Audio Technica AT-LPW50BTRW review 2024: great record player

With record-breaking vinyl sales (thanks, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles), and new record players routinely hitting the market, it’s encouraging to see vinyl still in strong shape as Record Store Day celebrates its 15th year in 2023.

One such new turntable is Audio Technica’s AT-LPW50BTRW, which has a belt drive turntable with an integrated phono stage and Bluetooth streaming and is designed to appeal to a wide audience with varying levels of familiarity with vinyl. Audio Technica’s modern turntables with hi-fi flourishes look and sound excellent, but there’s plenty of competition at this price from brands like Rega, Pro-Ject, Dual, and Sony. The AT-LPW50BTRW hopes to distinguish itself from similar models.

Audio Technica AT-LPW50BTRW Specifications

Build and Design

This turntable looks great and would sell well in any store. The rosewood veneer is visually pleasing, and the overall quality of construction is superb. The electronic speed control dial, carbon fiber tonearm, and hydraulically damped lift control all contribute to the deck’s premium feel. This is a well-built, attractively designed deck that is a pleasure to use, with the exception of some unwanted wiggle in the tonearm’s bearing.

In all honesty, this is hardly shocking. Audio Technica, which just celebrated its 60th anniversary, is well-known for producing high-quality turntables (the AT-LP5x, for example, has received five stars), and the AT-LPW50BTRW is no exception. The build quality is unquestionably superior to that of the similarly priced Dual CS418 and the Sony PS-LX310BT, which both lack Bluetooth.

Audio Technica AT-LPW50BTRW: Set up

The Quick Start Guide provided by Audio-Technica is an excellent visual reference for setting up your new purchase. Someone who has never set up a turntable before should be able to follow along with some patience, even though this is not a starter turntable. Belts power this turntable.

A ribbon guides you as you slide the belt over the pulley of the motor after you’ve looped it around the platter’s base. The headshell has the cartridge already installed. The tonearm collar secures the headshell in place once it fits onto the tonearm. With a removable headshell, swapping out the cartridge or replacing the stylus is significantly less of a hassle than it would be with a tonearm. You can buy this Audio Technica AT-LPW50BTRW fom its official website

Sound Quality

As a streaming album, the album sounded fantastic on the Naim Mu-so. That’s mostly attributable to the high quality of the turntable and cartridge, but Audio-Technica also deserves credit for successfully integrating wireless streaming without negatively impacting the listening experience.

With a wired connection to a component system, the AT-LPW50BT-RW turntable improved the album’s sound quality. I put it through its paces using both my own NAD phono stage and the built-in phono preamp.

Audio Technica AT-LPW50BTRW: Performance

Streamed vinyl playback will sound fine if the headphones or speaker you pair it with are high quality. This deck sounds strong, evenly balanced, and nicely detailed in comparison to other Bluetooth turntables we’ve heard, despite using the regular version of Bluetooth (no aptX HD like on the more expensive Cambridge Audio Alva decks).

Final Words

If you can do without the Bluetooth streaming feature, the Rega Planar 1 Plus package is the better and cheaper turntable. It costs £385 ($725 in the US) in the UK instead of £420 ($499) for the AT-LPW50BT. But there is something to be said for this Audio Technica deck’s combination of useful features, a nice design, and an easy-going sound.

Audio Technica AT-LPW50BTRW review: The good nad The bad

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