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

I decided on this turntable to replace my aging 1970s full automatic Dual 1241 running on 1980s Sony STR-2800. I wanted a more up to date turntable. But it just didn’t work out for me. Here are my feedbacks: Good: Item arrived in 2 days (one day late than estimated) Packaging was well done. Bad Finish and built shows manufacturing errors if you pay close attention. Piano black is too plastic looking. It doesn’t have the real piano finish IMO. Cover had some glue like marks which would be hard to see once installed (see the photo) Ugly: Arm tone adjustment even if you read the instructions 10 times don’t work. Not possible to place have 180 degrees flat level as instructed. Most importantly, I have MAJOR issue I didn’t have with my old Dual. I can walk, even lightly, without turntable skipping. It has ZERO insulation from floor. No matter what I dis with anti skating or tone army weight issue did not go away. To me this turntable is useless. Those who enjoyed it however, I salut you. I would definitely avoid this brand. It seems as it is mostly hype. I am going to try a cheaper model made by Sony.

Took me to get the arm correct, digit are difficult to read on the tone arm.

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.

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.

Technics SL-3300 Fully Automatic Direct Drive Turntable I bought in 1979 finally gave up. I gave it to my son who wanted to fix it. This presented me a great opportunity to replace the vintage turntable with a better turntable with modern technology I thought. It is very difficult to find comparable turntable. Then I figured turntable just need to spin with good needle to track the vinyl that I went to basic and picked belt-driven Crosley C100BT-BK with preamp. I plugged in to my system and sounded very good with low volume until I slowly turned up the volume to hear distortion. I thought my amplifier was conflicting with pre-amp and checked the switch setting, which was not the issue. I can only go up to quarter volume or it will start distorting. I like crisp sound with volume up, and this turntable wont live up to it. I packed it up for return. I wanted to spend a little more and went on top of the line Fluance RT85 fully manual belt-driven with Ortofon 2M Blue Cartridge is priced $200 by itself. I pick this one because it does not have preamp as I did not want that to be an issue causing sound distortion. This is a solid unit and I tested with different music for sound quality and it was great. Third day, I put on Golden Earrings Moontan side B looking forward to immensely rich sound but when the tonearm came down I got awful scratchy noise, lifted the tonearm to find there was no needle. The needle was broken off. I returned the unit immediately.

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.

If you’re in the fence, get it. Huge upgrade. You get what you pay for, and in this case you get more than what you pay for! Looks and sounds great. Half the price of the turntable is the BLUE. Great quality!

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 !!

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.

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.