Home > Consumer Reviews > Audio-Technica AT-PL120 Professional Direct-Drive Turntable

I stopped listening to LPs as most folks did when CD players hit the mass market. Convenience was the name of the game, particularly the ease of listening to music on the road. But what a tremendous difference in sound vinyl really provides! I chose the AT-PL120 after several hours of research on the web over a couple of days. I first considered spending the least amount of money and considered the entry-level model AT-PL50. I talked to an audiophile shop and while the shop thought it was a good entry-level model, they advised me to consider the next step up because it was well worth the investment in terms of sound quality and equipment durability. Upon close inspection at a local electronic store, the AT-PL50 looked really cheap. I decided to spend more money and get decent quality. I considered the AT-APL120 and the Music Hall MMF2.1, which has pretty decent reviews. The difference came down to saving $50 or so and decided to try the Audio Tecnica. I must admit, the sound is impressive and the built quality of the turntable is really good. Besides the DJ features, which I really do not care about, it has several bells and whistles that makes it very professional looking. I am using a pair of B&W bookshelf and a Yamaha RX-777, perhaps one of the few available stereos for music listening you can still get. The combination works well, but no doubt the vinyl sounds much better than a well-recorded CD. The AT-PL120 makes the sound really come alive! If you still have your old records and invested in taking good care of them, spend a few bucks and get this turntable. If I ever decide to burn a few LPs to play them in my car, it also has the built in amp. All in all, after two days of playing LPs on this turntable, I am very satisfied. The AT-PL120 comes pretty well boxed too. Too bad that Amazon packed it in a big but soft box, which was open on one side when UPS delivered. If it wasn't for the Audio Tecnica box, I would have refused the shipment. Luckily it all works like it is supposed to.

I recently purchased the AT-PL120 as a replacement for a very worn Pioneer PL400. Based upon my experience with direct drive turntables, which was very positive, I wanted a direct-drive, and there are few in the AT-PL120's price range. The Audio-Technica machine is not the lowest-priced turntable around, and far from the most expensive I considered, but my recent "test drive" shows it to be as good as advertised if not better. The machine was easy to set-up, it tracks very well, and it does not present any rumble, even running it through my Carver receiver (which tends to show up any problems that a turntable/cartridge might have.) I used two different test records with it, and it performed very well with the tests on both.

I now have approximately 40 hours on the new machine with no problems. Many of the functions on the TT will not use by most for home listening -- like reverse, unless you want to check old Beatles LP's to search for "Paul is dead"! -- but having 78 rpm available is a significant benefit to me as I am transcribing some old 78's to CD. I also tried the machine on a slightly warped LP which the Pioneer could not handle, and the AT-PL120 did handle it after I made a slight pitch adjustment.

The product was delivered quicker than the delivery schedule promised. As was the case with another reviewer, the outside box that the unit came in showed up after delivery by UPS a little worse for wear. It was poorly taped and was coming open. However the product box was well protected, very strong and well sealed.

UPDATE: My original review (above) was done almost two years ago. As of May 2007, I've now spent many hours playing hundreds of LPs on this turntable. It continues to perform well and with no problems. It has maintained all of its settings with little adjustment. I continue to be impressed with the PL120 given its reasonable cost.

I have a decent album collection spanning many genres over many years. After much research online and in audio stores, I purchased a AT PL-120, for burning to MP3 and also just plain listening. I liked the idea of having an internal preamp and also thought that it would be nice for playing 78s. It also came with an excellent cartridge the ATP-2XN.

One of the first things that I noticed is that there was no ground wire. I hooked it up and there was a faint hum. This hum was present regardless of where I placed the turntable, wheather or not the preamp was on, or how I connected it to my receiver. I even tried it with 3 different receivers, 2 vintage and a newer one. I called Audio Technica and spoke to someone in customer support (in the USA) that seemed to be very familiar with the item. He took the time to listen to my description of the situation and told me that he had never heard of that problem. While I felt he was sincere and friendly, this did not solve the problem. I figured that maybe I had a bad unit so I returned it to Amazon, ordered a new one and you guessed it, the same damn faint hum. Another problem that I had was that I felt the cue was cheaply designed. I could live with that, but not the hum. Back to Amazon it went.

I wound up spending a few dollars more and purchasing the turntable that I should have started off with to begin with - the Technics SL1200 MK2. It does not have the internal preamp or 78 RPM function, but man it is a workhorse and it does just what I need it to do.

I liked so much about the AT PL-120 and wanted to love it, but I couldn't deal with what I consider to be a major flaw - the hum.

I gave it only 4 stars because of certain problems with the ATP-2 cartridge and a poor manual. I purchased the AT-PL120 because I needed a way to transfer LPs to CD with high fidelity, and it has a built-in pre-amp so I can connect directly to my computer sound card. It was also a bargain price and loaded with features including some I won't use because I am not a DJ. For instance, it has the ability to adjust the speed +- 20% using a slider. It can also play records backwards - in case you want to see if the Beatles really said "Paul is dead." The turntable has vibration damping legs, but for DJ use, please note that any finger taps to the turntable body WILL transmit a boom to the speakers.

It arrived promptly from Amazon in perfect condition. Setup was easy and straight forward, although the manual is not detailed and does not clearly describe all features and adjustments. The speed is dead on. After purchasing an RCA adapter cable I plugged it into my computer and cued up a record. SURPRISE - the music immediately began playing from the computer speakers. AND the sound quality was very good indeed using the included ATP-2 cartridge (but see below). As recommended by others here, I installed the free sound recording software, Audacity, and within a few minutes I had recorded the first track off the record (being careful the audio volume did not exceed the capacity of Audacity and cause clipping). It was just as easy as that, and the audio quality exceeded my expectations - even my hopes!

The AT-PL120 comes with an ATP-2 cartridge included free. Surprisingly, it turns out to have excellent sound. I compared it to an Ortofon M15 E Super and the Sure M97XE by first recording a WAV file from each cartridge using a track off Paul Simon's "There Goes Rhymin Simon." I used this album because of its clean sound and because I also have the commercial CD. Listening blind (on my medium quality computer speakers, headphones or Klipsch speakers), I can't reliably tell which track is which. The sound is also seemingly identical to that directly from the record, although the commercial CD does have a distinctly different sound. I also compared Copland's Piano Fantasy as played by William Masselos (on Odyssey) with similar results.

UNFORTUNATELY, the ATP-2 cartridge has 2 major problems: 1) It requires a tracking force of 3-5 grams (rather heavy); and 2) MUCH WORSE is that it tracks VERY poorly at the recommended 3.5 grams (with the recommended 3.5 on the anti-skate dial). The first time I tried it (and using the cuing lever), the needle did not set down exactly in a groove. Much to my distress, it then proceeded to skitter across the record surface like an angry monkey (luckily no damage to the LP). It did not even stop at the last groove, proceeding onto the record label!!!! However, by experimentation, I found that this problem was correctable by merely setting the anti-skate dial to 6-7 rather than 3.5. I detect no audible sound defects at this much higher than recommended anti-skate setting (the sound comparisons were done at the higher anti-skate level).

The Sure M97XE cartridge (cheap from Amazon), when mounted on a Stanton head shell (cheap from Amazon) works well with the AT-PL120. It tracks beautifully when set to the recommended 1.75 grams tracking force (with the stabilizer brush down) and the anti-skate dial set to 2. It can also be set to 1.25 grams with the stabilizer brush up, but I detected no improvement in sound quality. REMEMBER that the Sure cartridge is not rated to play backwards, so use the ATP-2 cartridge if you need to do that. Changing head shells is easy and only means unplugging the old head shell from the tone arm, plugging in the new and then resetting the tracking and anti-skate forces.

NOTE 1: The weight dial on the AT-PL120 tone-arm for setting the tracking force is accurate at 2 grams, but when set at 3.0 grams, it is actually producing 3.5 grams (as checked with the Sure SFG-2 Stylus Force Gauge).

NOTE 2: There is definitely something more romantic and magical in listening to an LP, and watching the record go round than plopping on a CD. And the quality is better than I remembered so I am not sure I will actually transfer the music to CDs after all!

I had to leave my Thorens turntable (with a Audio Technica cartridge) behind in Europe just too cumbersome to bring it along. About a year ago I got a bunch of records from a friend that I wanted to add to my music collection on my PC and Zen. I decided on the Audio Technica since it had the pre-amp on board and a decent cartridge, for the rest I was not interested in automatic features (nor DJ features) since I planned to play each record only ones.

Well the unit exceeded my expectations. In the $100 range there are such hopelessly bad units for sale that I expected the Audio Technica to be a step better but in reality out is a lot of steps better. Everything feels solid (not just in weight every manufacturer can plant a stone for almost free in a unit) but the switches, sliders, pilot light and arm are all well constructed. I found the sound quality of the cartridge to be better than the one I was used to (I do not recall what type of AT cartridge the Thorens came with) and there was no noticeable hum coming from the unit, definitely better than the belt driven Thorens I owned. I can easily compare recordings made in Europe with ones made here.

Never expected to use the reverse function but it came in handy with a damaged record that skipped consistently on one track. Recording the track in reverse solved the skipping problem. On my PC the Audacity software reversed the track again and it sound good to me.

Just out of warranty the unit started to sputter out of the blue, one channel sounded like having a bad contact, I e-mailed the service department and they agreed with me that the unit should work for many years without any problems like this. They repaired the unit without charging me anything. The problem was a faulty cartridge, it was replace with a new one: problem solved. This company stands behind it product!

Love the unit, riskless buy.