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

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 did quite a lot of research before I decided on the Fluance RT85. My old vintage turntable was a Denon with an Audio Technica moving coil cartridge. The stylus became bent and unusable so I decided to replace the whole turntable. I shortly entertained the idea of replacing it with a vintage model such as a Technics, but quickly talked myself out of buying a table in unknown condition. My choices then went to a Project Carbon EVO, an Audio Technica L120 or the Fluance. I selected the Fluance for three reasons: 1. Admittedly minor, but I like that the Fluance will lift the tonearm at the end of the record. 2. The Fluance includes an acrylic platter instead of it being an upgrade. 3. The cartridge, an Ortophon 2M Blue, without listening to any of the offerings, seemed to be the best choice coming off a moving coil cartridge. Im particular to a bright sound rather than a warm one. The reviews of this cartridge were all overwhelmingly positive. There are other differences in the tables. The AT is a direct drive table and the Project does not have a detachable headshell. But the cartridge, in my mind has the most to do with the final sound of the table. All this being said, the Fluance was pretty easy to set up out of the box. The cartridge was mounted at the factory on a removable headshell. I leveled the table with the included bubble level and I purchased a stylus force gauge to make sure the tracking force was correctly set. Im running this turntable through a 100wpc Yamaha CR-2020 receiver and through my JBL Decade L36 speakers. I grabbed a few of my old college vinyl collection and immediately was blown away. Whether it was due to the cartridge or some other combination of the Fluances manufacturing prowess, the sound was superb. While probably not as bright as my old moving coil cartridge, the sound was definitely not skewed to the warm side. My older ears admittedly might be responsible for the reduced high end sound perception. So far, no negative comments. Im just really pleased with this turntable and I think the long research period seems to be well worth it. The standard comment that you should go and hear all your choices before buying still holds a lot of water. Its not always very practical or convenient to do so, however. For this choice, Ive replaced common wisdom with an in depth perusal of the Comments Section - and it didnt do me wrong.

I’ve collected vinyl for many decades and have several turntables ranging from vintage Thorens and several Technics to an expensive VPI with Clearaudio Maestro cartridge. I’m a big fan of the Ortofon line and when I saw that the RT85 Reference came with a 2M Blue installed I had to jump at the opportunity. I had purchased speakers from Fluance some years ago and was impressed with their quality and customer service so I expected nothing different with this purchase. I read several of the online reviews that were impressed with the quality of the build, the ease of use, the wonderful Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge and the outstanding sound quality. My unit arrived professionally packed and assembly was a breeze. Kudos for a clearly written user manual. Even though I am not a beginner the clear instructions would be easy for anyone to follow. Once installed I put it to the test with a wide variety of genres and styles of music. I’m still impressed and I’ve been listening every day for a few weeks now. This is a killer combo and I’m still shaking my head in amazement that Fluance has been able to pack so much quality in such an inexpensive unit. The auto stop feature is especially appreciated as my other manual turntables lack anything like that, requiring me to get up and replace the tonearm at the end of each side. While auto stop is not as convenient as semiautomatic, it’s a welcome addition to an otherwise manual turntable. Well done Fluance for putting a quality audio product within reach of almost anyone who is into vinyl. It really shines with my Parks Audio Budgie Tube preamp and has become my favorite turntable!!!! Five solid stars!!!!

A lot of research went into this. This is my second player, which was upgraded from an Audio Technica. Its sounds great. It has Auto-Stop. The Stylus from the Orf 2M put out a great crisp sound. Its worth the research before you buy. Your system that you are hooking up to makes it sound even better. Even if your looking for your first time player and can fit the budget, its worth a give try. Happy Spinning.

Being 65 years of age and growing up with records, I collected over 3,500 albums. I sold many of them during the late 80s when I mostly purchased and played CDs. Ive owned Thorens, Linn Sondek, Ariston, Music Hall, Rotel turntables and others during those years. I still have over 1800 albums in my collection. I read great reviews on the Fluance RT-85 and decided to try it. Simply put, you could not find a better turntable at anywhere near the 499.00 price point. It is exceptional for the money. While other much higher priced tables are equipped with a lower grade cartridge the RT-85 is shipped with the Ortofon 2M Blue cart. That is a 236.00 dollar cart that is included. It is a very good cartridge. I will be upgrading to the Bronze. The RT-85 is a well built and beautiful looking turntable. The price vs performance is off the charts in value. I can not recommend the Fluance RT-85 high enough. If one is on the fence about buying one, dont be. Buy it. Kudos to you Fluance !!

Absolutely love this turntable. Easy to setup and looks amazing in my audio cabinet. I can’t believe that it came with the Ortofon Blue cartridge. Very happy with this purchase.

Wife bought this for me for anniversary gift. And love it. I had a decent basic Sony turntable, used for 15 years. I really like the quality of the flouance. I almost got a 83 with reg platter and red cartridge. Would have worked ok, but I need a substantial upgrade. I’d definitely recommend that model to anyone getting first turntable if they have a receiver and speakers. I also got the flouance amp, since not built in. Sound is awesome, I hear all sorts extra stuff. I truly now know, when people say it’s best on vinyl that I know what they mean. Only complaint is I originally ordered the 85 in the dark brown wood and it came with a very obvious chip on the front corner, and could tell box had been opened after opening the purchase of the light wood model.

Customer service was very helpful with any questions I had regarding the product. Great turntable in my opinion.

Im an old guy. I grew up with turntables. I was not really into vinyl since the age of the CD, but I recently got hold of a CD-version of a record that I knew very well back in high school. I was disappointed, though; it just didnt sound anywhere near as great I remembered. After researching this, I found out that a lot of less popular classical music, just didnt make the transition to CDs very well. Many records were remastered for CD quick and dirty, just to get them on the market. Usually, this meant digitizing from master tapes by and somewhat blindly applying digital compression. This can make an exciting performance sound dull and lifeless. Some things were carefully engineered for CD, but a lot of other recordings, apparently, did not merit the time and care to do it right. (By the way, this is still a problem with digital music for streaming, the stuff that migrates from CD to contemporary digital formats; if fact, its commonly worse than to transition from vinyl to CD!) In order to remedy this problem, I bought this turn table. According to many reviewers, this thing punches well above its weight class and compares favorably to much more expensive devices. Im getting great results! Of course, I have a very expensive stereo system, and Im not using the Fluance pre-amp; I went for something a fair bit pricier with better reviews. So far, Ive only purchased twenty, or so, classical albums and some show music. The results have been astounding! I new plan to jump onto discogs and locate a few Jazz classics that Id like to hear on the original vinyl. Excellent product, and was super easy to set up. Right now, Im thinking sampling the output from this turntable/preamp using my Scarlet 2i2, so that I will have better quality digital versions of these vinyl recordings to listen to on the go on my DAP. Should be interesting. Look, Im not one of these people that thinks that vinyl (or digital-free) is better for everything. As a recording medium, I acknowledge that digital music has the POTENTIAL for more realistic reproductions than either analog tape, vinyl records, or CDs. Ive got some unbelievable digital music. The problem here is that in producing recordings, no matter the medium, everything has to be done RIGHT to make a faithful transit from the musicians voices and instruments to the listeners ears. It seems, there are a lot of excuses for why this doesnt happen so much of the time.

I think this is the perfect turntable if you are new or looking to get back into vinyl, as long as you know you are going to stick with this hobby. It’s a lot for my first real turntable but after trying out a suitcase record player (absolute trash and ruins your records over time) I knew that the upfront cost would get me something I could truly love and enjoy. This turn table as been all that and more! I listen to it for hours every day. I installed an LED strip under the back to light up the platter.