Review on Audio-Technica AT-LPW40WN Review: Fully Manual Belt-Drive Turntable with 2 Speeds and Dynamic Anti-Skate Control by Corey Kim

I'm starting this review by spending a couple of weeks looking for a suitable replacement for my old LP60 which was a great table to start so everything should have been an upgrade. My search, my requirement was that I wanted something automatic, with a built-in preamp, with a detachable housing and upgrade cables, not just black and of a quality that will not break for a moment. a few years. I had a budget of $300-400. To my dismay, there really isn't anything that fits exactly. All fully automated tables seemed cheap or too expensive to me. The Denon DP-300 had numerous reviews stating that it broke after a few years, it was just black with the cables installed. The AT-LP3, which looked like a winner, had a cheap plastic body that just felt unsafe. Everything else was a cheap brand like Crosely, which I didn't trust. After doing this research, I decided I needed to expand my budget and settled on the Wirecutter Denon DP-400 offering. It only had an automatic handlift stop - which struck me as the more important half of a full auto - but it had everything else I was looking for, including white. But it had a really stupid dust cover that you can't use while the record is playing and doesn't protect the turntable. As a family with cats this was a deal breaker. I looked at the Fluance tables. They seemed very good and had an automatic stop (but no hand raise) and they came up with good needles already. But the RT-82 and up didn't have a phono stage (which wouldn't be a problem). The problem was that I really didn't like the look of it. It was huge and wanted to be stylish. I also didn't like that the cheaper $250 RT-81 that came with the preamp came with the old AT-95E stylus instead of the new VM95E, which is more upgradeable without reinstalling the pickup, and the Engine did not have a speed control sensor. So I decided to explore fully manual spreadsheets. I started with U-Turn and they seem like a great option, but it gets expensive quickly as I add options. With a preamp, a decent stylus, and the color I wanted, I was quickly over the $400 mark (and that's without some of the basics like an arm lift or speed dial). DJ turntables, but that quickly became overwhelming for me. I didn't know how long the old tables would last and most of them didn't have preamps. The DJ tables had too many features that I didn't care about and didn't look the way I wanted. Enter this player. I chose a fully manual stage because it had a preamp, speed control, arm lift, looked great, came with a VM95E pen, had a functional dust cover, detachable cables and a quality motor with speed sensor. And the tonearm is carbon fiber, which apparently is only available on desks that cost hundreds of dollars more. Contrary to some reviews online, it even had adjustable feet so you could level it. All in all, if I was willing to forgo the auto stop, I felt it was way too much for the money. So I got it and couldn't be happier. It feels solid, much more substantial than my old LP-60. All the dials and the dust cover seem to last a long time. It sounds great. There were no issues with the rumbling of the earth or a table that was too noisy. For reference, I'm connecting directly to the Sonos Play 5 right now. Looks great. It's not as pretty as solid wood U-Turn tables since it's veneer, but it has a great tone and is smooth. Do I want it automatically? Yes a little. But it wasn't as strong as I thought it would be and I enjoy lowering the arm lifter and watching the pin go down smoothly. The arm mechanism is easy to adjust and I have tested it using the pen pressure scale and found it accurate. The cartridge alignment was accurate from the start. Everything was packed safely and securely. So if you're in the same boat as me and looking for something that stays in the $500+ range and still gives you a good feature set, I highly recommend this player. .