Experience unparalleled vinyl playback with the Fluance Reference High Fidelity Turntable. Meticulously engineered for the discerning vinyl listener to reproduce audio recordings exactly as the musician intended. Pure Analog Performance The Reference turntable delivers a warm, uncompressed listening experience, allowing you to get lost in the music. With no electronics in the signal path, from stylus tip to the gold-plated RCA outputs, for an exceptionally pure sound.
The Fluance RT-85 is one of those turntables that, with a bigger, better, known name, would have cost me twice or even 3 times as much. It comes with an Ortofon 2M blue cartridge (that alone would set you back $260/$280) and I bought mine in piano black.
The turntable has a great suspension system, excellent tone arm layout, which includes; anti-skate, stylus pressure adjustment, and a pre-mounted Ortofon to a removable head shell.
I’m an ‘old school’ audiophile and the majority of my system is analog. I use a tube phono-preamp, which I prefer. This turntable does not come with a preamp built-in so unless you have a moving magnet phono preamp built into your integrated amplifier or receiver, you will need a phono preamp for your system (tube or otherwise).
My “centerpiece”, if you will, is McIntosh MC 2105 power amp. I also have an ADC sound shaper 3, which is pre-amplified, three reel-to-reel tape decks, and my speaker systems comprised mostly of Klipsch. The weakest link in my system was my old, 40-year-old, turntable.
I vacillated between buying a well-kept mid-80s to mid-90s turntable like the Yamaha PF 800, which I used to own back in 1990. There were also several nice, used, Thorens models out there but in the end, I went with a brand-new Fluance RT-85.
As I mentioned earlier, a new Ortofon 2M blue cartridge is expensive and if I bought a used table (somewhere between $400 and $600), after I did the math, I would’ve spent twice as much on a used table as I spent for this Fluance RT-85.
The RT 85 comes with an acrylic platter, which doesn’t need a platter mat, bubble level, dust cover and hinges, (the dust cover is designed to be easily removable when playing LPs), and a very good 3-foot, acoustic suspension/isolation system.
Though I’m very familiar with the set up procedure of turntables, I followed the manual that came with it and went to the Fluance website to watch their turntable set up video.
I recommend this to anyone because it makes for a good refresher course. Fluance has been in business 20 years and makes a number of audio products that appear to be pretty good.
If the rest of their products are anywhere as good as the RT 85 turntable then I think they’ll be in business for a long time to come. I strongly recommend this turntable because based on the research I did for turntables that lasted about 3 weeks, the Fluance RT-85 is equivalent to any new, $1200 turntable that may have a bigger name.
It is truly one of the best buys I’ve had in a long time.
RichRead full review
I bought my first so-called audiophile turntable in 1968, a Garrard. Subsequently, I've owned more turntable/cartridge combinations than I can recall. Over the last ten years I've purchased new and used, rebuilding and re-selling the used ones. Most recently I've bought and sold a Rega Planar1, and three versions of the Project Debut Carbon. I replaced the included Ortofon 2m red cartridge on the last of the Projects with a more expensive better sounding Audio Technica. In late 2020 I discovered ultra high definition 24 bit streaming and then sold my Project. Recently I bought an unopened, ultrarare 50 year old record and this Fluance on which to play it. I now have about 15 hours of playing time on the cartridge, this set up is remarkable. Quite simply put, this is the best I've ever heard. It's beautiful, sounds wonderful, and is quite the bargain. Read full review
I've had numerous turntables in the past, but this turntable is by far the best one yet! The Ortofon 2m blue cartridge is awesome and the turntable is whisper quiet. The piano black finish is to die for and everybody that sees it is awestruck by it's beauty. The three leveling feet are a stroke of genius. It makes leveling the turntable a snap. I'm very impressed with this turntable and it will probably be my last turntable purchase. Great job Fluance!
