Review Details

RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on August 23, 2020):

I'm extremely happy with my purchase. I was very much looking forward to enjoying it; unfortunately, that took a little bit longer than expected due to some pending home improvements and I had to see the box sitting in a corner for three weeks. Lets go with the PLUSES and the MINUSES:

PLUSES

1. PURCHASING EXPERIENCIE: the website is fantastic; the amount of the information on the site is good enough to make an informed purchase: every necessary detail is in there and there's no need to look for other resources outside of the Fluance website.
2. PURCHASE PROCESS: very easy. Love the way it is set up.
3. DELIVERY TIME: despite Covid, I got my turntable at least a week before expected (even though it was an international shipment).
4. PACKAGING: very robust. Everything was neatly tucked in.
5. UNBOXING: very easy to unbox and organize everything on the table for a smooth setup. Kudos to the person who came up with the gloves and bubble level: you don't want to leave smudge fingerprints in your turntable during the setup and you will want to make sure the turntable is flat.
6. INSTRUCTION MANUAL: very easy to follow.
7. SOUND: just wow!!! Even my 15 year-old daughter (who's not an expert on turntables) could immediately tell the difference.
8. AUTO-STOP FUNCTION: That was the detail that made it for me. I was looking at a Pro-Ject, a Rega and Fluance. Each of them had something I was looking for, but the auto-stop was the factor that played the decisive role.

**NOTE TO IT TEAM: I'm outside of the US, but the customer review format does not allow me to put my country.

MINUSES (although these were not deal breakers)

1. INTERNATIONAL SHIPMENTS OPTIONS: you should try to offer fast delivery and slow delivery options to accommodate different budges. The transportation costs and the import duties almost doubled the cost of the turntable (the transportation costs were 30% of the cost of my RT85).
2. BALANCING THE COUNTERWEIGHT: In the setup process I only had a hard time balancing the counterweight. I guess the instruction manual should have said "push the counterweight with some strength". I had to look for a video on the website to realize that I was not pushing the counterweight as hard as I should have.
3. CUE-LEVER AND TONE ARM HOLDER: I have the feeling it's "not robust"; for the price I was expecting something a bit more solid. Perhaps I'm just speaking out of ignorance, but I would've expected a stronger support for the tonearm material-wise. When I lift touch the cue lever I feel it might break. Guess I'll have to get used to it. This wouldn't have been a deal-breaker if would've had a chance to test the turntable prior to my purchase, but our of my three "minuses", this is the biggest one.