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Played great without issue, until just a few months ago that is. Maybe the needle is just old and worn and that's why it just started doing this perhaps. Sounds great and very durable. I recently upgraded the receiver and relocated all of my components to a new location and same thing. Thought I'd toss in my two cents on the hum issue.
Read that the ground loops affect the sound quality in a negative way so not sure I want to go that route either. I'm not a 'solder kinda guy' so I wont be breaking into the unit for a technical fix. And yes, I do have the turntables pre-amp turned off.It still has the original factory cartridge/needle on it. In reading the reviews, seems alot of the humming units were the older reviews so maybe they corrected grounding issue on the newer units perhaps. Turn it down a bit and the sound goes away. I only paid 125.00 for this unit and a decent quality cartridge looks to run about 75.00 and up. Lift the needle off the record at the same volume and no noise. Thought about trying a new cartridge but not sure it's worth the investment.
I bought this player in mid 2008. I don't know as this is my first turntable. Kinda of a downer but what electronic equiptment am I not having to replace every few years these days anyway. Now, when I turn it up to what I would consider the 'low end' of the loud range, I get a low bass feedback kinda sound from primarily the left speaker. Funny how it worked fine the first year or so.
Records just have that special something I can't stop loving.Anyway if you are looking for a budget turntable that gets the job done of playing your LP's with fantastic results, do not hesitate to make this your next purchase. I've been hooked since then and never gave up collecting even during the rise and fall of cassettes, CD's, Mini Discs. SACD's, and DVD-Audio. I must be one of the very lucky of the 200 or so people to purchase, and comment about this turntable here on Amazon and not have any issues with it. I am not sorry I did and, neither will you. I also own a Stanton T.90 USB turntable, and the AT-PL120 sounds much better and they both have the same cartridge installed, a Ortofon Concorde Gold @ 1.5g. I have the AT-PL120 connected to the TV inputs of a Sony STR-DH700 and it outputs warm and wonderful analog like no other turntable I've owned, and I've owned a few in my 41 years of existence. Maybe the Audio-Technica quality control people have hit and miss days at the factory.Now I do not claim to be some audiophile aficionado, rather I am a common vinyl record collector and lover (on a modest budget) since the age of 3 years old when my mom was nice enough to shower me with a record player and records.
I set the anti-skate control as AT recommends.Final leveling the turntable came next (I did a preliminary leveling to assure I got the tonearm balance right), and I was very careful to repeat the process several times to assure I had it absolutely horizontal both front-to-back and side-to-side. But that should have been made very clear in the instructions.I also bought the cartridge for playing 78s but haven't installed it yet in the extra headshell I bought. After reading many reviews on this turntable, I decided to purchase one while Beach Camera was the prime Amazon partner vendor. In the meantime, Beach Camera had raised the price by $25, and no other vendor was as inexpensive as my original price of $206 with free shipping. I assumed that the leg lengths were, indeed, adjustable. But it was too late for me to rescind the RMA I asked for and got from Beach Camera.Right out of the box, this turntable was a dream to set up and use. I never had a problem with the "zeroing" dial being too loose that some reviewers have experienced.
My LPs sounded as good as I remember - and I do agree with those people who prefer vinyl for its smoother music renditions, less tinny highs and deeper, more natural base notes.My only complaint was that the user manual wasn't very clear about how to use the leveling pads. I switched on the receiver and the turntable, turned the volume up to beyond listening level and got no hum (at least to my older ears) that others have heard.Playing some old vinyl was a pleasure - especially with the cueing feature and damped tonearm descent.
When I called them to ask about the broken part with which my unit had arrived, they told me that it often breaks through use, that it's easily user replaceable, that they send out several from time to time and they would be glad to send me one free of charge to replace the broken one I got. My stereo receiver (Denon) has a phono input, so I didn't have to switch in the built-in pre-amp.
The first unit arrived with a broken tone arm latch, and I returned it and received credit. I used a small "torpedo" level that fit on the platter, not some circular turntable level which doesn't seem to be as easy to read.I was very careful to follow the sequence for connecting the audio outputs and AC power that AT recommends.
I'm hoping there is some relatively easy way to make both the 33/45 RPM cartridge assembly and the 78 RPM cartridge assembly weigh the same so I don't have to recalibrate the tonearm counterbalance every time I switch from one to the other. A call to Beach sales got me my replacement at the original price.It might be of interest to note that Audio Technica USA has a very good parts department (I bought an extra PL120 headshell from them).
I experienced no problems with the minor bit of assembly necessary and took great care to balance the tone arm with the headshell and cartridge installed before setting the tracking force at 4 grams - about midway between the lightest and heaviest force AT recommends for the cartridge that comes with the unit.
We have tons of old LPs and have gone through 2 or 3 "inexpensive" turntables (
As there is no adjustment,had to torque the headshell connector barrel to compensate. This causes thecartridge to be 8 degrees off from horizontal. Good turntable for the price. Only problem was that the alignment slotfor the headshell was about 8 degrees off from vertical.
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