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

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.

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.

Suena espectacular

So....decided it was time to get my vinyl up and running. Had a Denon dp300 table + Onkyo nr777 receiver + Polk 65t towers. I just wasnt getting the sound I felt like I was expecting so, the chase began. Started with an Ortofon 2m blue cartridge....sounded pretty good but....then bought a Project S2 pre thinking the pre on the Denon probably wasnt that great still.....meh. I even bought directional RCA cables the were...mid high end. Had begun to look at new speakers. The Polks were very highly regarded when I bought them but felt like maybe something better. In the meantime, I bought a handful of remastered old favorite LPs and one evening I noticed that the needle on the Denon table was running across the label before returning. My wife and I had moved a couple years ago and the Denon did not have an arm lock. I took the cartridge head off before moving but, I started to wonder if the tonearm hadnt taken a beating during the move. so....started looking at tables....Project, Music hall etc....etc....One evening I stumbled across the RT85 so I began to look into it. I liked the autostop feature for obvious reasons. The more reviews I read, the more I felt like I could take the chance on a,unknown to me company. Besides, they threw in a Ortofon 2m blue with it.....($300) cartidge. The unit arrived well packed. I am in my sixties so am very experienced on putting together and setting up turntables. Setting this thing up was a breeze...not sure why some folks have such a hard time. (I did need to align the cartridge a little bit but, the instructions come with a protractor so...no issue). Once I got it all leveled and hooked up, I pulled out the remastered Steely Dan Aja. More stereo systems were sold in the 70s by demoing Aja than any other....blah blah blah. Anyway....as soon as I dropped the needle, there was the sound I was looking for. Clear separation.....full eq with punchy low end without being rumbly (have a sub for that)...midrange was right their. No need for new speakers....the Polks were as advertised. Was glad I bought the Project preamp. Everything these days needs to be broken in. Ortofon says 40 hours plus on the blue needle....hell, the RCA cables recommended 100+ hours....sounded stellar first time so I expect my set up will just keep getting better. Bottom line....buy this table. For about $500 bucks you get a quality belt drive, auto shutoff (lots of music puts me to sleep), a nice acrylic platter and maybe the best, somewhat, lower priced end cartridge in the biz all wrapped in a gorgeous package. The sound quality is amazing. I am an ardent reader or Sound and Vision as well as Stereophile and guarantee you wont find a better quality turntable, with the features, anywhere close to this price.

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.

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.

Quality entry level system for a good price! Interesting enough Im putting together a mid century modern spin on a project using the Fluance RT85N. Needles to say Im beyond impressed and would recommend to anyone interested in reasonably priced quality Hi-fi stereo equipment!

Of a higher order..

My husband was very happy with his first test runs. The sound is great.

Purchased this fluence RT85 from Amazon, it was a used unit I assumed returned and refurbished, or demo or something it did not specify, but the auto stop function was intermentioned at best maybe 2 out of 10 times it would stop, the cartridge was very dusty and dirty, it had differently been used, I cleaned it up it seemed OK and sounded fine, the dust cover had a couple light scuffs on it but I was expecting something like that buying a used unit, functionality wise though the auto stop feature not working reliably was unacceptable for $500. I gusee it was not checked out correctly, Fluence makes a great product and a good value, just buy a new one not a used one.