I was looking for a turntable to transfer a couple hundred vinyl records to digital format. Since whatever setup I used for the transfer would be how I heard all those LPs from now to forever, it seemed to make sense to avoid cheaping out. OTOH, it's not worth it to me to spend thousands of dollars on an esoteric audiophile turntable. We already have a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo turntable in the living area with the stereo, but I didn't want to commandeer that unit for transfer purchases,. That unit wins all the awards for "best under $1000 setup", but I'd need an external phono preamp and A/D converter, pushing the total cost to over $1k. The AT-LP120XUSB is less expensive and includes everything needed to connect to the PC, so it was an attractive option.
After reading a bunch of reviews of various turntables, I came to the conclusion that I was overthinking it and just went with this model. This turns out to be the right choice for my purposes. Once I had it set up I compared it directly with the Pro-ject unit, and the differences were subtle, if there were any audible differences at all. It works, it sounds good, and seems quite durable.
PROS:
o Setup is straightforward, since the TT, tonearm, headshell, cartridge, and stylus were all engineered together.
o The included stock AT-VM95E cartridge/stylus is well regarded and allows for an easy upgrade if you want a better stylus.
o Solidly built in the tradition of the Technics 1200 that it is modeled after.
o Professional quality internal phono preamp and A/D converter.
o Sounds basically identical to a unit twice the price
o Does basically everything it's supposed to do, and does it well.
o Since it's a DJ turntable, it should hold a good resale value - once I'm done digitizing the records I have I'm probably done with it so I might sell it at that point.
CONS:
o If you try to use both the USB and analog line out simultaneously there's a prominent high pitched whine - the engineers did not adequately isolate the two from ground loops - while this is a disappointment to me, there are easy work-arounds and few people are going to connect both.
o It's fully manual, so perhaps not the best choice if you just want to play records.
o If you have a receiver with a phono preamp, you don't need the internal one or the A/D converter so you'll be paying for things you don't use
o Your audiophile buddies will not be impressed.
