This brilliant budget turntable combines features and performance to great effect
In the AT-LP3, Audio-Technica has fashioned a turntable with all the ease of use and affordability of ‘suitcase’ record players, but one that also follows the rules of hi-fi. We need those rules: particularly ones that tell us no matter how much technology you use to make things simpler for the listener, it should never steal the spotlight away from the performance.
As well as being fully automatic, meaning you need only jab a few buttons for your record to play and the needle lift itself at the end, it also has a built-in phono stage, use of which is optional, a fool-proof set-up and a cartridge that can easily be swapped out for another moving-magnet alternative.
It is marginally less weighty, less physically substantial than its Award-winning sibling, the AT-LP5, but is just as easy on the eye and similarly tactile. Being automatic, the AT-LP3 has more switches: to play and to stop, to change rotation speeds and size of the record. There are separate controls for size and speed, so you’ll have no trouble with your 12-inches that play at 45rpm, or the other way round.
Set the tracking and bias weights as per the manual and connect it to your amp and power source and it’s ready to play. And that’s it as far as set-up; the only caveat being the interconnects, which are not removable from the AT-LP3’s chassis, so restrict how far the deck can sit away from your amp.
Full-bodied musicality
In terms of performance, we could direct you to our AT-LP5 review. You can take away a little of the detail, space and dynamic range, but characteristically, there is no mistaking that these are from the same family. Immediately upon pressing play on Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs we are drawn in by that familiar, full-bodied musicality. At this price we may have been tempted to forgive some soft or hard edges if they were countered elsewhere, but there really aren’t any.
The soundstage isn’t cavernous, nor the detail microscopic, thoug
