Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT turntable review: a primo player that deftly marries quality, cost and convenience

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT: Two-minute review

The Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT is a fresh entrant from the good ship AT that continues its successes in matching quality with affordability. This pre-calibrated plug-and-play machine delivers fuss-free playback and a great rounded sound, all of which can be enjoyed wired or wirelessly, via foolproof Bluetooth connectivity.

Digging in a little, there’s some room for improvement when it comes to sound but, in a break from tradition for budget players such as this, the stylus can be upgraded to another Audio-Technica needle with consummate ease. The body is also a little lightweight, but the turntable is nonetheless stable and plays records near-flawlessly, thanks to its beefy motor.

Will it be appearing in our best turntables list? Well, the Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT’s little flourishes make it both a fun and reliable turntable to use. It won’t be replacing anyone’s pride-and-joy record players, mind, but it is a great candidate for someone’s first. From producing solid sounds to taking care of your records, this is a fantastic option for a budget player that reaches beyond the stereotypes of its category.

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT review: Price and release date

• $249 / £219 / AUS$599
• Launched on July 31, 2024

Audio-Technica has curried a lot of favor over the years, between its pro-sumer headphone offerings, pioneering efforts in cartridge design and, of course, its ever-evolving roster of well-regarded record players. 

The Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT is the latest in its entry-level automatic turntable range, and supersedes the AT-LP60XBT, a capable, if slightly flimsy-feeling, record player that’s deservedly won out over other entry level players in its orbit. The AT-LP70XBT is undoubtedly an improvement and flaunt some major changes, from a new chassis design to a dramatically improved tonearm and stylus system.

While some things have changed for the better, the point of the AT-LP70XBT remains the same and the new changes only cement Audio-Technica’s supremacy in this corner of the market. Against dozens of other automatic and Bluetooth-compliant turntables, this one wins out on a fair few fronts.

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT review: Specs

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT review: Features

• aptX Adaptive Bluetooth transmission
• AT-VMN95C stylus
• Built-in phono preamp

The Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT is a fully automatic turntable, designed with ease-of-use firmly in mind. As such, it is a simple record player, which does away with the finicky aspects of cartridge alignment and calibration.

This is usually a cause for concern in cheap automatic turntables, which suffer for their overweighted tonearms and imprecise tracking. Yet here, with a carefully weighted tonearm and a fixed, aligned cartridge, it’s a newbie-friendly benefit. Many cheap entry-level turntables also suffer from the provision of an underpowered motor, and again the AT-LP70XBT rises above; it’s belt-driven, and its motor is both plenty strong and plenty quiet.

The turntable has an integrated cartridge system, but which utilises Audio-Technica’s VM95 series’ replaceable styli. It comes equipped with the VMN95C, an entry-level conical stylus with a passable sound to it – but with a little aftermarket expenditure, you can upgrade the stylus to most any other in the series. This assembly is encased in an all-in-one J-shaped tonearm, so shaped to benefit from reduced tracking errors (and also as something of a wink and nudge to Audio-Technica turntable tonearms of old).

The AT-LP70XBT’s loudest feature is its Bluetooth connectivity, which enables you to send audio to any compatible receiver of your choosing. Whether casting audio to your wireless headphones or your kitchen Bluetooth speaker, you’ll have a riot with this feature. The Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT supports both SBC and aptX Adaptive codecs – a single press of the dedicated Bluetooth button has it searching for devices to connect to, and this writer encountered no difficulties in getting it to pair.

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT review: Sound quality

• Robust, dependable playback
• Charmingly rich sound for price
• Sometimes a tad hollow

This turntable is a gratifyingly sturdy play, and delivers reliable performance somewhat beyond its own remit. The pre-installed AT-VMN95C stylus is conical, which provides smooth and unproblematic playback, albeit at the expense of some definition. Though basic, it is still a serious leg up on its predecessor’s cartridge, and on those typically offered by other automatic turntables in this bracket.

The first test was Radiohead’s There There 12in single, which was every bit the sonorous sledgehammer you’d hope. Big driving toms cut through by throaty, clanging guitars, with Thom Yorke’s voice carried cleanly and smoothly through the rest. However, higher-end elements were found to be a touch bright, Jonny Greenwood’s erratic guitar stabs being the chief culprit.

The low end is surprisingly well-served by this turntable, as proven by There There, but also by records of an altogether heavier constitution. Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf is rich, deep, full and just as gratifying as it should be on any medium, while Slift’s Ummon kicks proverbial right from the drop. How, on something this cheap?

This comes with caveats, though. Elsewhere, this low-end representation can be a little indistinct; bloomy, as opposed to focused. Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul’s Topical Dancer is a record rich in spongy subs and textured bass synths, some of which are resultingly underserved; Esperanto’s sliding bass hook resonates imprecisely, and the big kicks of It Hit Me encroach upwards, sometimes squashing the rest of the track.

Tactile elements, however, are a joy. The thrilling transients of Blenda’s beat and kalimba samples, and of Ich Mwen’s propulsive drums, are lightly smoothed but otherwise distinct, even three-dimensional. In heavier scenarios, this clear high end can veer into overrepresentation, QOTSA and Slift both suffering a little from spiky string-squeal and tissy hi-hats.

The Bluetooth transmission is as clear as you could ever ask for, sending a generally unbothered signal to my kitchen Bluetooth speaker. It sounds clean, clear and wholly representative, which is obviously great – however, the turntable’s shortcomings elsewhere are rendered a little more naked for this. Pile’s All Fiction sounds amazing in its quieter moments (Blood’s sparseness translates near-perfectly), but a bloomy low end and shelved high end in louder tracks lead to a slight mid-scooped hollowness.

In short, the AT-LP70XBT doesn’t sound perfect. But it does sound good, and a darn sight good-er than most anything else in its weight class. While it could never measure up to better-specced turntables outside its price class, it scores highly here for its impressive stability, surprising depth and otherwise clear voice – a difficult find in other budget turntables.

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT review: Design

• Plussed-up aesthetics
• Truly plug-and-play
• A little underweight

For looks, the AT-LP70XBT is a considerable improvement on its elder. The J-shaped tonearm is slinkier and satisfyingly uniform, while the ensleekified body features control buttons and switches re-located for maximum minimalism. That includes the automatic mechanism’s 7in/12in toggle switch, once a prominent top-mounted lever and now smartly concealed in the tonearm pivot. Speaking of automatism, the AT-LP70XBT’s automatic mechanism is slow but sure, and activated with a satisfyingly mechanical clunk.

With this smart-lookin’ redesign comes the smallest of gripes, though: there’s nowhere for the provided 45rpm adapter to live on the unit anymore. This is a shame, for sure, but one easily forgotten when you see just how pleasingly the tonearm lift blends into the tonearm pivot’s surround. Mmm.

The AT-LP70XBT loses a point or two when compared (perhaps unfairly) to manual turntables at or slightly above its price range – the weight is one such point, the other is adjustability. Where most turntables worth their salt will have a half-inch headshell that allows you to replace your cartridge with whatever you’d like, and an adjustable counterweight to calibrate for said cartridge, the AT-LP70XBT is pretty firmly set in its ways, by both a fixed cartridge system and a fixed-weight tonearm.

You might be hearing the distant screams of a thousand spectral gear-heads about now, and that’s because I’m about to suggest that this turntable’s fixed nature isn’t that much of a big deal. Indeed, it’s a smart move for easily intimidated newcomers to the format, and a simple way of foolproofing aspects of the turntable which could otherwise (and in unfamiliar hands) cause harm to a record collection.

Besides, the fixed cartridge system here is a dramatic improvement on the LP60XBT’s ubiquitous, good-but-not-great AT-3600L-toting tonearm. Here, the tonearm effectively contains the moving-magnet assembly from Audio-Technica’s AT-VM95 series, meaning it’s compatible with any VMN95-series stylus. The AT-LP70XBT ships with the cheapest, the VMN95C conical stylus, but with a little extra expenditure (and an exceedingly simple pull-and-replace operation) you can replace it for a better stylus with ease.

The pre-weighted tonearm gives a tracking force of 2.05g – comfortably in the mid-range of the 1.8g to 2.2g recommended tracking force for all AT-VMN95-series styli – and hence, in principle at least, never in need of adjustment for the entirety of the turntable’s lifespan. For this turntable’s purposes, perfect!

More generally, the AT-LP70XBT is a little on the light side. This is with thanks to its plastic chassis, but thankfully the unit retains a low center of gravity, and so squats  reassuringly on your furnishing of choice. That being said, try not to nudge said furniture too much thereafter.

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT review: Value

• Excellent performance for price category
• …but expensive enough to give you pause

It’s difficult to talk about the value prospect of the AT-LP70XBT without being hugely subjective about it. While manual turntables elsewhere are considerably more precise, tweakable, upgradeable, and even high-fidelity out of the box, the AT-LP70XBT isn’t really trying to be any of those things.

The AT-LP70XBT was never meant to be a customisable last-turntable-you’ll-ever-buy affair. Instead, it’s aiming at being the best in a crowded field of often-lacking automatic turntables, offering reliable performance and great sound as an accessible appliance, as opposed to an audiophile-appeasing starter turntable. As such, it might not be of much value to anyone that already knows their hi-fi onions, but represents a massive amount of value to someone getting into (or back into) records as a format.

This turntable rightfully runs rings around most of the turntables that share its attributes, and as such would be a killer purchase – if it came in slightly cheaper than $249 / £219 / AUS$599. That UK price point, in particular, is an awkward one – close to the £200 mark but just high enough to give you pause; does its convenience outweigh the better sound and less plasticky construction of its manual turntable competitors? This reviewer has a soft spot for the AT-LP70XBT, but this corner of the budget price bracket is a toughie regardless.

Should you buy the Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT: Also consider

How I tested the Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT

• Tested for 4 weeks
• Used as primary turntable in living-room hi-fi system
• Predominantly tested through Cambridge AV amplifier and Celestion speakers, as well as a Soundcore Bluetooth speaker

The Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT became my primary living-room turntable for a month. The RCA outputs fed my dependable Cambridge Audio Azur 540R amplifier and Celestion F1 bookshelf speakers; for Bluetooth, I connected to a Soundcore Motion 300 speaker in another room. I used personal favourite records with which I am intimately familiar, and with which I was able to get a feel for the AT-LP70XBT character both wired and wirelessly.

First reviewed: October 2024