Why I buy this one ?
- Selectable internal stereo phono preamplifier--choose from phono or line-level output
- Direct-drive, high-torque motor; includes professional cartridge and headshell
- Selectable 33-1/3, 45, and 78 rpm speeds; +/-10 percent or +/-20 percent pitch adjust; high-accuracy quartz-controlled pitch lock
- S-shaped tone arm assembly with adjustable counterweight, antiskate adjustment, tone-arm height adjustment and lock
- Measures 17.8 x 6 x 13.9 inches (W x H x D)

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What our customer's say!

"Outstanding Bargain", Like the other reviewers, I had forsaken my vinyl collection for CD's. After looking at all my LP's stored in the basement, I thought I'd like to enjoy the analog sound again. After a lot of research, I chose the Audio-Technica AT-PL120 based upon the reviews, the pricing, and the feature set. I was not disappointed at all.

My last turntable was an AR belt drive with a very good Pickering cartridge and stylus. While I am not an audiophile by any means, I do appreciate the differences between the better quality equipment versus the run-of-the mill junk sold in outlet or discount stores.

That being said, for the little money spent on this table, I really could not be happier. Nice, fairly heavy aluminum platter, target light, direct drive, heavy (22 pound) base, decent quality cartridge/stylus combo, remote start/stop (if desired) on-board phono amp (I use my amplifier's phono amp), adjustable feet, nice quality (for the money) tone arm, etc.

Do not hesitate to buy this. Spend the extra and get this instead of one of those cheaper ($ 100) USB turntables. You'll be glad you did every time you put on one of your old LP's. If you can afford it, the Technics 1200 at twice the price is really nice, but is aimed more at DJ type use.

This turntable has all of the features at half the price of the Technics. There are differences, but the casual user will be very satisfied with the Audio-Technica PL120. The only thing you may want to upgrade later would be the cartridge, but to my ears, the standard cartridge supplied with this table is more than adequate. Overall, two thumbs up!

"Another positive review", I'm very delighted with this purchase. It's almost disorienting to see something made so well these days. Nothing about this unit seems cheaply made. I assembled it in a flash and wow, what a thrill to hear some of my old LP's again!

As others note, this product is aimed at two quite-differnt markets: home users like myself and DJ's on a budget. This strategy is clear from the features. For example, the unit has a high-quality hinged dust cover but also a forward-reverse button.

There are surprisingly few tradeoffs for either type of user. As other reviews have mentioned, the cartridge has a fairly heavy tracking force for the stereophile. But as earlier reviews note, there are alternatives readily available on the market.

Oh, one useful thing missing that I was accustomed to with my old Dual turntable - a bubble level for leveling the machine. The turntable's feet can be leveled, but unless I overlooked it, you'll need your own bubble level.

Otherwise, this is just a fine, fine machine. I bought it partly to convert my records to electronic format. But heck, now that I've heard the results, I intend to play my records over and over and over. I strongly recommend this turntable.

"Very pleased!", I got rid of my old Dual turntable and most of my albums many years ago, but recently found a 30 of my old albums and some 78s my folks had.
I got this turntable because of it's preamp and 78 speed.
It's just great. Easy to set up and adjust.
I was blown away at how good the records sound.
I hadn't played one in years. No hum and a nice full sound you don't get from CDs. Even the old scratched 78s sound pretty good!

The next step is to rip the old 78s to CD for my folks. I haven't tried it yet.

I'm very pleased so far. I had read some negative stuff here, none, of which seems to be true of the one I have. No hum, easy to adjust. I just set everything at 2.5 grams. I left the cover on the stylus until I achieved balance, despite what the instructions said to do. Too much chance to damage the stylus until you get the arm balanced. Just take your time on tone arm balance step, set the weight carefully per the instructions to 2.5g and the anti-skate adjustment to the same.

I'd highly recommend it to someone who wants something better than one the bottom of the line turntables.

(mine is a refurb but works perfect and I saved a bunch)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Addendum 6/16/2008
I just recorded my first LP to my laptop using Spin It Again 2.1.
Unbelievably easy with excellent results. Playing the CD sounds as good as the record, no hum, no clicks, no pops. You cannot tell it's off an LP.
I used some RCA to RCA coupling adapters I had, and a short RCA to 3.5mm mini plug cable.

I'm still using 2.5g for the weight and antiskate even though I noticed that the paper turntable lable said to use 3.5g. It works great so I can't see why to use more weight at the stylus.

I highly recommend leaving the cover over the stylus when balancing the arm and turning off anti-skate until you have it balanced. Use a light touch on the rubber grip rings at the rear of the weight when setting balance and tracking force.


"I LOVE THIS TURNTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!", A well built,3 speed, manual turnable with preamp and dust cover!. Sturdy unit, not like the paper thin plastic ones you see around that also play back with a lot of wow and flutter!!.It looks great and sounds great plugged right into my Creative Audigy Soundcard for LP transfers to CD.Some people have mentioned this turntable humming but I have NOT experienced ANY humming. Mine is really nice and quiet. Maybe they have another issue, ground problems etc, don't know.The stylus it comes with sounds fine but you should buy a Shure M78 for playing 78's on it. I did and bought a Stanton headshell to easily swap it out when playing 78's.I bought it from Electronics Expo through Amazon...they have the best price around on this one! It's hard to beat the price on a turntable with 3 speeds AND dust cover AND cartridge that looks and plays like this one. I'm a professional musician and my ears tell me a lot about sound quality without having to go overboard and spend a fortune to get great results. I'm not a DJ so I don't really need the reverse platter mode etc. but I like the fact that it has a strobe to maintain the proper speed, etc etc..I did a LOT of homework regarding which way I would transfer my LP's to disk. I have a bunch of turntables and this one is the best for this purpose. I've tried ION's,DAK Preamp etc.. this turntable beat them all as far as sound quality (with the exception of the DAK preamp which is ALSO very good and a close second in sound quality if you want to just use your own existing turntable)Just going right into my Creative Soundcard for me is an easier solution. For best results use Spin It Again software for cleaning the recordings of hiss,pops, etc and EQ.My LP transfers now rival some re-issued CD's I've purchased of the same material thanks to the methods I use now. I was thinking of upgrading the cartridge to a Shure but after reading a few reviews, although I'm sure it's a great cartridge having owned a Shure V15 type II for years which I still have, the reviewer whose advice I listened to most on Amazon was one guy who actually did an A/B comparison and burned a CD with tracks from BOTH cartridges and noticed NO real difference between them. All in all I would buy this turntable again hands down if I needed to replace it. It is one of the sweetest deals I've found on the web.

"Great turntable but the included needle is terrible", I'm very pleased with my purchase. This is a great turntable that is on par with products twice its price. The included preamp is a great feature, and it helped make my decision to buy the PL120.

Overall, I am _very_ satisfied, and I'm very picky when it comes to audio gear.

However: The needle is TERRIBLE! It makes my records sound flat and blare-y. In fact, MP3s played on my computer through the same stereo receiver sound as good or better than my 180-gram records when played with this needle. I suppose it's not too big of a deal considering that this turntable is so affordable, but interested buyers should be aware of this.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Best Bang For Your Buck", WOW! I really researched buying a turntable to not only play my old LP's, but that had a phono pre-amp that would allow transferring those analog recordings to cd or mp3 format. This is a fantastic turntable for the money. I remember all of those great turntables from the 70's and the AT-PL120 is just as good if not better. Assembly was straight forward, just follow the directions. I was playing the turntable in about 15 minutes. Sound is awesome, very heavy and well constructed.


"Excellent value, excellent sound - SOME PROBLEMS", 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!


"Nice piece of equipment", I received my AT-PL120 turntable in a very reasonable amount of time and found the packaging to be outstanding. I have used it to transfer many of my LP's to CD with great success. The quality of the product is excellent and I am pleased with my purchase.

"Made by Technics as good as Technics", These things are solid well built and can perform with the best tables on the market. They are well worth the price and from a DJ perspective meet all of the demands a DJ places on his equipment.

I have owned them for almost a year and a half and they still operate like brand new.

The only thing that might turn some people off is the pitch control. The slider is really solid but sometimes tweaking speed just right can be tricky. However thats not the table's fault as much as the need to practice. While other tables are superior in this feature I have noticed they vibrate more than the Audio Technica. Because these don't vibrate even with the speakers right next to them you can set your needles pretty light.

"Audio-Technica Turntable", Have had this turntable for about three weeks. I must say, I am very happy with it. It is very solidly constructed and the sound quality is very good.