Audio Technica Fully Auto Belt Driven Turntable

This was a huge disappointment, as it skipped 3 BRAND NEW records I had bought (Ziggy Stardust, Jimmy Hendrix, Deep Purple). I certainly understand that these were represses of original records (and to be fair, it never skipped on a newly released album), but believe that it should play all records. When I played these records on "older" record players, they didn't skip. I should add that this record player did not have any problem playing old records. I am really bummed out about this. What is more, now that I've been using it for a while, the pitch starts to drag the longer a record plays and consequently sounds horrible. What do I expect for a 100 dollar record player? More than this, that's for sure. [edit 1, a week or so after the above: Here’s the long version. Way more than you need, but I feel the story must get told so that the public knows. It’s my civic duty.] BUT FIRST, without reading my entire story of heartbreak with this thing, the most important addendum I absolutely must make to the above is that AMAZON WAS AWESOME. They broke their return policy for me and let me send it back 5 months after I bought it. Here’s the whole story: I saw the 4.3 (or whatever it was at the time) average rating of this record player on Amazon and thought it would be good for an entry-level person like me. I wanted to see what the vinyl-hype was all about and have very fond memories of my parents always having a record on. Here’s the thing though: I didn't look at the distribution of the reviews and definitely didn't read any of the one-star reviews. I just bought it, assuming it would all balance out and be pretty ok, for 100 bucks. Wrong. The product is crappy. I was pretty excited about this when I got it. Picked up some 99 cent vintage records here and there and was impressed with the sound quality and ease of use for 100 bucks. Shortly after I bought the record player, I ordered a re-press of an album I’ve been loving a lot lately: Ziggy Stardust. I took the plastic off and carefully put it on the spindle. Sounded great! I flipped it over to side two and was utterly dismayed that it skipped on the first 3 songs. I returned the record (ebay) and chalked it up a faulty “new” record. I kept picking up used older vinyl here and there and never had any problems with any of those records. The next important thing that happened in the saga is when I splurged on Machine Head (a repress) from Laurie’s Planet of Sound in Lincoln Square, Chicago (which, by the way, is a great record store. Check it out if you’re in town!). I excitedly took off the plastic and listened through side one. It sounded pretty damn good. BUT, on side 2, it skipped right at the beginning of Smoke on the Water. Granted, I am sick to death of that song so might not always want to listen to it. But I paid to have the option to, right? Bad record again? Hmmm... I took the record into Laurie’s Planet of Sound and had them put it on their record player (a vintage one with a weighted arm, etc). They were kind enough to let me return if it skipped on theirs. The place where it skipped had a loud pop, but did not skip. I started the return of the record player (this was within the first 30 days of my owning it). I can’t explain why exactly, but I just never got around to returning it. Of course the main thing was the hassle of doing the return. Another thing was that a small part of me still thought maybe these were 2 bad records. So I just kept on using it. I consulted with the people at Laurie’s and other record stores to see if anyone else was complaining about these newly re-pressed classic albums skipping on new record players. I couldn't get much traction on that. I tried to find info to read online about it and even tried the stupid nickel thing (probably not the best idea, but...Hey! I'm a newb!). Needless to say, that didn't work either. A month or so later, I bought 2 Jimi Hendrix records at Best Buy. Axis: Bold as Love was great all the way through (and again, sounded quite nice), but Are You Experienced had skips in the first 3 songs of side 2. I failed to return this record to Best Buy in time. This was getting out of hand. Is this whole industry of re-pressed classic records just shoddy? If so, how come no one else is really talking about it or complaining about it? Maybe I was looking in the wrong place, but I couldn't find any forums where this was being discussed. By the way, Best Buy was actually displaying this very same record player model RIGHT UNDER the records I bought. So you're selling a record player that doesn’t play the records you sell? Grrrrrrrrrr! New record players should be able to play all records. Period. I should note that it only did this with new re-presses of original old records; when I played a new recent album (D'Angelo - Black Messiah), it didn't skip. That's the only data I have for new albums. The last in this series of unfortunate events with this record player is that it began to drag records as they played. The sound started to warp worse and worse as the minutes passed. It was unlistenable, and the last stupid-annoying straw for me. Normally I would admit that the nickel thing I stupidly did might have exacerbated this, but many other one-star reviewers had speed problems as well and I can't imagine all of them taped nickels to the needle-arm too. I am a nice person and hate to complain to strangers unwarranted. I also try to follow the rules, but at this point, when I saw the return I had started at Amazon months earlier, I went ahead and tried to complete it. Understandably, Amazon would not let me complete the return as I was well past the 30-day return window. I emailed them to ask if they would make an exception for me, explaining my complaints. They emailed me back within hours and said that they couldn’t but that I should check with AT directly. Which, again, I get. They shouldn’t break the rules because I couldn't admit to myself that this product sucks. Well, right after I got the rejection on the return, I wrote my original review (above). A few hours after that, the return label was mysteriously in my email in-box. THANK YOU, Amazon. This is probably the best customer service I’ve ever received. I don’t know what data caused you to reconsider (not sure if it was the review [and that definitely was not my motive for writing it]), but I am so happy about them taking my return. It’s not even the money, really. It’s just a shitty product and AT should issue a factory recall. Best Buy should NOT have it on their shelves. If it was Amazon's clerical error, that’s fine too, but I prefer to give Amazon the point on this one, as these “mistakes” never happen in the customer’s favor. For the people who gave it 5 stars and never had any problems with it, you are lucky. If you are considering this product, you might get one that works, or you might get a crappy one. It’s a huge gamble. If you want to only listen to used records, it might work for a while. But then it might start to slow down, like mine did. It might have a different issue other 1-star raters mentioned. Save yourself time and (in my case, many) headache(s) and learn from us: DON'T DO IT! Of extreme interest to me (and should be to you) is this review by Mourtal, who initially gave it a 5-star review but went through a similarly stupid-annoying nightmare with it and AT and changed his 5-star review to a 1-star (you must copy and paste link; it won't let me hyperlink): https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R23NRXC2OH5NWH/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B002GYTPAE I read through all of the 1-star reviews for this product to date (yes, all 37 pages) and have learned a very important life-lesson: always read 1-star reviews when buying a costlier product. It’s not about average reviews; it’s more like Russian roulette. You might get a bad one. Which is definitely a first-world problem, but doesn't change the fact that it still sucks. I just ordered the House of Marley, Stir It Up Turntable - 45/33 RPM, USB jack in back for analog to PC recording, Replaceable Cartridge, Bamboo Plinth, EM-JT000-SB Signature Black based solely on the fact that it has ONLY 4 and 5 star reviews. We'll see how it goes. I was going to get a Pioneer PL-30-K Audiophile Stereo Turntable with Dual-Layered Chassis and Built-in Phono Equalizer based on some of the other AT-LP60 1-star reviewers' recommendations, but it had similarly weird 1-star reviews. I just want a record player that sounds decent and that I don’t have to worry about. By the way, last I was in, I noticed that Laurie’s Planet of Sound is now using the AT-LP60 in-house. I bet that won’t last long.