AT-LPW50BTRW TURNTABLE FROM AUDIO TECHNICA

A belt-driven, two-speed turntable with built in Bluetooth? Paul Rigby got connected

I’ll say this for the W50, as I am going to call it for brevity sake, it’s a bit of a looker. You’ve got a box plinth with a Rosewood finish, a simple control interface and a carbon-fibre tonearm. The isolation feet do move a little to settle on uneven surfaces but really? Place this turntable on a flat and level shelf for the best performance. Aesthetically? For a first impression? You can’t really fault the W50. 

The turntable design is classic Audio-Technica. This is a design that attempts to please all the people all of the time offering both audiophile and lifestyle facilities. You even get, around the back, next to the power button, a built-in phono amplifier and a very nice VM-95E cartridge hangs off the arm via a detachable headshell. 

The platter is a simple aluminium die cast model that holds so much vibration that it rings like a bell. So take care to add a quality mat to dampen it. The company provides a rubber example. You can do better than that. Cork is a base upgrade recommendation. 

A few notes on the above? The plinth is sturdy, meaty and stiff. Because of that, I’m expecting decent bass performance. The tonearm tube is also pretty rigid and, while you’re not going to get an amazing tonearm performance for this price point, that carbon fibre addition is welcome. Don’t expect a true carbon fibre arm tube here. I reckon we have a piece of carbon fibre wrapped around an aluminium inner tube piece. Just my guess. Even so, the extra rigidity that the carbon fibre will bring, is very welcome. 

One of the feature points of the W50 is Bluetooth. There is a pairing button and light positioned on the tonearm base. I’ll talk more about that in the sound testing.

Speaking of which…

SOUND QUALITY

I began with Peggy Lee and the title track from Is That All There Is? Possibly the strangest, most disturbing and thoughtful song she ever sang. This one uses a piano, a bank of strings, a brass section, bass, acoustic guitar and what appears to be a banjo. A discordant instrumental insert into a discordant song pushed through Lee’s disconnected vocal style. This is also a useful test track because Lee talks though part of this song. So there’s that speech thing to consider. 

VS LP120x

And a fascinating comparison this was. In short? The LP120x offered the same suite of detail and information as the W50. The difference was, the W50 lowered high-frequency noise so the Lee vocal at the start of the song exhibited a stronger degree of reverb.

Lee was standing in a lonely and empty space, perfect for this song. The acoustic guitar that hid on the left channel behind the banjo was stronger in the mix, the effort on the slow, determined strum was more obvious now. Bass too was better focused, tighter with a firmer impact while cymbal taps were tonally more accurate. 

VS FLUANCE RT81 

That firmer, more impactful bass intrigued me so I reached for the RT81 because I know the Fluance excels in bass terms. I wondered how the W50 would cope.

I turned to Earth, Wind & Fire’s Shining Star from the That’s the Way of the World album from 1975. As you might expect, you’ve got a host of voices here, single and harmonies, the famous brass section, guitars, drums and more. 

Before we get to that bass? I was immediately impressed with the midrange insight and treble performance from the W50. There’s a subtle yet particular insistent cymbal tapping around the central stereo image. It’s there on the Fluance but the W50 gives you more. That is, the Fluance masks some of those taps behind the general cacophony. The W50 pushes more of that secondary percussion towards the front of the mix, revealing more information, more detail. 

The chorus vocal harmony sequence was fragile, delicate, lower again in noise with greater reverb. The midrange space here was impressive. Oh and bass? I preferred the W50, I have to say. Impacts hit faster and got out of the way quicker providing a more effective punch, helped by the focus around the lower frequencies. 

VS LP5x

I then tried the LP5x which I consider the best all rounder of the three reference turntables on offer here. Superior in both upper and lower frequencies to the 120x and RT81. This would be a firm test for the W50. I kept Earth Wind & Fire disc on the platter. 

And would you believe it? The W50 hit the ground running with a wider and more impressive soundstage, a naturalistic and neutral presentation, more air and space around the midrange. There was life, energy and, dare I say, it? Joy. The presentation really did make you want to stand up and dance to this track. The LP5x excelled in terms of bass control and upper midrange detail but the W50 matched and, at times, was superior in these areas. 

BLUETOOTH

I paired the turntable with both my Stax S3 wireless headphones and my Cabasse Swell portable Bluetooth speaker. The only real issue I had with the Bluetooth option on the turntable was the sluggish connection. That is, the W50 took its own sweet time to actually connect.

My suggestion? Put both your device and this turntable in pairing mode and go do something else. Decorate the kitchen perhaps. Grow an oak tree in the garden, maybe, while the W50 makes up its mind. Once Bluetooth is connected, the signal is solid and, for Bluetooth, sound pretty good overall.  

CONCLUSION

Initially? I took one look at this turntable and suspected that I might be about to test a turntable that was all about style over substance but no, I couldn’t have been more wrong. That wooden box plinth provided weight to to the bass, the cartridge is a solid and a recommend design but I think this turntable wins out purely because of the tonearm, the rigid straight tube, further enhanced by the carbon fibre coating which only adds to the rigidity and strength.

For the price, this is a surprisingly good quality turntable. Now and again, around the £300-£500 price point, Audio-Technica’s turntables surprise me. They did that when they initially released the 120x and the LP5x. Well, they’ve done it again with the W50. And this one is the best yet. 

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AUDIO-TECHNICA AT-LPW50BTRW TURNTABLE

PRICE: £420/$499 but I have seen it for sale in the UK for £379 so shop around

WEBSITE: www.audio-technica.com

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GOOD: spacious mids, detailed treble, tight bass, price

BAD: Bluetooth pairing

RATING: 8

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