Review Details

RT84 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on January 20, 2020):

I haven't had very good luck with Fluance turntables. Some years ago I purchased an RT-81 shortly after that model was first released. The RPM speed was audibly too fast, making singers sound almost like chipmunks. Back then there was no way to adjust the speed on the RT-81 so I returned it for a refund. Fast forward to early 2019. I began reading the highly positive reviews on the new line of Fluance turntables. I was especially intrigued by the inclusion of a speed sensor to guarantee proper rotational speed. So about a month ago I finally decided to order an RT-84 in piano black.The first thing I did was check the speed accuracy of my new turntable using the Platterspeed app and a test record. The speed was pretty much dead on at 33.3, and the flutter measurement was low as well. So far so good. But when I attempted to swap headshells, I noticed that the screw-on mechanism at the end of the tonearm did not want to accept the new headshell very easily. It took some work to get it connect properly. I found this to be unacceptable since I swap headshell/cartridges pretty frequently, so I ended up exchanging it for another RT-84, this time in walnut (which wasn't as pretty as the piano black but was more immune to finger prints).Again I first tested the speed accuracy using the Platterspeed app. The speed accuracy was nearly dead on, but this time the flutter measurement was bad, at least 3 or 4 times what the spec sheet claimed. I tried several more measurements and the flutter results were consistently too high. So I reached out to Fluance for an explanation. After waiting several days for a response, I finally received a somewhat impersonal, cookie-cutter email beginning with "We're sorry you're having trouble with your Fluance turntable... yada, yada, yada". The email suggested that I leave the turntable platter spinning overnight to see if that helped solve the problem. However by then I had already logged several hours of play which had resulted in some improvement in the flutter although the readings were still too high for my taste (and definitely higher that the specs claimed). In the end, I decided to return this RT-84 too.