Audio Technica ATLP120 - Review

Yesterday I went out pawn shop hunting. I cam across a pair of ATLP120's without headshells and cartridges for $150.00. I was excited to see what the hype around these turntable was about, so I quickly rushed to the shop and plugged them in.
http://i.imgur.com/TMckVhc.jpg
For scratching I was highly impressed. The platters can with stand a bit of resistance from the top and catch back up quickly. This remained true for juggles as well. Although, you do need to take more care in setting up your tonearm (unlike the plug and play feel of technics).
For mixing, these turntables honestly feel like belt drives. The platter is very sensitive when applying pressure to the side and spindle. While not as noticable with timecode, you can very much so hear the difference with vinyl. Luckily the pitch fader response makes up the difference.
After looking at the specs, I expected lag on th epitch fader (similar to stanton str8-100 and below). I was very happy to feel a pitch lag that was quick enough to make minor tempo bend adjustments with ease. This remained true on both 10% and 20% pitch settings. Quartz lock was also instant.
Overall, this is a great set of turntables for the lower price point. By lower price point, i mean buying them used for no more than $150 each. With Super OEM turntables starting at the $299 range, there is really no justification for paying $250 for an ATLP120.

The comparison between this deck and a 1200 is non-existant. The 1200 surpassed performance in every way.

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Originally Posted by the_bastet

Yesterday I went out pawn shop hunting. I cam across a pair of ATLP120's without headshells and cartridges for $150.00. I was excited to see what the hype around these turntable was about, so I quickly rushed to the shop and plugged them in.
http://i.imgur.com/TMckVhc.jpg
For scratching I was highly impressed. The platters can with stand a bit of resistance from the top and catch back up quickly. This remained true for juggles as well. Although, you do need to take more care in setting up your tonearm (unlike the plug and play feel of technics).
For mixing, these turntables honestly feel like belt drives. The platter is very sensitive when applying pressure to the side and spindle. While not as noticable with timecode, you can very much so hear the difference with vinyl. Luckily the pitch fader response makes up the difference.
After looking at the specs, I expected lag on th epitch fader (similar to stanton str8-100 and below). I was very happy to feel a pitch lag that was quick enough to make minor tempo bend adjustments with ease. This remained true on both 10% and 20% pitch settings. Quartz lock was also instant.
Overall, this is a great set of turntables for the lower price point. By lower price point, i mean buying them used for no more than $150 each. With Super OEM turntables starting at the $299 range, there is really no justification for paying $250 for an ATLP120.

The comparison between this deck and a 1200 is non-existant. The 1200 surpassed performance in every way.

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I disagree about the belt drive comment. They have plenty of direct torque, you just need light hands.

I find it very easy to beatmatch just using the pitch slider on these.

I bought 2 of them brand new 2 years ago, and havent had a single issue. I think they are also great for the price.

In my opinion the only real advantage the 1200 has is the much lower wow and flutter. On the 1200 is %0.01, on the 120 its %.2, which is a massive difference.

I also dont understand your 'plug and play' comment about technics. 1200s need the exact same setup of tonearm weight, VTA and headshell calibration that the 120 does. Its literally the same process on both decks.

Ive never had an issue just popping my needles on a set of 1200's and scratching like normal. With the 120's, I had to dial it in for any heavy scratching due to the platter wobble.

I agree they do have plenty of running torque, but there is a large noticeable difference between pitch bending (using the platter) on the ATLP120 compared to a 1200.