Audio Technica AT-LP3XBT Review - Fully Automatic Turntable

Audio Technica's LP3XBT is a fully automatic turntable based on their popular LP3 model. As the model number suggests, the latest incarnation brings the convenience of Bluetooth connectivity, but it doesn't stop there...
The LP3XBT also features the new AT-VM95 cartridges series for easy stylus upgrades, and a new external AC adapter, which handles the AC/DC conversion outside of the chassis-this is good news for overall noise reduction in the signal chain.
If you're looking to add vinyl playback to your audio system without the hassle of a manual turntable, this could be the ideal deck for you. It could also suit people with mobility issues, amputees or those living with Parkinson's disease.
Resources & Links: (AAL = Amazon Affiliate Link - commission earnt)
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AT-LP3XBT Turntable (AAL): geni.us/at-lp3xbt
Full Sound Matters review:
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#vinylrecords #vinylcommunity #turntable #vinyl #audiotechnica

[@soundmatters]

Thanks for watching! 🎶🎧 Do drop your comments and questions below. If you'd like to support the channel, check the video description for many DISCOUNT CODES codes to enjoy money off various products and feed your vinyl habit! (I earn a small commission - no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support!

[@debbielosee5330]

Thank you for answering so many of my questions! Ok, still confused and I have only a few days left to decide! Should I return my AT-LP60XBT (still in box) for the AT-LP3XBT? So confusing. My daughter is beginner. Never used a TT before. But, i wanted the best of both worlds for her: (automatic and manual ability). Speakers recommendations for either speaker? I was buying her Edifier R1280DBS. I looked at YU4’s, but too much since I have bought other stuff for Christmas, it’s becoming expensive. Also, I got the AT-LP60XBT at a really good price of $160 plus tax, is the Please, I need your opinion. Thank you!

[@debbielosee5330]

Hi! I just spoke to “GrooveWashers” and told him that I bought is TT cleaners because of you! New question: do you know anything about speakers? I bought Kanto YU4 speakers, but now the YU6’s went on sale! Now I’m confused … have you reviewed Kanto speakers? Do you think YU4 is good or upgrade to YU6? Please let me know! Thanks! 😊

[@soundmatters]

@@debbielosee5330 - great! Thanks for supporting the channel. The GrooveWasher stuff is great. I haven't heard the Kanto speakers directly, but I would say it depends on a couple of things: 1: How big is the space? The YU6 has a little more power 2: The larger woofer might produce a better bass performance (the bass extension down to 50Hz on the YU6 would certainly suggest this). 3: Have you got the space to accommodate the larger speaker size? In the Bluetooth category, they look like a reasonable buy to me. As I say, I don't have first-hand experience with them, but the reviews I can see seem positive overall. So considering you're looking at a Bluetooth turntable - they seem apt. Hope this helps in a small way

[@darthwarren4599]

Look for a vintage technics automatic they last forever and can be upgraded

[@lainiekitt8982]

I just purchased The ATlp3xbt , I bought an ultimate ears boom 3 Bluetooth speaker and having trouble keeping the turntable and speaker paired.Can you recommend a Bluetooth speaker that might be a little better and keep the connection. Thank you Lainie

[@leal2207]

I just got this for Christmas I can’t wait to start listening to my old records 💛💚💛

[@user-gk5ix8dk4k]

Thanks for the review. I have a Audio Technica AP LP-120 USB and I love it other than the manual portion. It cost me a cartridge because I took my dog out, became side tracked two hours later, I sadly remembered I was playing album. Needless to say, this is why I'm looking for an automatic. Your review gives me a lot to think about!

[@brucetowell3432]

Was your LP-120 USB direct drive? Mine is, and I want at least 50% automatic with the tone arm return. But do not want to deal with belt drive. Hope AT has a direct drive at least 50% automatic. Still trying to figure out if I need that "pre-amp" removed from my LP 120-USB.

[@user-gh8sf5ve7w]

This record player is the best thing I have done for myself since years…. The comments in this video are all spit on! If you ever owned an automatic before you will want to buy this one as all the parts are upgraded from the old Dual system. The sound is just perfect and the ease of you makes you want to play records like almost every day…. I am rediscovering albums from my youth like Black Sabbath Live that I can’t believe what a magic they create on this record player. Keep listening to Vinyl! Cheers 😊

[@soundmatters]

Great to hear! It’s a nice automatic deck for sure. Enjoy the re-discovery 🎶🎧

[@TomEaglesHypnosis]

Excellent review. I think I just found my next turntable. The user-adjustable counter-weight, anti-skating, and headshell replace-ability make this one hard to decline.

[@soundmatters]

Thanks. Enjoy the new turntable!

[@benjamin_lecomte]

My wife just bought it, will arrive soon, will be paired with a soundcore Motion Boom Plus and upgraded later with a amp/speaker setup! It's nice to have the possibility to enjoy it with what you have and up the système late!

[@DanielHalldin74]

Thanks for a great review. I gonna get one mainly for the bluetooth (APT-X Adaptive), but also for the convenience of an automatic turntable.

[@DanielHalldin74]

Will upgrade the the ML-stylus right away

[@joshlinney7296]

Thankyou for this video, very informative, I'm sure Ill be picking this one up soon

[@johnwelch5132]

The deal Amazon had with the lp3xtbk turntable and Edifer Bluetooth speakers was a great find. Sound is amazing. Admittedly tested it on good condition vinyl over 45 years old. Can’t fault it.

[@soundmatters]

That's a nice bundle. Enjoy!

[@hajonnut]

wound up buying one today as a first time turntable, got it on sale for 280€ setup was relatively painless and i got everything up and running within 10 minutes

[@soundmatters]

Enjoy! And welcome to the hobby

[@Archieconan]

Great review thnx

[@soundmatters]

Thanks for watching!

[@joedeegan3870]

Have the m95 with eliptical : great !

[@soundmatters]

Nice range of pretty affordable styli :) enjoy the music

[@juansanchez7784]

Hi yes I’m so happy just today I ordered the same white automatic Audio technician BX3 Bluetooth for my second vintage hifi system from Amazon UK, I also have a Denon 300 fully automatic turn table in my lounge hifi and it’s also a great automatic turn table, I don’t like manual turn tables as I’m a little clumsy with my hands so I always preferred automatic turn tables but nice ones middle range definitely not cheap £120 job or less, so my white audio technica will be delivered tomorrow Sunday a perfect day for setting it up & listening to The Beatles vinyl collection and others. Thanks I enjoyed your video & I will probably buy the green stylus that you said it sounds much better peace ✌️

[@soundmatters]

Great stuff! Hope you had a relaxing Sunday with the new deck. Thanks for watching and enjoy the music

[@johnwelch5132]

If you can, wire directly to speakers with the RCA cables and grounding wire provided. Just fix that to one of the screws on the back of the power speaker.

[@PhD63]

I recently bought one of these after my previous (manual) turntable died. Generally I’m very happy with it but I don’t use it as a full auto as I enjoy cueing up my records myself with the cueing lever but having it automatically return the tonearm and stopping the platter is brilliant. Two minor criticisms I have though is there is no on off button so the Bluetooth light is on all the time (I pull the power connector out when not in use) and there is no tone arm clip. But I’m guessing that is to prevent damage being done to the auto mechanism if the start button is pushed with the tonearm locked down.

[@jeff_bigler]

I am looking for something with Bluetooth. How would you compare the LP3 (automatic) to the LP-120 (manual)? It appears the LP3 has a slightly better SNR. And the LP3 has a slightly newer Bluetooth version (not sure if that makes much difference, but my understanding of BT technology is very limited). I realize the LP-120 has more bells and whistles, but I am mostly interested in just playing vinyl. Thoughts? Better options?

[@Cla55clown]

Great, concise review. I think I'm going to pick this one up as a beginner turntable for me. Regarding the stylus, can you explain the difference between the 'bonded' and 'nude' elliptical stylus that AT offers? thanks!

[@soundmatters]

I’m glad the review helped! Yes: with a “tipped” stylus the diamond tip is connected to the cantilever via a metal shank. The stylus tip is essentially “glued on”. With a nude design, it’s one piece of diamond connected to the cantilever directly. More expensive, but results in less mass, which makes it better at tracking fast transients. You get more detail, particularly in the high end. See my old video on the difference between the ORTOFON 2M Red and the 2M blue for a full explanation 🎶

[@rumenow]

Thanks for the review. I am looking to buy a first turntable ever, as a gift to my girlfriend and I am considering currently between this Audio Technica and the Pro-Ject E1 BT (since bluetooth is a hard requirement for conveniece reasons). Which one of the two you'd rather recommend? Or perhaps another option you'd prefer over them? :)

[@paulboyce8537]

I like that you point out the price and what to expect on this price range and if it does meet the price point. $300 vs $500 you really can't even compare just like $500 vs $1000 also is very unfair. But $1000 vs $3000 we can argue this is not so as here you can pay lot just for the name.

[@soundmatters]

Indeed! The point of diminishing returns! 🎶🎧

[@donaldpudas3533]

Thanks a ton from the USA. Great review. I want this one. One thing. Does it have a pre-amp? Thank you.

[@soundmatters]

Thanks for watching. Yes, there’s a phono preamp you can turn on and off. Happy listening 🎶🎧

[@arantzaceballos4328]

Hi, first I´d like to say that I´m so happy to find your channel. I´m trying to buy a turntable as a Christmas gift and we already got good speakers but I´m no so sure between an Audio Technica LP3BXT or a Rega planar 1, so please if you could orient me I would be saved by someone cause I´m trying to do this gift as a surprise. Thank you so much!

[@Apo458]

7:23 Since the LP3 shares the same automatic mechanism as the LP60, you can disable the auto-return by removing the big white gear underneath the platter, which is held by a single screw. To re-enable it you just put back the gear. This is better explained by VWestlife on his "Cheap fixes & upgrades for cheap turntables" video

[@nictay88]

Based on all your comments,i decided to get one to.thank you

[@soundmatters]

Enjoy! 🎶🎧

[@Mason500.]

Great review!! It looks really cool but Those ugly buttons make it look kinda cheap lol I have a feeling in a year they will release the same thing but change the buttons, just like they did with the other the previous ones

[@TheDwinstead]

What bookshelf speakers would recommend to get with this turntable thank you for the review

[@soundmatters]

I personally love the Klipsch speakers as a reasonably priced option. The make some self powered options if that’s what you’re looking for? 🎶🎧

[@pennyb9204]

I bought this for my son as a gift. I was conflicted as to whether to get him the white one, or the standard black one. But since he's really been into listening to old school music, and has gotten a lot of older albums from his uncle, I went with the black one. Anyway, one of the other reviewers mentioned that he may want to upgrade the cartridge. As like I said, some of his albums are older and there is that crackling noise. Do you have any that you can recommend? Thank you for your review.

[@almendraman]

Does this thing have a manual mode of any kind? I actually appreciated the button in the LP60 because as long as I was holding I knew I didn't need to worry about the automatic mechanisms kicking in. That also allowed me to play 10" records if I wanted do even if the automatic mode didn't support it. There's nothing like that here?

[@soundmatters]

You can operate the deck manually simply by not using the buttons and instead moving the tonearm across with the cue lever raised. This will start the platter spinning, but allows you to cue up a 10 inch record. When you're happy it's cued up, simply lower the tonearm lever. Hope this helps!

[@user-jk5ys4ts7q]

I like this turntable and it works well for me, but it definitely has a more strident sound than my Rega . It is important to set it up properly, so I used an MFSL Geodisc which seems to be more accurate than simple protractors, and I used a Shure stylus pressure gauge- the counterweight numbers are not accurate. The speed on mine was off. Setting the speed is unbelievably tedious. It took me almost an hour to get it right.

[@FranklovesBunnies]

Hi wondering your opinion on this I’m kinda stuck between this turntable and the Sony PS-LX310BT and the Fluance RT81+ Elite. I want good sound but also like the convenience of at least a semi automatic turntable and it having a preamp already. I’m in the 300-400 dollar range if you think there might be something better I’m all ears thanks 😊

[@soundmatters]

Have you checked out the RT82 from Fluance? It's $300 and is more upgradable than the RT81+ (as good as the RT81+ is). I think the decision here comes down to how important automatic operation and Bluetooth connectivity is for you. For an automatic choice, I'd probably go for this one over the Sony, purely as it's not as much of a dead-end if you want to upgrade the cartridge. If you choose the manual route, I think the RT-82 is a great choice. Hope this helps!

[@SQDLVR]

Would you recommend changing the RCA cables to something better?

[@Tony-ce4gn]

The lack of pitch control is my biggest concern in this type of turntable. It's been my experience that this type of record player tends to play just a bit too fast. Curious to hear others thoughts in terms of the LP3XBT??? Thank you.

[@protospateras1420]

Hi. Do you know if the new LP3 Bluetooth have the same speed issue as the previous LP3?

[@soundmatters]

I didn't experience any speed issues personally

[@callumbrowns]

Sound Matters Is the Bluetooth connection consistent when just listening to music at home ?

[@InYourDoubleFace]

Thank you for your video. How can we switch on and switch off the turntable please ?

[@soundmatters]

Thanks for watching. Turntables don't tend to have power off buttons as such, just a button that starts rotation, or in this case, starts the automatic arm operation as well as rotation. Hope this helps - enjoy the music

[@Leonardnl]

Which needle is good for this player?

[@PostiePaul4]

Does anybody know if this can be linked to a bose soundlink mini 2 via bluetooth.i have heard on some btooth tts that you can connect but not adjust the volume many thanks

[@DougMcDave]

My mother uses our AT-LPGO-BT (Wal-Mart LP60-XBT), almost as much as I do. I want to improve the sound, but a manual turntable is out of the question. Also, money can be an issue, thanks to inflation. This LP3XBT might be the answer.

[@selpingos]

Hi I have a question. Can this turntable use an Ortofon stylus ?

[@klaasvandenhoorn583]

excellent for the price but made by Chinese manufacter under different brand names a.o. Denon, Dual , mostly deliverd with AT 3600 cartridge in its basic form but only color of armtube feet, size of buttons holes in armhead are different but delivered for at least 4 different wellknown brands, it can use better cartridges asOrtofon 2M series having the good building height, an Ortofon 2M Blue is a much better option here, the nice tonearm can handle it excellent. This turntable has easy best arm in it's pricecategory! Automatics looking on old proven German designs.

[@antoniozanghi2363]

Hi, and thank you for your review. How about wow and flutter for this item? I own a direct traction Pioneer PLX-500 and it's terrible! I am selling it!

[@soundmatters]

Thanks for watching. How odd, I wonder if there is a fault with the Pioneer. I didn't notice any wow and flutter issues with this. The specification also show less than 0.2% wow and flutter at 3k. The pioneer is a very different deck to this, of course, what with being a direct drive and completely manual operation. Hope this helps.

[@Greenwarrior283]

Would you choose this over the Denon DP-300F?

[@soundmatters]

I don’t have specific experience with the Denon DP-300F, but I would say I think I’d prefer to have Audio Technica’s cartridge ecosystem and the easy stylus upgrades it facilitates. Hope that helps!

Hi, can I mount the entire AT-VM95e head?

[@soundmatters]

The cartridge on the VM95 is identical, all you need to do is swap the stylus out. Hope that helps answer your question.

[@Porco1984]

I mostly recommend the AT-LP60 to most people, but I really like the AT-LP3 turntables, since they offer so much value for the price. But just like the AT-LP60 it is very plasticky and clunky... I considered buying one myself, but in the end the clunky feeling buttons was just too much of a turn-off. I do miss the convenience of automatic operation though 😅

[@soundmatters]

Yea, as mentioned in this video, I did find the buttons a bit plasticky and springy, but other than that I liked it. Very handy in a more causal listening space 🎶🎧

Hi , can you advise between this and AT-LP120XBT ?

[@soundmatters]

Are you decided on whether or not you want a manual or automatic turntable? The LP120 is a very different beast, much more “DJ” bells and whistles.

Thanks for the reply, I'm not interested in DJ stuff, I'm interested in listening to my vinyl . what perhaps can make the difference is the head/stylus.

[@ipso_jure]

How about compare it to Pro-Ject A1?

[@soundmatters]

I’ll see if I can get a demo unit to compare

[@giuseppemassaretti6574]

Is the turntable pre-amplified?

[@soundmatters]

Yes: there is a built in phono pre that you can switch on or off 🎶🎧

[@mookiescandlecorner6064]

I bought this turntable last year and after a couple of months the automatic feature started driving me nuts as it won’t allow me to play a record manually. When i lift the tonearm to play a record, it automatically will start to go back and forth and wont let me play the record. It’ll do this around 3-5 times constantly before it will let me play a record. Even at times when I do try to use the auto feature, it will start up, the tonearm will go over to the record, go down to the record then lift itself back up and go back. It does this over and over. I went online to see if I can find help for this and I see this is a common issue with this turntable. Do you know if there’s a way to fix this?

[@soundmatters]

That is odd! I’m not sure on a fix but I can ask the manufacturer. I’ll get back to you. It should’ve been under warranty a couple of months in I would think?

[@dtracy03ss]

I would be definitely interested in a High End Automatic if it could be designed to decouple the auto Mech. To keep the noise out, because in all seriousness I would bet many Have damaged the Cartridge and or Stylus on mega dollar manual TT! Maybe there is such a beast? By the way I put AutoLift on my Fender Edition MoFi because of the end of record issues and Love how it operates.

[@jaycoleman8062]

I have the Pro-ject A1 that I upgraded with a 30 stylus to replace the original 10. A very nice, fully automatic TT, imho.

[@ciakyno25]

Technics sl 1500c

[@jaycoleman8062]

Forgot about this thread. I do like my turntable but it does make some motor noise that if you really get close and have the volume up you can hear it.

[@debbielosee5330]

Should I return my AT-LP60XBT (still in box) for a AT-LP3XBT? So confusing. My daughter is very beginner. Speakers recommended? I was buying her R1280DBS. I looked at YU4’s, but too much since I have bought other stuff for Christmas. Please, I need your opinion. Thank you!

[@soundmatters]

I think at this stage, it just depends on your budget. The AT-LP3 is definitely a more serious turntable, but then it is a little more expensive. It's more upgradable if you think this is going to be a more serious hobby for your daughter. I'm sure she'll be excited and pleased either way though :)

[@debbielosee5330]

Thank you so much! Great advice!

[@debbielosee5330]

@@KalmAM on Christmas morning, I ended up letting her choose between the black AT-60XBT (black) with black Edifiers R1280DBS… AND AT-LPXBT (white) with white Kanto YUK6’s and she kept the white set up and loves it. Yesterday, I returned the black turntable and speakers yesterday. It was an extra $300 to upgrade to the white set, but she loves it! Thanks!

[@MidNiteDookie]

Is there no off button?! Do I just unplug it???

[@soundmatters]

No off button, which is pretty common on turntables. There's normally just a button that starts the motor - but in the case of automatic decks, the tonearm mechanism too. If this bothers you, you could always get a set of remote control plugs. See this one on Amazon (affiliate link): amzn.to/3Sdvapa Hope this helps!

[@PhD63]

I just pull the plug out of the back.

[@soundmatters]

@@PhD63 😂

[@akmalraulia]

i need ATLP3 USB version lol

[@soundmatters]

Have a look into the Rega Fono Mini A2D - it's a phono preamp with USB out. Hope that helps

[@atexnik]

All vinyl players with normal tonearm sound the same if you put same needle. Rest is your subjective fantasy.

[@Zockopa]

It would be nice (and cheap) it that were the truth,but it isnt.

[@atexnik]

It is more of a truth than mystery.​@@Zockopa

[@Zockopa]

@@atexnik Well, personaly i had some turntables in the last 40 years i could play around with. For example crosschecking with MM and MC cartridges. So experience tells me otherwise. Which can by the way also measured.

[@davidtillwach5542]

It's made of plastic like most of them . The tonearm is cheesy