Fluance RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable Record Player with Ortofon 2M Blue Cartridge, Acrylic Platter, Speed Control Motor, High Mass MDF Wood Plinth, Vibration Isolation Feet - Walnut

If you’re in the fence, get it. Huge upgrade. You get what you pay for, and in this case you get more than what you pay for! Looks and sounds great. Half the price of the turntable is the BLUE. Great quality!

I suggest watching the video on YouTube for the tonearm balance; otherwise set up was easy and the quality is outstanding.

I love the sound produced by this turntable. I upgraded to the Blue Ortofon 2M cartridge. I am using it with the Fosi Audio Box X4 Phono Preamp. My set up includes a Denon receiver and passive speakers. I am amazed by the warmth and beauty of the sound. I listen to all styles of music, but it is especially beautiful for classical and jazz. I am still in the break in period so I am looking forward to how it will sound in the near future. Turntable assembly was simple, but I did have to attempt the tonearm leveling several times until I got it right. For some reason, I had trouble following the instructions even though, in retrospect, they were very clear. Once I did, the sound was amazing. I followed the instructions which said to position the speakers away from the turntable and NOT on the same surface as the turntable. I cant emphasize enough how much difference this made. I am extremely satisfied with my purchase.

TL;DR: The RT85 is a fantastic turntable, the absolute best overall package for the money! BUY IT! Detailed review: Assembly and setup: In my opinion, assembling the turntable is very basic and simple, however, if youve never done this before, I HIGHLY recommend you watch some videos on balancing the tone-arm and understanding the anti-skating weight. Doing this wrong WILL absolutely damage or DESTROY your beautiful 2M Blue cartridges stylus. I highly recommend buying a digital scale to measure the tracking force of your 2M Blue cartridge (1.8g) I did it manually as described by the manual and even though I was VERY careful with how much I turned the weight dial, it measured 1.85g on my digital scale when I verified it, so I ended up using the digital scale to fine-tune the manual effort! Probably not a big deal, but something to keep in mind. Also, get yourself a protractor and measure the alignment of your cartridge! Mine was spot on from the factory, but you should never assume this to be true! Wrong alignment can degrade sound quality and damage your stylus. Leveling the turntable takes time, so be patient! I recommend you fully assemble the turntable and hook it up to your HiFi before you level it in its final resting location. What I LOVE: The sound quality of the 2M Blue cartridge is fantastic! Its really bright and flat, no extra bass and no weird sound curves. Its a beautiful listening experience with a well distributed sound-stage. The bamboo plinth (my specific model) is fantastic - its NOT glossy, its matte! I really didnt want a glossy model since they are fingerprint magnets! My turntable isnt a show-queen, I intend to use it daily! A glossy one will just look terrible after handling it all day AND its easier to scratch up (especially micro-scratches). Acrylic platter is awesome! No mat required. It sounds good, feels good, and looks really good too! It offers plenty of potential for custom LED lighting and what not. The dust cover hinges are really nice! They are actually spring-loaded - its very easy to operate and feels solid (unlike other turntables Ive used in the past). What I dont really like: Semi-auto mode is kind of weird, I like the fact that it will stop a record from spinning if you forget to turn it off. However, just make sure you understand this! Always lift the stylus using the cue lever BEFORE handling the tone-arm! If you fail to do this, you will scratch your records and or possibly destroy your stylus. I noticed that with semi-auto mode, the platter will spin again momentarily while you move the tone-arm back to its resting position after it has automatically stopped. It will also NOT start spinning until the tone-arm is positioned over the record (even if you have already selected a playback speed). All these layers of logic add complexity to the usability and the steps required to operate the table. If youre used to fully manual turntables, you could find yourself doing something out of order and damaging your stylus by mistake, so just try to understand the operational flow of the RT85 in semi-auto mode. OR, you can turn this whole feature off completely. Im not a huge fan of the cue-lever on the RT85. It feels kind of cheap and its weirdly positioned. I wish they would have made it more pronounced and distanced it a little bit from the rest of the tone-arm assembly. Im also not a huge fan of the tone-arm locking mechanism, it works ... but just doesnt feel as premium as the rest of the turntable. Lastly, and this may be nit-picking ... the 2M Blue stylus cover is a little difficult to put back once removed. Its easy to remove it off of the cartridge, but a bit hard to put back on. Be careful here, one wrong move and youll end up jamming the stylus cover into the stylus and ruining it! Overall, Im very happy with my purchase! Highly recommended table for the money - you will not find a better deal IMHO than the RT85 at this price-point. NOTE: the record weight pictured in my review is purchased separately.

This is my first turntable so technically I am a beginner. Set up was easy with the included instructions and the sound out of this thing is crazy good. Super detailed with the mods sounding just a touch recessed. Perfect for me - human hearing already is overly sensitive to those frequencies anyway. Matched it with the ifi phone preamp and it is officially the best input into my Denon. Something about the way LPs reproduce treble (especially cymbals) is just unmatched. Love the Ortofon blue cartridge and it is easy to change out if I want..switching speeds is a breeze too with the switch on top. At this price the turntable IS NOT fully automatic though. Splurged for the bamboo and it looks clean and modern. LOVE IT!

Ive been building my dream sound system since I was 14. Im now 69. My first quality turntable was a Technics, Direct Drive, Fully Automatic. Although it was expensive, I never skimped on guitars, amps, or stereo equipment. Back then, no cartridge or stylus came with the turntable. So I bought a Stanton EEE cartridge. After 50 years of non-stop use, she stopped working. I did my research and my first choice, based on my budget, was an Audio-Technika, model 120XUSB which s sells for between $349 and $399. Got it home, unpacked it, plugged it in, and nothing. No power. In addition, it was a piece of junk. Ive seen some PlaySkool turntables which were better constructed. Lets cut to the chase. After additional research, I decided to spend a bit more and get the Fluence R85. Ive never heard of them but my research gave them high marks. Once I had it set up, balanced, and cartridge aligned, I put on my Led Zeppelin 1 album at extreme volume to see if John Bonham could make it skip. This is a precision machine. I like how they say its fully manual, but it is. When you bring the arm over, lower it, and it slowly and gently descends straight downward to accurately hit the lead groove. The cartridge is unbelievable. It delivers crisp treble and hearty bass. Another nice feature not on many turntables is the auto stop which can be disengaged. At the end of the record, the turntable spins for thirty seconds and comes to a stop, avoiding any damage to the needle. Bottom Line: If you can afford the extra $150 over the Audio-Tecknica, You Will Not Be Disappointed.

Definitely recommend this turntable. I believe it is probably the best turntable under $1000. So easy to set up. Sounds amazing. I mean the stylus on this turntable alone is worth half the price of the turntable and you get an acrylic platter. The turntable is dead silent. Even when playing with speakers on the same surface there is no resonance. It comes out of the box exactly as it is stated. When I set it up I used the suggested settings. The weight is spot on. I set it the tracking force as recommended and then put it on a scale and it was within .002 grams. I set the anti skate and then tested it and it was perfectly still. When I pulled out my protractor the cartridge was already aligned. So easy to set up and easy to listen to. If youre looking stop now. This is a fantastic turntable. UPDATE------------------------------------------------------- This turntable produces so much detail. A very spacious sound stage with wonderful reproduction of the instruments and vocals. I can really get an idea of where everyone was standing in the recording studio. I cant say enough about the quality of the Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge. That combined with a great tone arm, a plinth that is built on top of rubber spring loaded feet and an acrylic platter. It is going to be hard to beat this combination for less than $1000. It is very easy to set up. As I previously stated just follow the instructions and you are off and running. You can trust that head shell will be properly aligned and that the tracking force and anti-skate will be accurate. The amount of detail that Fluance put into building this turntable really shines through. It even comes with white gloves to keep finger prints off of the beautiful finish. The motor is dead silent and the speed control really works. There is no detectable wow and flutter with this turntable. Even the queuing lever is top notch. There really is nothing about this turntable that I find to be a negative. If this turntable were double the price I could still justify recommending it. You will not be disappointed. If you find my review to be useful please take the time to vote it as helpful. Thank you for your time and enjoy your new turntable.

First things first. For what you get this turntable is amazing. The Ortofon blue produces amazing sound. I also have this paired with some Bowers bookshelves though. I really wanted to give the company 1 star over how they handled shipping. Communication was sloppy and I feel like I was lied too about when it shipped. I was not pleased with that. Once I got the turntable and set it up I changed my mind. I let the shipping fiasco slip and focused on the product. It’s amazing. Heavy, well built. The acrylic platter is awesome. Setup is easy, but you will need some tools to ensure it’s done right. Thankfully the cartridge came pre aligned, but the tone arm counterbalance is a little bit off. When I put a scale under the stylus their 1.8 was actually 2.0 for weight. I’d say to invest in a simple scale to make sure the right amount of pressure is being applied to your table. Not a big deal. At this level you should have some knowledge of how to set up a turntable anyways. The setup instructions they provide are good though. All in all it’s a great mid level turntable and more than enough to last for many years to come. I can see why the reviews are so good. I’ll definitely recommend this to others. Just don’t take what they say regarding shipping too seriously.

This is a fantastic record player. For the money it is so well-built and easy to use. With the 2M blue cartridge. It sounds fantastic with crystal clear highs and very deep bass can’t beat this record player for the money.

Simple to set up RCA/Ground terminals make it easy to integrate into system. No hum running through my amp/speakers The glass platter is beautiful and spins smoothly But the biggest highlight? The sound! Upgrading from an Audio-Technica AT-LP60 and am blown away by the clarity on the RT85 in comparison.