Audio-Technica AT-LP60 Fully Automatic Belt-Drive Stereo Turntable, Silver

I had a standalone built in speaker record player to see if i would like playing records. i decided to upgrade to a nicer one that I could plug into a stereo receiver. After looking at amazon reviews and different website reviews I chose this one. Mainly because I wanted the most bang for my buck. I didn't want to spend $300 or more. This one was priced at $100. Anything below this seemed to be not worth it. This one has the built in pre amp which I wanted. Packaging was lacking but nothing was damaged. I set it up. not to difficult. Only trick is attaching belt to spindle. There are a few knobs that look similar I first attach to the wrong one and it didn't work. I took apart and found the one that spins and attached it to that one. Then it worked fine. I don't care for the av cable which is permanently attached. Not a huge deal though.Sound is good. Much better than what we had. Works smoothly. Start button is helpful. Dust cover goes up and down easily and stays in place when in up position. Overall I like this record player. There are probably better ones at higher prices. For me this one works. I get good sound and the fun of playing records. So far no problems

I personally, bought this product because I was interested in the vinyl hype. I watched alot of videos on YouTube talking about how vinyl records were making a comeback, so I thought to myself, "Maybe I could get into something like this." It ended up becoming an obsession, and I found myself ordering a turntable. (There are plenty of un-boxing videos, and turntable set-up videos, and even video's of people playing records, so I would watching some of these before I just jump to conclusions and buy the first record player that catches my eye. (9 times out of 10, this is going to be a regretful purchase.)Despite coming 'used', it was perfectly packaged, and had no nicks or scratches on anything besides the box that it cam in. It needed a little assembly such as: inserting the platter and placing the slip mat on top, and attaching the belt to the motor. (Hint: When attaching the belt, make sure you place it around the gold colored nob. It's going to be located in the upper left hand side up under the platter.) After connecting fool proof wires, all I had to do was get a record, and press the 'Play' button on the front of the turntable. (Of course I had to put the record on the platter, duh!) It's really that easy. It took some time to learn how to actually lift the needle and move it to a certain song, but trust me, it takes practice. You might end up at the wrong point and producing a horrible sound but it's a leaning curve.Since I've had this for a while, I plan on buying a pre-amp and some better sounding speakers (better than the Logitech speakers I have now, which are perfectly fine and work well.) After getting some play time into it, you'll want to do the same.I really suggest this to a beginner because its a great turntable to be so inexpensive. It does it's job perfectly, and your going to be glad you bought it.Good review video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E93bjpuHVK0Hints:1. The plastic cover that comes with the turntable doesn't make a difference in the way your records will sound, so don't be obsessed with making sure the cover is down before playing a record. It's not going to matter.2. When attaching the belt, make sure it's flat all around the platter and make sure there aren't any turns or bumps or rips. This can cause accelerated wear and tear on the belt.3. The belt is like any rubber band, the more you use it, the more and more its going to want to pop. It's going to be a normality of buying new belts if your always playing records day and night, over and over again so try and give it some time to rest. (I would buy a new belt ahead of time for proactive reasons, just in case something happens.)4. If you buy crap speakers, your going to get crap sound. So, if you know this is going to get more and more important to you the more you play records, invest in some decent speakers. They don't have to be $300, just make sure they're decent. (Personally, I would invest in some speakers with a sub-woofer. Even Walmart has speakers w/ sub-woofers.) Believe me, it's an investment you'll be glad you made.5. Albums, vinyl, records (what ever you want to call it) are kinda of costly, and they are bought really fast, especially new records (made recently) because there aren't many places that manufacture albums, so when you know you want an album, I would hop on it, and make sure I can get a copy before they're all gone. Older records, surprisingly more available online, and in thrift stores. with most old albums, you can get a used copy for maybe 5-10 dollars, $10 being the most they might sell for.6. Finally, places like thrift shops, and Value Village, and consignment stores always have a record collection so I set aside time to see if they have anything I would want. There your best bet. I got my first 3 albums from a Value Village and a beach side thrift shop.Good Luck!!!

Let me start by saying I'm not a turntable expert by any means. I am however a music lover and collect 70-80s records as a hobby. I have owned cassette tape, CD and MP3 versions of several songs and have found the Vinyl copies to sound the best to me. As with many others, Vinyl's warm sound is what draws me to it. Vinyl does have its short comings however. The most obvious being pre-stamping RIAA equalization. Back in the 1950s the Recording industry got together and agreed upon a standard way of recording music to records. This involves removing the low end (bass) and some of the high end (treble). This is why, in my opinion, a raw Vinyl recording will never sound as good as a raw digital copy. To compensate for this, good Pre-Amps restore the bass and treble with what I describe as a "Reverse RIAA equalization". For those confused by the term pre-amp, a record player has three main parts. 1.) The table itself that spins the record. 2.) The stylus (needle) that picks up the sound. 3.) The pre-amp that amplifies the micro-volt output of the stylus to around 1 volt for line output. Most also reverse RIAA equalization. Old school record players did not include a pre-amp. Either a separate pre-amp had to be purchased, or a receiver would include one behind its phono input. For those who are just planning to connect their LP-60 to the line-in inputs on a receiver or speaker system, you'll need to either use the AT-LP60's built-in pre-amp or a separate, external one. The pre-amp is where the AT-LP60BK falls flat on its face. Although the built-in pre-amp in this turntable claims to be RIAA approved, it is far from it. The sound coming from this turntable using the built-in pre-amp still suffers from a lack of bass and high end treble. Some describe this as "missing hat", a reference to the fact that high frequency sounds like cymbals and high hat are missing from the sound. It also has a lot of noticeable noise in the form of humming and extra pops. Luckily, Audio Technica realized that the cheap pre-amp installed in the AT-LP60 may not suite everyone's needs and included a switch on the back to turn it off and pass the un-amplified phono signal to your own pre-amp. You really can't blame Audio Technica for using a low end pre-amp in a unit priced around $100. You can spend way more for higher end tables that include better pre-amps. So what's the solution? Buy a better pre-amp and use the phono output on the AT-LP60, or connect to a receiver with a nice built-in pre-amp using its phono input. The sound on my Sony receiver using the phono input instead of the line-in input is drastically better. However, I like recording lossless FLAC copies of my records to listen to in the car and on the train. So I did what another reviewer suggested and purchased a better pre-amp to put in between my AT-LP60 and my computer. After doing some research, I went with the ART Pro Audio DJPRE II pre-amp for $34 on Amazon. The recordings from before and after are night and day. The DJPRE II does an excellent job of restoring the music to pre-RIAA equalization. I barely have to touch the recordings now in Audacity. I usually just normalize the recording and sometimes add a little more treble. The humming noise and extra pops are also gone. On its own, this is a well built turntable and will meet the vast majority of people's needs. However, if you are like me and feel like the sound coming out of the unit is a little flat, I'd strongly encourage replacing the pre-amp. Also, I saw a lot of buzz in other reviews about the quality of the stylus. I can say that with a better pre-amp, there is a negligible difference in sound quality between this unit and record players three times its price. No, you cannot replace the cartridge / stylus with a better one. Yes, you can replace the stylus with the same proprietary one if it does break. However, I suspect the replacement will cost you almost as much as the entire unit. Only buy the USB version if you are planning to digitize music and somehow don't have a sound card on your computer with a line-in. The USB version has a similar pre-amp and will suffer from the same quality issues. You'd be better off buying an external pre-amp with the $30. A final note: As with many things in life, there seems to be a rapidly diminishing return on investment when it comes to record players. Most people can distinguish a marked increase in sound quality when upgrading from a $100 unit to a $300 unit. However, the minor differences between a $300 unit and a $1,000 unit is only worth it for Audiophiles with money to burn.