Review Details

RT82 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on March 7, 2020):

First, THANK YOU to the many audophiles who have posted to this forum. Your comments were of great assistance to me! I've been around the HiFi block and back. I'll turn 70 this year. I started my love of audio back in 1960. You would all recognize most of the brands i have owned from some lowly Duals to quite exotic fare. I have had banks of amplifiers cooled with fans and even dry ice at party times to keep the heat sinks of 1000w amplifiers cooled. At times my parent's basement resembled an audio store. I have even had pvc raceways built into houses I have had built to allow for stereo wiring to be run whole house. It has been great fun. Some of my favourites have been Acoustic Research and Dynaco. i loved the simplicity. Later on i got into the exotics. I have returned full circle in my journey. I have come to the opinion that the less "gadgetry" there is in a system the purer the sound and the less to go wrong - of course, to a point. So, to the point. After a lot of reading i chose the Fluance RT82. I did this for one main reason. I wanted a belt drive BUT one whose servo motor was reference controlled for wow & flutter. the Ortofon cartridge that came with it is very nice but I telephoned Fluance parts department to purchase three more tone arm head shells (Brent made the ordering process a breeze - another sign of a well-managed company) I bought extra head shells as I also have a beautiful B&O cartridge, an AKG P8E and a Stanton L837S (a stereohedron). All will work with the Fluance tone arm height. I am happy that the tone arm height is not adjustable - have had many that were and they were often more trouble than they were worth. from the Fluance web site you can down load a tone arm adjustment chart. I happen to have tone arm gauges and digital and physical tone arm mass measuring devices. Using the Fluance provided set-up guide made the task a breeze. All done within 15 minutes. Fluance was out of stock regarding their in-house pre-amp so I chose (wise advice from many of you a DJ PRE ll to use with my home theater system. My other systems amps have quality pre-amps built-in so I can swap the turn tables (I have 3) around. The DJ PRE ll is awesome and works like a prince with the Fluance (as I am sure their house brand would) I love the adjustable gain and solid ground post. Of course, I was careful to separate 100v wiring from grounds and RCA lines. The result: absolutely no hum or static of any kind. Used my own stroboscope and the speed of the platter exceeded even Fluance's specifications - awesome! Taking HZ readings the range of the ortofon exceeded what i could hear and proved to me that Fluance's set-up beautifully translates the cartridge outputs. The tone arm balanced beautifully at exactly the specifications Ortofon recommended. the sound was spectacular. I appreciated the 'action" of the tone arm lift and the auto shut-off at the end of the album. I do not like auto return arms for too many reasons to list here and would not purchase a reference table with one (personal opinion I know). The fit and finish was spectacular and better than many turntables costing three times as much. As I have a number of awesome cartridges there was no point in me up-grading just for a cartridge as, except for an acrylic platter (which I do not like) the Fluance tables are the same above the R82. I am lucky and have the means to spend thousands on a turntable if I wanted to. I chose Fluance for excellence of sound transmission, no noise transmission, reference quality with no silly frills and only the options (IMO) that a reference table should have. Again, thank you to the many who have posted their opinions. LOVE this reference table.