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

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.

I am not an audiophile, just a guy who likes to listen to records. I bought the white Fluance RT85 because of the positive reviews and because it looked cool with its acrylic platter, etc. I have owned many different turntables and record players over the years, but this one is the most expensive. Overall its an okay turntable, but thats probably as far as I would go with it. Colored vinyl really pops on the white, though the visual aesthetic proves more impressive than actually using it. The entire tonearm mechanism feels super cheap. The tonearm lever, stand and safety latch actually feels like something youd find on a cheapo plastic portable record player like a Crosley. Maybe I got a bad one, but thats my honest opinion. Theres a lot of slack in the lever, it bounces the arm if you lift it too quickly and the tonearm safety latch feels like its going to break off every time I use it. My last turntable was a Pro-ject Essential III and even though the body of this Fluance is much more substantial, the entire experience of lowering the needle with the tonearm lever on the Pro-ject was more solid and satisfying, whereas the RT85 feels flimsy and crappy. The Ortofon 2m Blue looks cool, but to be honest, for a $250 cartridge it doesnt really sound much better to me than the OM10 on my Pro-ject, which didnt sound much better to me than the ADC QLM32 Mrk III on my Hitachi HT-324 from the 80s. I told you Im not an audiophile. Aside from the whole tonearm mess, I still think this is an okay turntable. Not worth $500 in my opinion, but one mans trash may be another mans treasure. Honestly, I was somewhat disappointed. But, just like all hobbies, we all buy new, more expensive gadgets, looking for perfection, but only getting mediocrity. I was hoping the grass was actually greener, but turns out its just more grass.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I bought this turntable because of the favorable reviews and features. I have mostly direct drive turntables and i wanted a belt driven one of good quality. And this one convinced me to give it a try. It all started with my search for an Ortofon Blue Phono cartridge for my Technics SL-1210 MK2, a turntable I cherish for many years. Then I came across the Fluance RT85 that came with the Ortofon Blue cartridge, plus an acrylic platter and automatic end of record stop, so the the stylus doesnt get worn out when the record is finished. I also liked how you can see the belt rotating the platter. It is also convenient that it comes with a dust cover. A lot of very expensive turntables do not include one. But when I listen to records I take it off, because I think it sounds better, perhaps there is no extra vibrations. The sound is very clear and quiet. Its very easy to use and I would recommend to any lover of vinyl, even beginners. Because sooner or later if you are starting listening to vinyl youre definitely are going to be happy with this beautiful turntable.

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.

The RT85 is the best turntable I have ever owned. It sounds fantastic! The Ortofon Blue cartridge and stylus are superb. I spent an extra hundred and bought an Ortofon Red stylus that is interchangeable with the Blue. I wanted something to use on records that are not in the best condition without ruining my Blue, which is around $200 to replace. The unit does not have a built-in preamplifier and so if you are considering buying one that may be a deal killer unless your amplifier or receiver has a preamplifier. It also does not have an automatic return feature, which would have made it even more awesome but not a deal breaker for me. It does have a switch on the back that allows you to turn on an auto stop feature to keep the stylus from going around endlessly but I found it takes around ten rotations before it stops. By that time I am up and turning over the record. It tracks at only 1.8g but you could go as light as 1.5. I prefer to stay with the recommend weight. I found the unit easy to set up right out of the box with very little to put together. It took maybe twenty minutes. The cartridge was already perfectly aligned by the factory and that is a fantastic perk because doing so can be a pain for those of us not too good with small detailed adjustments. The turntable is very very quiet. I hear no noise from the platter whatsoever. The acrylic platter is heavy enough to give good stability. If you are thinking of a turntable in or around this price range I doubt you could get better performance for under $1000 that is this quality. I have owned many turntables in my lifetime and this is a winner. Im sure the models under the RT85 are very good machines as well but I think it would be worth saving your money a little longer to save upgrading later and spending more money. You probably wouldnt need to buy another turntable for many years to come.

Definitely worth it