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

Simplicity at its best. You do need an amp that has a Phono input or add an external pre-amp. Just remember when you buy something really nice like this turntable the rest of your system might also need an upgrade! Regardless, I got tired of dealing with an old 70s Dual auto-turntable and there is just a major sound quality difference in this turntable over some cool retro setup! Balance and setup is very straightforward and instructions are thorough. If you have ever seen a really beautiful gloss black piano, the finish of this turntable is exactly the same. Even comes with white gloves so you can do that white glove install.

My pioneer turntable from 1978 finally died and I had to get a new turntable. I did my research and finally settled on the RT85 and am happy I did. This sounds amazing. I was a little confused by balancing tonearm instructions in the manual but fluance had an excellent video online that showed exactly how to do it. I ordered a tonearm scale just to make sure the tracking weight was set correctly and the scale measured 1.89g. This turntable is great and I would not hesitate purchasing any fluance turntable.

I bought this turntable to replace my vintage Technics SL-D2 which was working fine, but I was looking for something to enhance my vinyl listening experience and I was not disappointed. The Ortophon 2m Blue cartridge included with the Fluance RT85 provides so much more dynamic sound and air to LPs Ive listened to for years. The turntable itself works perfectly and I really appreciate the acrylic platter which eliminated the static I would get when placing or removing albums from the older turntable. The belt drive motor is silent and smooth. Well documented set up instructions had me listening to music in 20 minutes from opening the box. Well worth the money!

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.

I haven’t had a turntable since my Technics direct drive from 40 years ago. When it went bad recently I looked for an upgrade/replacement. I couldn’t be more happy with my choice. I love the acrylic platter, for both function and aesthetics, and the lack of wow and flutter with good sound to noise ratio. The sounds is warm, crisp, detailed and better than I remembered my vinyl from the days of the 70s and 80s. A great value as are all the turntables Fluance offers. Simplistic in design and operation but that adds to the overall enjoyment in my opinion. I’m thoroughly immersed in my vinyl collection again!

Decided to get back into vinyl. I had sold off my records and turntable years ago. Read great things about the RT85, and it has not disappointed. Got it in piano black and with the clearish acrylic platter it looks beautiful- kind of a retro-futuristic piece. It arrived packed beautifully. Very easy to set up and balance the tonearm. I initially tried it with the phono stage on my Yamaha Aventage AVR, but I am now trialing a couple of high-value phono pre-amps. The sound is great! Much better than I remember with my old equipment. I am starting to rebuild a record collection. Highly recommend this turntable.

I bought an RT85 a few weeks ago so feel confident in making some review comments about it. I think its important to know what this turntable is and isnt, in order to keep expectations in line with the price you are paying. To keep this short, heres my summary of pros and cons: Pros: - Beautifully made, finished, and packaged. Just gorgeous to look at. - Easy to assemble and setup. Everything is in the box, including decent RCA cables, a turntable level, 45 rpm adapter, power supply, etc. Less than 1 hour after you open the box, youre listening to records. - Easy to change headshells with a relatively strong screw-on connection. - Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge has excellent sound. - 33/45 switch and a quality belt-drive system for very good hifi sound. Cons: - The arm has significant microphonics. That means when you touch the arm or the lifter, it makes noises through the speakers corresponding to your hand touches. Does not affect playing after you release the arm on the record. The company says this is normal but an older Denon turntable it replaced did not do this with a similar cartridge. - The arm is not adjustable for height. The height matches the Ortofon cartridge perfectly (the arm is parallel to the record when playing) but is not right for other brands. I tried two other cartridges/headshells and one was so much less in height that the needle wouldnt go down far enough to touch the record until I installed 5mm of shims to lower the cartridge within the headshell. Im not sure what the benefit of removable headshells is if you cant adjust the arm easily afterward. - The RT85 comes with the special acrylic platter (instead of metal). They claimed this platter doesnt need a mat under the record, so none was provided. This is really not true in my experience. If you try to clean the record with a cleaning brush while it is rotating on the platter, it will slip on the platter - not good for the record! Im using a 2mm felt pad on mine and not only does it not slip but the sound is improved. - It has a 3-point (3 feet) mounting system. Yes, 3 points define a plane, but that doesnt make this turntable particularly stable. Not recommended for DJ or rough handling use. Overall, remember youre getting both a turntable and good cartridge for $500 so you cant complain too much. The sound quality is good but not up there with the multi-$k esoteric ones. The only reason I bought this turntable was because I needed a removable headshell for testing purposes and this turntable is the only one I found with a belt drive, which is the best for hifi. However, if you are a DJ with similar needs, you will probably be looking elsewhere to get the full flexibility you need.

If you are looking for a TT in this price range, and you’re going back and forth among options, I will encourage you to stop looking and buy the RT85, even if it takes a while to get delivered. This is the best TT you can get ~$500, if you are going for new and not vintage. This thing is built for ppl with audiophile leanings. 3 lb acrylic platter, beautiful gloss finish, speed switch, and, most importantly, the Ortofon 2M BLUE cartridge included (those usually go for ~$250 separately). All of these features seem more high end than the price suggests. No unnecessary parts, so in that sense, pretty minimal and not distracted. The only thing that may hold u up is the belt drive. Some say this is less reliable than a direct drive, but this TT has a servo motor that checks the speed 500/sec. The speed on my table is always spot on so far. The plinth seems solid. The dust cover is a little annoying to install, but you can get it with patience. The sound coming out of this thing through my ART DJ PRE II preamp and active speakers is so crisp and realistic. I feel like I’m in a room full of performers. The instruments are separated well. All in all, amazing purchase. Get it. And if something goes wrong, the customer service at Fluance will be pretty accommodating.

My nearly fifty year old Dual 1218 turntable was having serious problems that I couldnt fix, but I was skeptical about buying a new turntable having been told that they dont build them like they used to. It used to be that top quality turntables were all direct drive, while the cheapest were belt drive. But modern technology such as electronic speed control have changed everything. Anyways, the performance of this turntable with its Ortofon 2M Blue stylus is a vast improvement over my old Dual 1218 with its Acutex stylus. Its also nice that it is supplied with premium quality RCA cables. Im amazed with the sound clarity on all my records, each instrument sounds just right, the vocals are clear and the artists voices are true to what they sounded like when I heard them live, the channel separation is excellent and all the subtle background sounds can be heard as well. There is a downside to this sensitivity in that every little scratch and nick in my old worn records can be readily heard as snaps and pops. As to the speed, its spot on as verified with a strobe light and disc. The speed controller really does its job so theres no need for a manual pitch control like in the old days. The turntable runs completely silent with no mechanical or feedback noise, so you really cant tell its even turned on until the stylus contacts the record. The auto stop feature is great since it not only stops the turntable at the end of a record, but also only starts it when the tonearm is removed from its rest and placed over the record. Since it is connected to a switched power outlet at the rear of my receiver, I simply leave it turned on all the time with the speed set to 33. Initial setup was almost trouble free, except for the instructions telling me to slip the counter weight onto the rear of tonearm until it clicks and then turn it until the tonearm is balanced. So, I turned and turned and turned without getting even close to the balance point. I viewed a few online videos, and realized that you have to keep pushing the weight past the first click until it clicks again and then again and then again, four times in all before it is finally truly installed. After that, two quick turns and I got it balanced. Phew ! Also, the markings on the tracking force and anti-skating dials are a greyish color that are very hard to see, so I needed a bright work light to see them clearly to make the adjustments. I did appreciate that the cartridge was already installed and aligned on a separate carrier that screws into the tonearm. This should also make stylus changes much easier. Ive had the turntable for over a month, and not experienced any problems. I went ahead and purchased the 1.7 lb weight from Fluance, although frankly I cant hear any difference. One thing I would not advise is running a cleaning brush on a record with the turntable turned on, since the motor is not very powerful and it could cause the belt to slip and wear as the speed controller attempts to maintain the set speed. So, overall, I am very pleased with this purchase, and at its current $500 price I think its a steal.

Beautiful and well constructed turntable. Flawless performance from a well constructed player with an outstanding cartridge. You can spend more and get better, but your not going to find better at this price.