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.
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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