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

My rating does not reflect performance of the turntable… I have to give it time to say anything but I tried one of those LPs with graphic wrap which was impossible to play on my old turntable due to multiple skips, RT85 had no problem tracking it. The bass seems boosted if like that kind of thing. My first order, no sound was coming from the right speaker…. I checked the setup many times. Replacement was good… but the dust cover has a long crack running from center to almost the edge. That is 2 out of 2 defective items…. To be fair the cracked dust cover could happen by amazon shipping. Still, reflection of inadequate quality control and packaging for a great turntable.

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.

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 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.

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.

I am updating my original review. I have since listened to a lot more material and even got a second preamp with capacitance control to try to try to further improve the sound. The Fluance with the Ortofon blue is still bright sounding compared to both my Shure V15 Type IV and compared to CDs of the same albums. The bright sound does give you more presence, but it can be harsh on cymbals etc. The turn table itself is quite good - the issue for me is the Ortofon Blue. I am using Martin Logan ESL speakers in a small carpeted room. I have both a solid state amp (Sound Artist SA-200IA) and a tube amp (Willsenton R8) I switch between as well as several preamps, and I find the same results pretty consistently. I can adjust out the brightness with tone control on the SA-200IA (the R8 does not have tone control), but this is never necessary except when I use the FT85. Clearly many other people are OK with the tone but these are my observations for you to consider.

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.

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.

I got this turntable to replace an old one due to I couldnt play 45s. I played an old album from my parents. The Beatles Songbook by The Holly ridge Strings. I couldnt believe the sound quality, it sounded like a brand new record! I could hear the highs and lows with little or no distortion. Blown away by the sound! Cant wait to record my music to Reel to Reel tape in the future!

Nice looking turntable works fine. first turntable was DOA I returned it and reordered second one was good. I wished it have a few more features but its over all good buy.