Fluance RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

I bought this to replace an Audio Technica LP-120X USB. That turntable was upgraded with an acrylic platter mat instead of the rubber that came with it. I had also replaced the cartridge with an AT VM540ML/H. This is a definite upgrade from the cartridge that came on that turntable. Because I have that cartridge, I decided to buy the RT85 with the Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge. I think the Nagaoka MP-110 is probably similar to the VM540. The RT85 came quickly and surprisingly was only single boxed. But the contents were very well protected inside. Setup was like most other turntables. This table is smaller than the AT it is replacing but the bamboo veneer gives it a much better appearance. The acrylic platter gets a 10 vs the aluminum platter on the AT. The tonearm, headshell and cueing lever are similar to the AT. However, the tonearm weight has a scale that is almost impossible to read without the assistance of a bright light and maybe even some magnification. The anti skate dial is only slightly easier to read. The AT is much easier to read. Fluance, this needs to be improved. Maybe my eyes failed me when setting the tracking force, but it was off by about 0.2 when I checked it with my scale which was calibrated (1.6g vs 1.8g). Also, I've seen some reviews where people said the speed knob was cheap. It feels fine to me. I do like the on/off knob and start button feature on my AT LP-120 better. But the Fluance is still good. Also, the AT turntable it is replacing has an indentation for storing the 45rpm adapter and place that actually holds a second cartridge. I don't have any 45s, so that doesn't really matter to me, but the cartridge holder is a nice feature on my other turntable. Once it was setup, I grabbed a Pink Floyd album (what else). I played Shine On You Crazy Diamond. It sounded really good and I have to say, I think there may be a little more bass coming from this cartridge setup vs the AT VM540. But I'll need to do some A/B comparisons. Also, a light finger tap on the right side of this turntable is quieter that when tapping the plastic right side of the AT. The same is true when tapping the top of the plinth and much quieter when tapping the left side. Also, the cueing lever is damped much better than the AT. It will just dump the arm onto the record and this one is nice and slow. For reference, the speakers are Q Acoustics 3050 towers and the power comes from a 1990 Denon DRA 1025 (125wpc) which I bought new for $999. I also have a set of Wharfedale Lintons coming later this week and I'm looking so forward to getting them going. So, this is a $500 turntable out of the box. My AT LP-120X with the upgrades (acrylic mat and AT VM540 cartridge/headshell) is now at $650 or maybe more. I can easily change over to the AT VM540 if I want and I don't know of any upgrades I could make to this table. So, it is a better buy. The veneered MDF is prettier and quieter than the black plastic AT LP-120X. The professional reviewers all over the internet and YouTube are correct about this table. I also considered a couple of Dual turntables, Thorens and even a Technics ranging from $599 up to about $1,100. I'm sure the Technics is probably a much better table than this RT85 but Dual is just not the same company it was in the 70s and early 80s. They are no longer made in Germany. I have about 120 vinyl records, maybe a few more and have about 500 CDs. So, I decided that the RT85 is right where I need to be.

I'm one week in with my RT85 (Walnut) and loving everything about it! About a year ago I got into vinyl. I started with an Audio Technica LP60, which I thought was an excellent starter table. I quickly got bitten by the bug, and have been obsessed with vinyl records ever since. For the past 3 months or so I had been researching what my next turntable would be. While I really liked the AT LP60, it has its limitations, and also much of it is made of plastic, with little possibility of adjustments and/or upgrades. After quite a bit of research, I honed in on the $500 price point. I also had certain features that I wanted to ideally come equipped with the table. I had already upgraded my speakers to the Klipsch RP-160M which I also love. From what I read, your speakers and your cartridge should give you the biggest boom for your buck when upgrading your turntable setup. So I focused on getting the best cartridge I could find that comes in around that given price. I also ideally wanted an acrylic platter, auto stop, removable headshell, 33/45 adjustment without moving the belt, and good looking aesthetics and overall design of the table and the features. The Fluance RT85 was really the only one that answered all of these bells. Along with the features I already named, the RT85 comes with a few other more subtle perks. I really enjoy the way the S-curved tonearms look, and also the feet on the table are well designed, have a nice look and feel to them, and are very easy to adjust (there are also only 3 of them which helps make balancing a bit easier/more forgiving). The box was shipped well, arrived in great condition, and the contents were well protected. Instructions were very clear and easy to follow. They even throw in white gloves to wear as you put everything together to keep things clean and free of fingerprints. The Walnut finish looks great. It's lacquered so it has an almost piano looking finish, but with the wood grain. It's beautiful to look at. My initial test was throwing on side A of Kid A by Radiohead. And true to the song title, everything was in its right place when the needle dropped. Since that initial play, I've thrown quite a range of tunes at the RT85 from acoustic indie, to deep bass electronic, to Jazz. Everything sounds fantastic on this turntable. I'm loving the Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge. Just a quick side note. There is no built in pre-amp on this table, so you will need to consider that. I'm using a Schiit Mani with mine, and I highly recommend that as well. Now back to spinning and grinning :) If you have found any of this information helpful to you, please take a moment and click the "Helpful" button.

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 you've 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 cartridge's 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 didn't want a glossy model since they are fingerprint magnets! My turntable isn't 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 I've used in the past). What I don't 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 you're 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. I'm 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. I'm also not a huge fan of the tone-arm locking mechanism, it works ... but just doesn't 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 you'll end up jamming the stylus cover into the stylus and ruining it! Overall, I'm 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.

Great value for the price point. Looks amazing and solid material. Nice hefty size and clean rotation with exposed motor away from the center. The 2M Blue cartridge makes the vintage vinyl sound clear, bright and presents a good sound stage of separation with vocals and instruments. Setup was fairly straightforward, only issue was zeroing out and setting the counterweight, but after about 30 minutes of research it was good to go. The high density acrylic platter is a nice touch. I paired the RT85 with the Fluance PA10 preamp and they both look great together. 10/10 would recommend for anyone looking to upgrade to a turntable under $600. I upgraded from a Audio-Technica AT-LP60XBT. The Fluance RT85 is a manual turntable, not fully automatic, however there is a switch on the back that can be turned on to stop the record from spinning after 30 seconds if you tend to be forgetful. There is no built-in preamplifier so make sure to purchase one from Fluance or any of your choosing that is compatible with your cartridge/stylus.

I am now well into my first year of owning the RT-85 and am so glad I bought it. I'm almost 70 years of age. I entered the HiFi lifestyle in 1971, have owned at least a dozen turntables during that time, and this is the first new TT I've purchased since 1977 - a TECHNICS automatic dd model that is still working perfectly. My uneducated mind told me that a turntable has a motor, platter, tonearm, and a cartridge, so how could the TT itself affect the quality of music? Speakers - of course. Room acoustics - a most important factor. Cartridge - match it to the music style you mostly spin. The FLUANCE fitted with the ORTOFON 2M-Blue reset my mind. Instantly, the build quality surpasses all my expectations. The semi-auto function is perfect for my method of operation. Set the needle on the record manually and the platter stops spinning after 30 seconds. The sound with the acrylic platter (I added a FLUANCE cork platter mat) improved the sound dramatically over the 50 year old Technics using the same model cart. This FLUANCE model is one of the best values in the audio equipment market at $550. Nice warranty to boot. My youngest son bought a U Turn brand new before I bought the FLUANCE and a few main differences to note: U Turn is Manual so it doesn't stop spinning after the record is done playing. FLUANCE's semi-auto operation's platter stops after 30 seconds. U Turn upcharges for a cueing lever - Included with the FLUANCE U Turn's base material is much thinner and lightweight - The FLUANCE is more substantial Can't comment on Customer Service because I have not needed it. Hope these comments help you....

My nearly fifty year old Dual 1218 turntable was having serious problems that I couldn't fix, but I was skeptical about buying a new turntable having been told that "they don't 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. It's also nice that it is supplied with premium quality RCA cables. I'm amazed with the sound clarity on all my records, each instrument sounds just right, the vocals are clear and the artist's 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, it's spot on as verified with a strobe light and disc. The speed controller really does its job so there's 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 can't 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. I've 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 can't 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 it's current $500 price I think it's a steal.

Absolutely love this turntable. It’s worth the cost for such a solid piece of equipment. Setup was smooth and enjoyable love the feet and how easy it was to level it. I’ve used it constantly since it arrived

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to vinyl and I did my research before I chose the Fluance RT85. I am not disappointed! This turntable does exactly what a turntable should do. The online video instructions were very clear and set up was went smoothly. I love the bamboo finish as it bot prone fingerprints. The turntable works perfectly. I am using a Wiim Ultra and a set of powered JBL monitors (I already had the monitors.) and the sound is incredible. I wanted a great sound, my wife wanted a system that is easy to use and we both are happy. And the Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge is supposed to get even better as it gets broke in.

Probablemente el producto más equilibrado y con menos conflictos técnicos en su gama de precio. Muy buen funcionamiento, suave, silencioso, con una buena cápsula MM de origen (Ortofon 2M Blue) y un magnífico acabado. Renovar -mejorando- un veterano Pioneer con 38 años de trabajo en perfectas condiciones de uso y con cápsula PC5 MC no era asunto fácil. Confieso que estoy encantado. Además: es muy bonito; qué quieren que les diga.

Ich habe etwas gewartet, eine Beurteilung zu diesem, und ich sage jetzt schon mal, excelleten Plattenspieler, abgebe. Ich bin außerordentlich zufieden! Ein Gerät mit einen wirklich gutem Preis/Leistungsverhältnis. Alles was was der Vinylfan schätzt ist hier vorhanden. Reine analoge Datenübertragung, über das im Lieferumfang schon vorhandene Kabel-Equipment, sehr gute Verarbeitung und nicht zuletzt, das excellete Abtastsystem von Otofon in der Ausführung blue, sorgen für guten Klang.

For Christmas, I got the Fluance RT80. I had about 4 or 5 U2 records on vinyl that I had bought over the years, just because I love the band and loved having the physical object with the big 12" covers and inserts and the cool looking albums. Fast forward several months, and I had fallen deep in love with vinyl. I had expanded my U2 collection to all the major albums, most of the Record Store Day singles, and a fair bit of other bands and artists in my eclectic taste like Gorillaz, Bjork, Beatles, Rush, Tame Impala, REM, Huey Lewis, Inhaler, and more... I upgraded my speakers to Paradigm bookshelves, a higher end Yamaha Amp and a good pre-amp, and I was loving it, really enjoying the music but I just needed some more from my RT80's. Just some more punch, high-ends and mids. I loved the sound stage I was getting and other aspects, I just needed more. Digital music from Tidal and even Apple Music was sounding better to my ears. I looked into upgrading my stylus on the RT80 from the Audio-Technica ATN91 Conical Stylus to the Audio-Technica AT95E Elliptical (Eliptical stylus' can get in the groves a little deeper). I was also having a problem levelling my turntable on the surface I needed to use without using annoying shims. Also wasn't sure the AT95E was going to be enough. I decided to sell my RT80 and order the RT85 which I got setup to my system a few days ago. All I'll say is WOW. I know my setup isn't super high end audiophile equipment. There's a world of McIntosh receivers and pre-amps and speakers that go $10,000 and up and it's a world I'll probably never afford... but ****** do I love the sound of this setup! I couldn't stop listening to all my albums. It was the sound I was looking for. I once heard advice that you have an awesome system if you can get emotional about the music you're hearing, and I absolutely love my setup. There's probably still I could get more out of it if I had a better listening room design, which I hope to setup sometime in the future when moving. But for now, I love my setup and this turntable / Ortofon 2m Blue cartridge. The sound stage is bigger... and my ears just hear a lot more of the music and the brighter highs and mids my ears were yearning for. It's a great overall sound now, not to strong in any area and not weak in any area for me... Just a full, clear, punchy but not tiring sound. The thing looks and sounds so good. Love the 3 point levelling feet (Have it perfectly level now), love the motor that keeps accurate time while. super quiet, love the acrylic platter, love it all. The acrylic platter looks so cool, especially at night with a light close by it... it looks like it glows. Coloured records spill their colour into it. Not that looks are the main thing, but I love records for the tactileness of it, the album covers and artwork, and I love it that I love the looks of this turntable. I have zero complaints from it and I highly recommend. I'm listening to albums every evening whether listening intently or playing some tunes in the background while I do dishes. Make me relaxed and ready for the next day and is great for Saturdays and some relaxing with friends and a drink or your buddies who love listening music.

Very good turntable for the price, excellent sound, fast delivery.

I bought this player to upgrade from a PS-LX310BT. The difference was fantastic and I love this player. It looks and feels premium, and the Ortofon 2M Blue gives a clear and well presented sound. Couldn't be happier and if you're looking to dip into the 'audiophile' world, then I really recommend this player.