I'm springing for a 120. I can't wait anymore.
I think I'm going to shoot a short youtube video to review the 120, but here's my write up:
The first thing you see when you look at the AT-LP120 is that it looks like a Technics 1200, even upon closer inspection there's no doubting that it's a copycat AND a good one at that. So much so, a bunch of millennials thought the re-release of the 1200 was "copying" the LP120. The one thing that sticks out is that the 120 is more plasticky than the 1200. The top of the 1200 had a metal brushed top over plastic (evidenced by old tables that have chipped.) There are other little things to gloss over, such as the 1200's dustover with the bubble to protect the tonearm or the rubber feet with the metal cylinders on the 1200 (the 120 is plastic on the outside), but otherwise the 120 is just as solid and heavy as the 1200. I'm not sure how I feel about copying popular products, but if there was turntable you were going to copy or take design cues from, it'd be the 1200.
Now onto the table, the motor performs flawlessly and is ultra-responsive. It is incredibly stable, starts and stops on a dime and the table itself does a good job absorbing vibrations. There's been times when I'm going through my vinyls which is on a shelf directly below my table and I accidentally let a section of records slip causing the entertainment center to rumble and it does not affect playback. Not a skip, nothing. I don't scratch, but have played around with the platter while it's rotating and found it quickly gets back to speed when you interfere with the rotation.
The included cartridge is the much revered AT 95E, originally out of the box I felt the sound was a bit dark. I believe the cart is one of those all around, even sounding performers; more on the neutral side of things. However, I paired it up with a Schiit Mani preamp and the sound came alive. Now whether or not this is attributed to the Mani, is a different matter. For my ears the built in preamp and the external one I had before were of lesser quality. One thing is for sure, it sounds like a beast and you can really push this table to bring the best out of your collection with a good preamp and proper care of your vinyls.
Overall, I believe the 1200 is a better built device but the 120 ain't no ho. It is solid in construction, has stable speed (thanks to the strobe read out to help me confirm), minimal motor sound, and is a joy to use. I don't think admitting that it's not the 1200 is a bad thing. It costs $250, a fraction of the price of the 1200. Soundwise they're nearly the same. It's what I would come to expect from a direct drive turntable, which if you read my posts, you'd know I prefer them over belt-drive, even from an audiophile point of view.
Added bonuses, like the 1200, it's easy to swap headshells in the event you want to switch up the sound. I bought a Shure M447 for my hiphop stuff, but the headshell I ordered was buzzing too much. I'll mess with that later when my replacement headshell comes in. It's nice to have the option to take it from audiophile to dance table. Good for hosting get togethers and such. The USB feature, while being something I will probably not use often, came in handy already. I digitized a horrible song by Emmanuel Lewis for a friend. If I find music that never got a proper digital use, it is useful to know I can convert it easily to digital form so I can listen to it on the go.
I hear you can get even more sound improvement by removing the internal preamp. I really doubt I'll be doing this, but it is one of those "good to know" things. I'm really happy with this table and at $250, it not only gave me wiggle room to buy a proper Record Cleaning Machine, but also a proper preamp and a secondary cartridge. I really doubt I'll sell this, even if I buy a more expensive table in the future.
Positives: Price; proven direct drive motor used by many Hanpin tables (the company responsible for most of the direct tables on the market); easy setup; easy to swap in Technics 1200 accessories; reliable included cartridge.
Negatives: Lacks iconic status of the table it copied; short attached RCA wires; construction while good, still has some imperfections (the top should be more seamless in connecting to the bottom, I noticed a 1/4 of a 1/4 inch space, nothing that affects sound quality).
