. In order to facilitate playing said vinyl I had to have a turntable and I was given a lovers gift by Our Gert – an ION Audio Profile LP Turntable with USB Conversion. It served me well on the odd occasion I got it out but didn’t get much use. More recently I started putting my meagre vinyl collection to good use, DJing 30 minute slots at local Vinyl Soul / Funk nights. I caught the bug and with my scant DJ earnings decided to start buying vinyl on a more ‘serious’ level. My nomadic USB turntable (which was previously used in random locations, connected to a laptop) was given a permanent home in my Mancave, hooked up to a desktop PC. I soon realised that the sound quality of the turntable was pretty poor – songs sounded much better streamed on YouTube than they did played on my turntable. This wasn’t right. My first priority was coming up with sufficient reason to appease Our Gert when I spent on a new Turntable rather than saving for new windows / repaving the driveway / a holiday to Cuba… with a reason firmly tucked away in my back pocket I researched and found the Audio Technica AT-LP120XUSB to be at the sweetspot of what I wanted to spend, maintaining USB recording functionality and adding the ability to play independent of the PC through dedicated speakers. I bought it. FIRST IMPRESSIONS - Amazon delivery was spot on and upon receipt my first thought was this is a serious piece of kit. It comes in a big box. A heavy box… not too heavy, except for the fact I had it delivered to work and had to lug it home on the train. The weight of the turntable is reassuring – my old turntable must have weighed less than a tenth of this badboy. All component parts are kept separate in the packaging, taped into little cubbyholes in the polystyrene so there is very little chance of any damage in transit. SETUP – The turntable comes with a ‘quickstart’ instruction sheet which is pretty much all you need to get it setup. Installing the platter was as simple as dropping it over the central spindle, then just pop the attractively understated Audio Technica slipmat on top. Cartridge installation was equally easy, there’s only really one way it can fit and whilst its relatively intuitive anyway the instructions make it pretty obvious how its done. The only bit of installation that was a little bit more difficult was the balancing of the tonearm… again the instructions certainly help but if you need the extra reassurance you can also look up a video of the installation online, which is what I did. Whilst I would probably recommend setting up at the turntables final resting place, if that is a relatively small cubbyhole in a mancave (as it was for me) you can just as easily set up elsewhere – just make sure you plug all the wires into the back first as the connections are recessed on the back of the player and therefore not the easiest to access (though equally, they’re very easy to locate provided you afford yourself the necessary room). USE – The sound is exceptional. I caveat this with the fact I’m coming from an incredibly budget system but it’s chalk and cheese compared to the older, cheaper system. I have experience of professional systems and of course it doesn’t match up to a deck ten times the price, attached to an amp and speakers that cost more than my house, but it does a great job in a mancave setting. The highs are high and the lows are low, I can certainly pick out the horns and the bass on records much more than I could previously and they sound far better played through my TV than their YouTube equivalent… completes with the satisfying cracks and pops you get from vinyl. The direct drive motor does a good job of maintaining the correct speed (which my old belt-driven turntable sometimes struggled with) and switching speeds is easy. The stop/start button functions well… it’s not instant stop / start but reverse the record a quarter turn and you’re good to go. There is other functionality (such as 78rpm, pitch shift) which I have yet to test, and most likely won’t ever… but it’s there if you need it and if judging by the quality of the core components / functionality I’ve no doubt these would be more than up to the job. The turntable comes with a built in amp so you can hook it up to passive speakers if you so wish… but in the interest of getting the most out of the turntable I also purchased a pair of Edifier R1280DB Active Remote Control Bookshelf Studio Speakers which pair up with and complement the turntable remarkably well… certainly takes the experience to a whole new level compared with hooking the turntable up to the PC and playing through the relatively tinny internal TV speakers. TL;DR SUMMARY – If you’re after a ‘premium’ ‘budget’ turntable (one person’s idea of premium is another’s idea of budget and vice-versa) you’ll not regret buying this… I’ve had it a matter of 20 hours but it does everything I want it to… at a good price point… it looks and feels quality, and most importantly gives me a warm fuzzy feeling in my loins. UPDATE: I was so impressed I bought a second one, now got two hooked up to a Numark mixer and I can now dial up the volume to 100 (when Our Gert isn't in) and lose myself in the music

Great value. straight forward set up. Appearance looks great next to no noise level would highly recommend this turntable great value for the money

This turntable is superb it is really well built and sounds very good It’s easy to use and looks really professional I am Really impressed with it