Should you buy AudioTechnica's AT-LP60X or AT-LP120X turntable?

for anyone looking to buy their first turntable there are two wildly popular options both made by Audio Technica the at lp60 and the atlp 120 now friends are often asking me which model they should buy the lp60 at 150 or should they spend $200 more at $350 and get the lp120 instead and if they do what are the advantages of the 120 over the 60 so I decided to buy both turntables we're going to do a side by-side compar parison and I'm going to show you the differences in features to hopefully help you decide which one is right for you and your budget now if you stick to the end of the video I'll even tell you which one that I prefer and which one I think sounds better if either sounds better to me at all now let's first jump in by comparing the features of both of these tables next for the sake of this video I went ahead and removed both of the dust covers on these tables just so that we can get the best view possible and and the first thing you'll notice when you're looking at both of these tables is the smaller footprint of the lp60 now this might be important for someone who doesn't have a lot of space but is looking to get their first turntable if that's the case you may want to consider the lp60 however I do think that there is a good reason for the size and bulk of the 120 and how it applies to the overall sound of the unit which is something that I'll talk about a little bit later in this video removing the slipmat on each table is important because there is a major difference between the operation of these two tables meaning the lp60 is actually a belt drive unit which means as you can see down here that it requires a belt in order to spin the platter now this belt is fairly easy to install but just so you know over time it can stretch and wear out and impact the sound of your records and you will have to replace it now you'll notice over here on the the lp 120 this is actually a direct drive which means that the motor is attached directly to the platter and you'll see here as I'm spinning there is no motor pulley that requires a belt so in short basically the lp60 requires a belt the lp 120 does not now there is an age-old argument over which turntable sounds better direct drive versus belt and that's something I'll discuss a little bit later in sound but if you're somebody that doesn't like fooling with a belt you may want to consider the direct drive model instead now one feature that may be very important to people buying these turntables is a fully automatic turntable versus a fully manual turntable let me show you what I mean because this is a big deciding point for people just getting into buying their first turntable what I mean by this is the lp60 is fully automatic meaning it once you press the start button the tone arm will lift itself automatically and slide over and rest itself down on the lp and start playing like so also it's worth pointing out that once it reaches the end of the side of the lp it will automatically go back to rest and turn itself off there's also a stop button if you want to stop it anywhere in the middle middle and it'll go back to rest however the 120 is a fully manual table which means when you press the start button the platter begins to spin but the arm stays at rest you have to manually place the arm down when wanting to play a record and when you reach the end of the side it will just sit there so it's very important that you monitor your playback on a fully manual table like the 120 or else you can wear down the needle one more thing I want to show you is if while it's playing you just press stop the table simply just stops and the arm sits there you always have to manually place that back that's something that is a big deciding point when people are choosing between the lp60 and the lp120 hi there friends just wanted to take a quick second to say this video is not sponsored but there is a way you can support my channel that's by joining my email list which is free to you just click the first link below in the description box you join my email list I send out emails two three times a month when you sign up just make sure that you click the confirmation email that you will receive in your inbox to officially join the email list both of these turntables come with built-in phono preamps so you don't have to worry about choosing that feature between either or however you'll note that the cartridge where the needle lives here on the lp60 is kind of attached to this headshell here and really can never be upgraded you're pretty much always going to be purchasing that cartridge whenever the needle wears down however the 120 has a removable head shell and a cartridge that you can easily swap in and out which means you can upgrade your cartridge over time now this is an important feature that I'll discuss a little bit more when I'm comparing the sound of these two turntables a little later on in the video now one little fun fact between these two turntables is that the lp60 only offers you two speed options 33 and 45 while the 120 has 3345 and if you press these at the same time you can actually get a 78 speed which would allow you to play Old 78s you can see that the speed has considerably picked up there so if you're someone that has a collection of 78s and would prefer to listen to those on one of these turntables you're going to want to go with the 120 over the 60 two more quick things to point out as you can imagine the lp60 is fairly lightweight there's really not a lot of umph to this turntable however the 120 is a considerably heavier and a bulkier turntable now I think this is actually important when it comes to sound playback which is something that I'll mention a little bit later but it's worth pointing out right now one other quick thing and that is on the 120 should you have the desire to scratch IE DJ you can do that here with this turntable you can easily stop playback scratch and mix there's even pitch control over here however the uh 60 model is basically just plug and play can't do any scratching or anything fancy DJ stuff with that table if you made it this far in the video you may be wondering which of these turntables I think sounds better before I answer that question I think it's worth pointing out you should always stay within your budget when buying a turntable you can always upgrade later on over time if you found that you've really enjoyed listening to vinyl records and you want to improve the sound Over time however if you have the $350 to buy the 120 and you're thinking you may just want to save some money with the 60 but you're wondering if there's going to be a sound difference then I can give you a little bit of advice here now the first thing I would say is that the lp120 with its heavier build helps keep out any resonance or vibrations which is important in playback I also know that people have always argued over whether direct drive or belt drive sounds better I personally have never heard that much of a difference between the two so I wouldn't let that freak you out if this is your turn turntable and thinking that oh you got to buy a belt over a direct drive I think the sound is going to be fairly similar where I think the real difference lies is in the fact that you can upgrade the cartridge on the uh lp120 now you remember earlier I was showing you that with the lp60 the cartridge that comes installed with that when that needle gets old you can just slide that off and replace it but you don't really have a lot of options on upgr grading that cartridge or needle however with the removable headshell and cartridge feature with the 120 you can go nuts and you can really spend a lot of money to improve the sound of your record playback with a different cartridge for instance a lot of needles have different shapes so you can upgrade over time find a needle that may have a shape that picks up more information and you begin you may begin to hear new things in your vinyl collection that you haven't heard before with the original needle that came with the 120 now that's just my suggestion because as I fell in love with listening to my records I wanted to try to figure out if I could get the best playback as possible and that's what I found when I was able to upgrade that cartridge over time so if you have the $350 and you really want to get the one that sounds the best I would go with the 120 because I feel like it's going to give you the most options to change the sound signature as your vinyl Journey continues whereas with the lp60 you're kind of locked in with the sound that comes with that turntable for as long as you own the entire table well those are the major differences between the lp60 and the lp 120 turntables and I hope this helped you make a decision as to which turntable is right for you now it could be that you are considering buying a vintage turntable instead of a brand new one if so I actually reviewed a turntable last year that may make you want to consider a vintage one over a modern turntable if you'd like to watch that video you can do so by clicking here

Channel: Forever Analog

Views: 9,131

Keywords: at lp60 vs at lp120, at lp60xbt, atlp60 review, at lp60xbt review, at lp120xbt, at lp120xbt usb, atlp120, at lp120 review, audio technica lp60x, audio technica lp120, audio technica lp120 review, audio technica lp60 review, beginner turntable, beginner record player, at-lp60xbt vs at-lp60xusb, audio technica review, audio technica record player, audio technica turntable, best beginner turntable, best beginner record player, best turntable under 500, best turntable

Id: Iw5pqd7WDKs

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2024