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

just hooked up my turn table, sounds awesome, have klipch speakers, and a harmon kardon 730, so clear, i think i just fell in love, if you are looking for an awesome turn table this is it, had a rega turntable for 40 years, it went bad, got this turn table and am totally happy. give this one a try, you wont regret it

I have the RT85 paired with a Schiit Mani 2 and it sounds phenomenal. This is a well made and pretty turntable for $500. If you’ve never balanced a tonearm before do not follow the Fluance manual the steps are not great. Locate the Fluance Youtube Video that walks you through the setup.

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.

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.

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!

Im not a hi fi expert by any means, but this RT85 sounds great. Powered by a Yamaha and JBL bookshelf speakers. I was concerned about sitting it up, it was a 10 minute easy job. I got the bamboo and am happy with my choice not a big problem with dust and finger prints. Didnt know what I was not hearing on my old cd s. Dark side of the moon has new life. Oh this is my first tt in almost 40 years. I made a good purchase. Found my old records from Army days lots to listen to again.

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.

Replacing a Rega Planar 1 that Ive had since around 2011 or 12. The Rega has been good, but has some annoying quirks that prompted me to look for a potential upgrade: weak motor, table spins backwards half the time on start up. Cue lever doesnt work anymore, same with he ant-skate, etc. This blows the Rega away in every regard excepting for the tonearm. However, with the lesser cartridge that came stock on the Rega, the Regas superior tonearm wasnt used to its best advantage and so may be considered irrelevant? The superior cartridge on the Fluance results in audible improvements across the spectrum: wider soundstage, increased depth, significantly more detail, etc. I was sceptical that Id hear much of an improvement, if any, but was I ever wrong! The acrylic platter (no more static from the mat), ability to adjust counter weight and anti-skate (Rega has only one default counter weight setting), adjustable feet for balancing, and a beautiful look makes for an amazing buy. I couldnt be more happy with the Fluance. Hopefully my review will be helpful to others that may be on the fence between this and the Rega Planar 1. Youll get a lot of value with the Fluance and clearly better sound as well.

Sounds wonderful. I’m hearing so much more, the soundstage is vast and immersive! Connected to the Fluance preamp with a 20ft rca run to my amp, and although that’s probably not the most ideal setup, it’s still light years ahead of my previous setup with a technics LP120. What an absolute pleasure. Love the auto return feature too. To my ears it sounds better than my friend’s Pro-Ject EVO when connected to the same system too. Go for it!

I am a conductor, no not one of those big-name maestros who occupy podiums in front of the finest musical ensembles I am a conductor of music, one who more than 50 years has had the privilege and expereince waving arms or baton in front of singers, orchestras, showbands, rock bands, jazz groups, soloists, childrens choirs, heck even trained hogs! I KNOW what live music sounds like. And I confess, I have been obsessed with audio stuff since I could say Heathkit and Dynaco. So what in the name of melody, harmony and rhythm does any of that have to do with this review of the Fluance RT85 turntable? This marvelous machine also knows music. Once you follow the set-up instructions , which are easy to follow IF you follow them, The RT85 sits elegantly and unobtrusively making music; music as it is intended. Sure you purist audioholics out there can spend hours hooking up the poor thing up to an endless chain of analytical devices testing wow, flutter, rumble, anti-skating, (Hailing form Minnesota, I have nothing against skating) and other four-syllable calibrations. But if you truly want to savor your music, be it Bach, Beatles, Coldplay or Coltrane, trust this music man. When that vinyl sphere centers on the RT85s eye-catching and perfectly-balanced acrylic platter, and the nude diamond of the high-quality Ortofon Blue cartridge finds its groove, get ready to hear and feel MUSIC! The superb craftmanship and outward beauty of the turntable combined with its dead-silent operation and dead-on speed accuracy make the RT85 the perfect choice and a true value for anyone who just wants to enjoy music. In Summation, WOW! ( there is no flutter), Thank You Fluance!