Review Details

RT82 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on April 5, 2021):

I've tried turntables for under $200 and they simply not that great. While the bulk of these are Audio Technica or have the same mechanics as AT, they continuously have issues with skips on records that never have and muddier sound as the album progresses. You can't get a good automatic / semi-automatic that works well anymore (I miss my Technics turntable). So I sucked it up and got the Fluance. I will say as an actual record player, the sound is really good and it plows through problematic records that the AT couldn't handle. Setting it up was fairly easy especially if you follow the video the company posted on YouTube which takes about 5-10 minutes from unboxing to playing. It's a reasonably inexpensive turntable that's meant to work like a pricier audiophile one. I'm also pleased that the speeds on the turntable were pretty accurate right out of the box. That said, I find it odd that Fluance couldn't add a few more features. It's advertised as a 'semi-automatic' turntable, but that's being extremely generous. The only feature that's semi-automatic is the turntable will stop when the needle gets to the end after 20 seconds. That's it. There's no power shut off, no auto return, nothing. You have to drop the needle and return the tone arm manually, and even after that, the power dial also has to be turned off. I don't know if anything bad would happen by leaving it on, but for 21st century equipment, this seems way behind the times. I guess one of the manual benefits is you don't accidentally have it set for an LP when you mean to play a 45 and have the needle automatically miss the record and damage the needle. Given how replacement needles for this are fairly expensive, I could see why one would want to me more cautious but they do provide better sound than cheaper ones and perform better like I said before. In summery. it's a turntable that performs and sounds well, but it takes a bit more effort on your part.