| | |  | Home & Garden | Home » » Audio Technica AT-PL120 Professional Direct Drive Turntable | | | | | | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 17.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 9.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 21.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 27.0 pounds | | Package Length:
| 21.3 inches | | Package Width:
| 17.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 8.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 26.6 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 246 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 5 Stars and then some...Oct 02, 2009
I must be one of the very lucky of the 200 or so people to purchase, and comment about this turntable here on Amazon and not have any issues with it. I have the AT-PL120 connected to the TV inputs of a Sony STR-DH700 and it outputs warm and wonderful analog like no other turntable I've owned, and I've owned a few in my 41 years of existence. I also own a Stanton T.90 USB turntable, and the AT-PL120 sounds much better and they both have the same cartridge installed, a Ortofon Concorde Gold @ 1.5g. Maybe the Audio-Technica quality control people have hit and miss days at the factory.
Now I do not claim to be some audiophile aficionado, rather I am a common vinyl record collector and lover (on a modest budget) since the age of 3 years old when my mom was nice enough to shower me with a record player and records. I've been hooked since then and never gave up collecting even during the rise and fall of cassettes, CD's, Mini Discs. SACD's, and DVD-Audio. Records just have that special something I can't stop loving.
Anyway if you are looking for a budget turntable that gets the job done of playing your LP's with fantastic results, do not hesitate to make this your next purchase. I am not sorry I did and, neither will you.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Excellent ProductSep 14, 2009
After reading many reviews on this turntable, I decided to purchase one while Beach Camera was the prime Amazon partner vendor. The first unit arrived with a broken tone arm latch, and I returned it and received credit. In the meantime, Beach Camera had raised the price by $25, and no other vendor was as inexpensive as my original price of $206 with free shipping. A call to Beach sales got me my replacement at the original price.
It might be of interest to note that Audio Technica USA has a very good parts department (I bought an extra PL120 headshell from them). When I called them to ask about the broken part with which my unit had arrived, they told me that it often breaks through use, that it's easily user replaceable, that they send out several from time to time and they would be glad to send me one free of charge to replace the broken one I got. But it was too late for me to rescind the RMA I asked for and got from Beach Camera.
Right out of the box, this turntable was a dream to set up and use. I experienced no problems with the minor bit of assembly necessary and took great care to balance the tone arm with the headshell and cartridge installed before setting the tracking force at 4 grams - about midway between the lightest and heaviest force AT recommends for the cartridge that comes with the unit. I never had a problem with the "zeroing" dial being too loose that some reviewers have experienced. I set the anti-skate control as AT recommends.
Final leveling the turntable came next (I did a preliminary leveling to assure I got the tonearm balance right), and I was very careful to repeat the process several times to assure I had it absolutely horizontal both front-to-back and side-to-side. I used a small "torpedo" level that fit on the platter, not some circular turntable level which doesn't seem to be as easy to read.
I was very careful to follow the sequence for connecting the audio outputs and AC power that AT recommends. My stereo receiver (Denon) has a phono input, so I didn't have to switch in the built-in pre-amp. I switched on the receiver and the turntable, turned the volume up to beyond listening level and got no hum (at least to my older ears) that others have heard.
Playing some old vinyl was a pleasure - especially with the cueing feature and damped tonearm descent. My LPs sounded as good as I remember - and I do agree with those people who prefer vinyl for its smoother music renditions, less tinny highs and deeper, more natural base notes.
My only complaint was that the user manual wasn't very clear about how to use the leveling pads. I assumed that the leg lengths were, indeed, adjustable. But that should have been made very clear in the instructions.
I also bought the cartridge for playing 78s but haven't installed it yet in the extra headshell I bought. I'm hoping there is some relatively easy way to make both the 33/45 RPM cartridge assembly and the 78 RPM cartridge assembly weigh the same so I don't have to recalibrate the tonearm counterbalance every time I switch from one to the other.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Great for the price!Sep 09, 2009
We have tons of old LPs and have gone through 2 or 3 "inexpensive" turntables (<$100) in the last few years - the belts don't seem to last through the change of seasons, and records are more frustrating than fun to listen to when they randomly speed up/slow down.
This turntable cost twice the price of the others, but was definitely worth it.
It took a few hours to set up, but we've had no problems with it so far (3 months) and have not noticed the hum that other reviewers warned about. (I almost didn't buy it because of the "hum" comments, but am glad I did).
It's great to be able to listen to those albums again .... there's just something about vinyl!
*If you're ordering this as a gift, you may want to ask the seller how the item is shipped. Ours arrived in the original box - clearly marked "Audio-Technica AT-PL120 Professional Direct-Drive Turntable". I knew gift wrapping wasn't available, but didn't expect the name of the item to be on the outside of the box.
So far, this has been reliable and easy to use, and was well worth what I paid for it.
Good turntable for all 3 speedsAug 16, 2009
Good turntable for the price. Only problem was that the alignment slot
for the headshell was about 8 degrees off from vertical. This causes the
cartridge to be 8 degrees off from horizontal. As there is no adjustment,
had to torque the headshell connector barrel to compensate.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Good alternative to other much more expensive turntablesAug 15, 2009
When I began shopping for turntables, I did about two weeks of research on the internet. I considered a Technics turntable, but based on reviews I saw this was a better alternative. The sound is wonderful, plus it adds a classy look when put on top of a stereo cabinet. My only thoughts on drawbacks are the audio cables and the stylus light. The audio cables are hardwired in, and are pretty short. If you wanted to have the turntable more then a few feet away from the preamp or receiver, the cables won't be long enough. It would have been nice to have RCA jacks to use your own cables. The stylus light is flimsy, and almost useless in my opinion. It doesn't really help one place the stylus in a dark room, so I've used a small pen light instead.
Overall a good turntable that won't set you back more then a couple of hundred bucks. Stay away from the ones that are about one hundred dollars, they may not have replaceable cartridges and their tone arms are not balanced like this turntable's.
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