Review Details

RT80 Classic High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on June 16, 2020):

Short version: Great turntable for the price, but I'd recommend getting the RT-81 instead, or preferably the RT-85 if able, which I absolutely love. (5++ stars for the RT-85). The RT-80 is decent if you have an inexpensive sound system, but the RT-81 will likely last longer for your enjoyment due to the better stock cartridge. (One star knocked off as the weight allowance for cartridge upgrades is limited, hence my recommendation for a higher model number).

Full review: For some background: I have a decent sized record collection and several DJ turntables for a DJ set up in my basement, but I wanted an easy way to have a turntable/vinyl listening setup for my hi-fi system upstairs that didn't involve moving my DJ turntables and wires around. (I've got a moderately expensive JBL surround sound system with a Marantz amplifier that lacks a pre-amp for my main listening room).

To this end I bought the RT-80 on sale after lots of research, and for the price it sounds pretty good--I was quite happy with the quality of the built in pre-amp (which I believe is the same one in the RT-81). The built in pre-amp for the RT-80 caused zero humming or buzzing even without a groundwire in my system, unlike the built in pre-amp on my much more expensive DJ turntables that cause a lot of humming/buzzing--so major points here for the RT-80.

However, because the rest of my sound system is so high quality and moderately expensive, the RT-80 didn't sound quite as good as I hoped it would to my ears--although I am a bit picky. For experimental purposes I put one of my Ortofon DJ cartridges (which was a bit too heavy for the RT-80's tonearm specs wise) on the turntable to compare sound quality with the stock AT cartridge, and was quite surprised at how much it improved the overall sound quality of the turntable.

This caused me some buyers remorse that I didn't get the RT-81 for the upgraded cartridge; but the quality was still so good that trying out the RT-80 made me decide to just go all in and get the RT-85 and buy a separate pre-amp to prevent any future buyers remorse. So I gave the RT-80 to my dad and purchased the RT-85, which I am incredibly happy with and can't recommend highly enough. The RT-85 has honestly now made me into a vinyl hipster after only a week with it so far, as I didn't know vinyl could sound so good.

If the RT-85 is out of your budget, I think the RT-81 will be a great buy for most, and is definitely worth the price difference from the RT-80 for the better cartridge. Overall though, the RT-80 is still a good starter table unless you have already invested a lot into high quality speakers, in which case you'll likely quickly want a better cartridge that the upgraded models offer.

I'm thus giving the RT-80 four stars, mainly because I found the specs on it as far as what replacement cartridge heads you can use with the table is somewhat limited and lighter than some other turntables (i.e. you can't later upgrade it to an Ortofon red or blue that comes with the RT-83-85, as they are too heavy for the RT-80's tonearm). Although this is the same case for the RT-81, the upgraded cartridge in that model will likely be all most people need if the RT-82-85's are out of your budget.