RT81 High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

...excellent high quality product

Beautifully constructed and sounds great. This is my first high-quality turntable. I look forward to many years of pleasurable listening.

This Fluance TT reminds me of the old days when things were simple. Back in the '60s I had a couple of Dual TT's that I loved. I sold them when I got caught up in the CD craze. But, I missed my vinyl And I researched TT's . too many were geared for the DJ, which aim not. I came across Fluance and saw some great reviews, so i thought id take a chance. So far, I a glad I did. Its a beautifully made heavy TT that reminds me of my old TT's. The walnut finish is superb and looks like a TT that should cost much more. The included Audio Technica cartridge sounds great and my vinyl is sounding great I have it running through my Rotel Reciever and Rotel power amp. The only downside is the ridiculous way to set the TT speed; the controls are under the plinth , which makes it very difficult to set the speed if its not running at 33.3 or 45 rpms Surely , that could have been done better. I might have dinged 1/2 star for the, but you can't. Anyway, I am really like my Fluance and I recommend it

When it comes to purchasing any product,I always first judge the product by the way it is packaged when received, my order was perfect in every way.The RT81 not only looks elegant,but it sounds fantastic.

The Fluance RT81 turntable works like an absolute charm. There was clearly a great amount of thought put into the turntable, as it has a strong build and the set up process was easy with the instructions provided by Fluance. I encountered a slight issue when the stylus on the cartridge was someway bent out of the box, but after speaking to a customer service agent, Whitney, Fluance sent me a brand new stylus free of charge, and the replacement process was easy. Since then, I've spun many records, and they've all sounded phenomenal, and that's thanks to the excellent quality of the RT81.

Way better than I thought it would be.

I really really debated between a lot of different options before settling on the Fluance RT81. I had it between the Audio Technica LP120 The Project Debut Carbon and the UTurn Orbit. (I had also looked at the absolutely beautiful TEAC TN300 because I liked the way it looked much better than the Fluance but I quickly discounted the TEAC because there weren't enough online reviews/info.)

I read that Pro ject are probably the most common lower-end 'audiophile' quality turntables and looked at the Pro ject Carbon and the RPM 1.3 which was also absolutely beautiful. Both are $100 - $300 more than the Fluance however I found a used RPM 1.3 for sale at around the same price. The UTurn Orbit gets great reviews and is handmade in MA ... whereas the Fluance is made in China and then shipped to Canada. The Audio Technica was pretty much the runner up at this point to the Fluance because I simply didn't want to have to buy a preamp even though I know this would probably make a big difference in sound. The Fluance and the LP120 had built in preamps.

I ended up choosing the Fluance for one reason and one reason only over the LP120 ... It had an auto stop. With all the other turntables listed there is no autostop so basically the stylus will keep spinning on the label of a record until you manually lift the arm and turn it off. The Fluance was the only decent turntable I could find that had an autostop feature ... although I'd have much preferred an auto return tonearm which you only find on vintage turntables these days. I will say that the Fluance stops after 5 - 15 seconds of annoying label grinding about 80% of the time. Most times it is older/vintage 33 records which confound the Fluance into not stopping. Many of my 1950s LPs the autostop does not work on ... almost all modern recently bought albums will stop when they get to the end of the record although the stylus (needle) will just rest there on the record which can't be good for it. However it is nice to be able to leave the room while a record is playing and not have to run in from outside because the record ended but the platter is still spinning.

The biggest flaw I found is that the platter wobbles a bit. I wrote Fluance (whose customer service is pretty responsive) and the agent told me that 'That amount of wobble should be acceptable unless you think it is affecting the sound.' A friend of mine who is an audiophile and spends thousands on his equipment saw the wobble and told me it was absolutely unacceptable and to send it back immediately. I'm embarrassed to say that its just such a hassle because I threw away the box that I'll probably just live with it. This seems to be fairly common with Fluance turntables.

The sound on this turntable is pretty good. I have to admit I don't have too much to compare it to. My first turntable (which I had for 4 months) was an ION that I purchased for $40. I read lots of forums on Ion and Crosley turntables and the horrors of ruined records because of poor tracking force (the weight of the tone arm pressing down on the record) before I decided to upgrade. Under $300 for the turntable was my budget so I knew I wouldn't be getting an audiophile quality TT but at least something a bit professional. As popular as vinyl is unless you live in a hip city ... good luck going to a place where you can listen to samples of how each sounds. Instead I had to rely on the hundreds of blogs I read before deciding.

I do notice that I can hear static on almost every vintage record I play even if they appear to be pristine. The needle (stylus) is so sensitive it will pick up a lot of the dust or scuffs on a record even if it looks pretty good. Forget about playing a record in VG or VG- condition ... its unlistenable. As such I've been buying new LPs and aside from dust (the glossy wood plinth plastic dust cover and rubber mat certainly attract dust!) which I have a vinyl brush sticky roller and ONZU stylus dust cleaner (nobody ever said vinyl as a hobby would be cheap!) when a dust-free record is played it sounds great. The stylus gets very high marks on audio forums for the price point ... I have considered upgrading it but do worry because the Fluance rep I talked to said that the cartridge it comes with is specifically designed for the turntable and they cannot guarantee others will work properly. I'd love to hear an Ortofon Red or Blue to see if it makes a big difference as I mostly listen to Rock and Roll.

I'm not as huge a fan of the looks of this thing as others are. To me it looks too retro in a cheesy 1970s or 1980s kind of way. I think it would look much better with black polished wood and a silver/chrome tracking arm. The mahogany wood and smoked plastic cover look like something you'd see in a thrift shop from the 1970s. To me it doesn't look classy. However the Audio Technica LP120 looks too modern and space age for me like something a dj would use. I much prefer the Pro ject RPM 1.3 which lo - Verified Store

Was great for two months then the left channel went out. I hope their warranty covers it because I really did love this turntable. - Verified Store

Very good turntable cool - Verified Store

Fit and finish is amazing. Sounds so great I just ordered their speakers. Highly recommend. Had a cheaper turntable before and was amazed how much the sound improved. After you set the counterweight this thing plays even warped records without skipping. - Verified Store

The RT81 is a real good turntable for the price.
I’m giving it 4 strong stars and I’m happy I bought it.
The built in pre-amp sounds better than the one in my power amp so I’m sticking with it.
Let me get the negatives out of the way: the thing was feeding back pretty bad and I tried several cheap outboard solutions but nothing really did the trick.
Turned out it was the dust-cover.
Yeah the very cool looking tinted dust-cover basically acts as a parabolic microphone and does the unit no favors.
Once I took it off - fantastic. I have to turn it WAY up to trigger the feedback threshold.
The speed adjustments are ridiculous. It says a 1/16 standard screwdriver will work but you actually should use 3/64 jewelers.
It’s a GD nightmare but I have the thing running at *exactly* 33.3 / 45 rpm.
So now you know what to look for.
I’m happy as a clam now that those issues have been handled.
I don’t hesitate to recommend this turntable. - Verified Store

This baby is great. I am one of the backers from kickstarter. It is beautiful to look at plays wonderfully and is really heavy. This is my first turntable and I am very happy with it. It has everything I was looking for:
1) Belt driven
2) Bent tonearm
3) Adjustable counterweights - Verified Store

Love it. Beautiful craftsmanship. It's amazing how fantastic it looks in person. If you told me it was solid walnut and not mdf I'd believe you. Setup was easy and thankfully it sounds as great as it looks. The tone arm and counterweight are solidly manufactured. The cueing lever is a bit floaty for my taste but that's a minor gripe. The built in pre-amp is serviceable and should satisfy 90% of buyers however if you like your music with a lot of oomph I'd recommend a separate preamp or receiver/Amp with phono. Along the same lines the stylus/cartridge will work for most listeners as it does a fine job of covering the aural spectrum however those with a more discerning ear will probably want to upgrade sooner rather than later. Even without the 24hr burn-in I have not experienced any speed issues previous users have commented on. Overall I am extremely satisfied with this product especially when you factor in that it's priced significantly lower than other turntables with comparable build and features. I will look for Fluance products first from now on. - Verified Store

easy set up and got great(and fast) customer support when I screwed up the easy set up.
works great. - Verified Store

Very solid and attractive unit...only drawback is the lack of an automatic return of the arm when the album side is finished.
But it does turn off and stop spinning. - Verified Store