Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
So far, so good. In fact, shockingly good. It sounds so good that I already sold my tube phono preamp after using first in my system and prefer the sound of the AT with its built in phonostage in my system more. Also, this internal phonostage can easily be disengaged with the flip of a switch if your amp has its own phono preamp.

The sound of music on vinyl as played from this modestly priced turntable sounds much more real (life-like) than the music sounds on my holy grail of a CD player, the Arcam FMJ23T! If you already have your favorite amp and speakers and think about trying a turntable, this is a great pick! It looks cheap compared to the British made turntables (that I used to own) which cost 10-20 times more but do not sound 10-20 better than now. I use the NAD325BEE integrated and PSB Alpha B1 bookshelf speakers with Tara Lab Nexa speaker wire so having the AT-PL50 as the turntable, the sound is just excellent. I hear details from its modest cartridge that were not previously from the LPs with a moving coil cartridge on a Nottingham Turntable. With such results, I have left the audio stores to go to the record stores instead. YMMV.

Strengths:

Great performance, best price on such a good belt drive turntable, comes with cables to record to PC, has a good built-in (switchable off-on) phono preamp.

Weaknesses:

Does not look the part of an audiophile component. Too bad for those folks!
You cannot brag how expensive this great sounding turntable is!

Similar Products used:
Project Tube Box II, Bellari Tube Phono preamp, Rega P2, P3, Nottingham Turntable, Sony turntable