Audio-Technica AT-LPW50PB Manual Belt Drive Turntable - Piano Black

Product Information

Hear all the detail that’s been missing from your records, with the beautifully engineered Audio Technica AT-LPW50PB. Related: Best turntables Audio-Technica AT-LPW50PB build & features – Connections give it flexibility for hooking up other sources With a phono pre-amp built-in, the AT-LPW50PB connects to almost any hi-fi or speaker system. The phono pre-amp boosts the signal to line level, meaning you can connect it to any device with an AUX input. If you’d rather use your amp’s phono pre-amp, then simply switch off the turntable’s one. There is more information to be had too. Switching the phono stage off and moving to the iFi Zen Phono (to say nothing of the Cyrus), drops the noise floor further and reveals more information and better tonal realism at the same time. Judged by the competition, the internal phono stage that Audio Technica has fitted to the LP5X is perfectly satisfactory but - like the competition - there’s more to be had out of it.

There’s a commitment to good materials, smart additional features and flexibility for adding other audio components of your choice that makes for a turntable that will grow along with your love of vinyl. Those looking to make the next step on their vinyl adventure should definitely stop off here. The included PU is an AT-VM95E, a budget killer that delivers incredibly good value for money. The replaceable stylus may be upgraded to any in the AT-VM95 series, where the three models AT-VMN95EN, VMN95ML and CMN95SL are all very interesting upgrades at a very moderate price. Read Arve's test of AT-VM95E / ML and SL here . At first, I heard a faint noise between the belt and the pulley or between the belt and the plate. After an hour of running in, nothing could be heard, not even after longer stopping times.The drive system simply requires a short break-in period, which is not unusual. Audio Technica AT-LPW50PB Review – Phono Preamp and Tonearm One of my favourite recordings was recorded by Dutch pianist Jeroen Van Veen in two different versions, both of which are on a double-LP set pressed by Brilliant Classics titled ‘Erik Satie Slow Music: Gymnopedies, Gnossiennes, And Other Works.’ Van Veen achieves a sublime perfection that eludes most pianists. I suspect his success might be because he’s not only also a composer but is also considered by many experts to be one of the leading exponents of minimalism in the world today. These traits, along with him being a great pianist, are obviously what’s required to make the music work! The tonearm is a straight-line carbon-fibre statically-bal­anced type with spring- applied anti-skating.The AT-LPW50PB has two speeds on tap — 33 1/3 and 45 rpm — selected via the rotary switch at the front left of the plinth. Although the switch has a central ‘Off years as a part of the ‘95’ series. As with all the new AT-VM95 Series, it features the same dual-magnet design which, according to audio-technica “duplicates the ‘V’-shaped arrangement of the magnets in the cutter-head [of the recording lathe] and precisely positions the magnets to match the positions of the left and right channels in the groove walls”

This is a manual belt-drive design with a speed-change control at the bottom left of the top of the plinth. Regardless of whether it’s playing at 33.3 or 45rpm, the Audio-Technica’s sensor-monitored drive motor is designed to deliver precise rotational stability and consistency. The belt turns a pro-standard anti-resonance aluminium platter.

Best Audio Technica AT-LPW50PB prices ?

Likewise, a built-in phono-line preamp lets you connect up to a home stereo or powered speakers (that wouldn’t have a phono stage of their own) as soon as you plug the turntable in, letting you get to your tunes straight away. On this album van Veen stretches the concept of slowness to the extreme. One critic wrote of it that: “he creates an hallucinatory effect, a kind of minimal music avant la lettre.” The belt for the Audio-Technica AT-LPW50BT-RW turntable attaches to the drive motor’s pulley underneath the cast-aluminum platter.

The high dynamics of the album, which, in addition to acoustic orchestra and vocals typical of Woodkids, also offer a wealth of electronic sounds, do not cause any stress for the inexpensive player. This confident impression is repeated in other records from current and ancient production. With the LPW50PB you can also venture into “difficult” material and don’t have to be afraid of dynamically mixed vinyl discs. We put on the current Woodkid album S16: The Audio-Technica AT-LPW50PB presents the lush string arrangements in a wide and powerful way in an impressively large space. That should correspond to the intention of the producer, who not without reason put the orchestra in London’s Abbey Road Studios recorded. Their huge Studio 1 is famous for its rich, wide sound. And Audio-Technica reproduces this very well. The AT-LPW50PB is the top model among the belt-driven budget players, but has to find itself well behind the more elaborate mid-range player AT-LP7 in the hierarchy. This one also has belt drive, but at double price. Prices valid in stores (all including VAT) until close of business on 28th November 2023. (Some of these web prices are cheaper than in-store, so please mention that you've seen these offers online.)

Performance

These two gold-plated RCA outputs have a diameter that is very slightly smaller than standard, so using standard RCA plugs results in a rather ‘loose’ fit and a tenuous electrical connection. You can fix this by squeezing in the outer (negative) ring of the plugs on the cable before you use them. The red trace on Graph 4 shows channel separation vs. frequency and you can see that channel separation reaches a best result of 27dB at 1kHz (7dB better than specification), and maintains this level of performance out to around 6kHz before diminishing to around 20dB at 10kHz and down to 10dB at 20kHz. Playing Mary J. Blige’s No More Drama also saw this turntable turning in a cohesive and musical performance, with a surefooted and robust presentation that remained unflustered even as the song became more demanding, delivering plenty of fine detail and rendering the music with a lovely composure, though this was perhaps partly because it was just a little toned-down in the extreme highs.