Vinyl is back in Colombo, and with it a fair amount of confusion. Here is what actually matters when you buy your first deck, in the order it matters.
1. Automatic or manual?
An automatic turntable starts, plays and returns the arm at the touch of a button. A manual deck requires you to place and lift the arm yourself.
Automatic is not a lesser choice. If the turntable will be used by a household rather than by you alone, automatic protects the stylus and the record from the most common accident there is. The AT-LP60XUSB and AT-LP70XBT are fully automatic. The AT-LPW40WN, AT-LP120XUSB and AT-LPA2 are manual.
2. Do you need a built-in phono stage?
A record player's output is far too quiet to plug into a normal amplifier input. Something has to boost it - a phono preamp.
If your amplifier has a socket marked PHONO, you already have one. If it does not, buy a turntable with a preamp built in. Most Audio-Technica decks include one and let you switch it out later if you upgrade.
3. Belt drive or direct drive?
Belt drive isolates the platter from motor vibration and is the usual choice for listening at home. Direct drive starts instantly and holds speed under a hand, which is why DJs use it - and why the AT-LP120XUSB, with its pitch control and 78 rpm setting, is the one to buy if you are mixing or transferring old shellac.
4. USB and Bluetooth: useful, not essential
USB output lets you digitise records to a computer. If you have inherited a collection that is not available on streaming, this is genuinely valuable - the AT-LP60XUSB and AT-LP120XUSB both do it.
Bluetooth lets you send sound to a wireless speaker. Convenient, and on the AT-LP70XBT and AT-LPW50BT-RW you keep the wired output too.
5. The cartridge is the part that matters most
The cartridge and stylus are what actually read the groove. Almost every Audio-Technica deck ships with a VM95-series cartridge, and the whole range shares one body, so upgrading later means swapping only the stylus:
- VM95C - conical. Forgiving, kind to worn second-hand records.
- VM95E - elliptical. The sensible standard.
- VM95EN - nude elliptical. More detail.
- VM95ML / VM95SH - MicroLine and Shibata. Serious tracking, longer record life.
Moving from a C to an E stylus is the cheapest real improvement available to most first-time buyers.
6. Budget for the things nobody mentions
A stylus wears out. Records attract dust, and dust is abrasive - playing a dirty record damages both. Budget for an anti-static brush (AT6011A) and a cleaning kit (AT6012) at the outset, and a stylus cleaner (AT617A) to keep the tip clear. They cost little and they protect everything else.
Come and listen
Turntables reward being heard. Visit the showroom at 35/3 Nawala Road, Narahenpita, or call +94 11 250 0823. Elite Radio is the authorised Audio-Technica agent in Sri Lanka.