Review Details

RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on December 19, 2019):

Before placing an order for Fluance RT85 I did a research by reading and watching different reviews, including a popular Craig’s channel for vinyl enthusiasts. I saw plenty of positive opinions that helped me in making a final decision. The key points there were an acrylic platter and the Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge promising an excellent sound quality. I was not disappointed. The turntable looks great (I selected a black piano finish) and sounds great as well. I tried to compare it with the sound of a tape recorder, which is also analog, or a CD player. I found myself having more pleasure in listening to records. Overall, I am happy with the purchase. The reasons that I am not giving 5 stars are:
1. This is a high-end turntable, top in the line of Fluance products, so the quality assurance should be on a top side as well. Not exactly, unfortunately. One of the adjustable legs created a creaking sound, when pressed, as if it was touching something inside. While another required significantly stronger force (torque) for adjustment than two others.
2. On one of the records I noticed a sibilant sound distortion. It was a Louis Armstrong Audio Fidelity clean record from 60s. I can not say if it was a cartridge problem or an early days technology problem (recording equipment). Honestly, I suspect the latter.
At the end I would suggest a small improvement from customer’s prospective: Rather than use one LED for ON/OFF indication it would be better to split it in two, each lined up with 33 RPM or 45 RPM mark. Such way it is easier to recognize the selected speed and figure out in what direction to rotate the knob to turn the table off in dim room conditions, preferable for listening by many audiophiles.