What do you guys think of the Audio-Technica LP60 for a starter table?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I bought an Audio-Technica LP60 last week just to get into the game, and I'm quite enjoying it for my purposes.

I bought some Klipsch R-41 speakers with the built-in amp to enjoy with them, along for some Isoacoustics Iso-155 isolation stands for the speakers.

I figure that I'll probably be stepping up to an even better turntable in the next year or so, but the Klipsch speakers are probably forever, although I may get a Klipsch subwoofer with them at some point. For now, though, I just wanted to give a good, but not-too-expensive turntable a go just to see how I enjoy vinyl.

Over the years, I've accrued a few vinyls of my favorite albums, mainly for decorative purposes, so the Audio-Technica purchase was just to be able to play them at long last.

I decided to swap out my Audio Technica LP60X entry level turntable ($100) for an Audio Technica LP120X turntable ($250), since I wanted the ability to adjust the toning arm tracking and the ability to upgrade the stylus/cartridge in the future.

The LP60X was good, but a handful of my records skipped during certain sound passages and those same records don't skip on the new setup. The first record I played on this LP120X was ABC - The Lexicon of Love, because a couple of bass-heavy tracks on the second side used to skip on my LP60X. They played perfectly through without skipping.

The process of setting up the tracking weight and cartridge alignment was pretty intimidating to my caveman intellect, but everything worked out well. (The old LP60X is fully automatic with the toning arm already set up, but the LP120X is a fully manual turntable with a better counterweight, etc.)

The improvement in audio quality is notable. The old turntable sounded pretty great, but the new one has a lot more oomph because of the better stylus.