Review Details

RT85W Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable - Left Main

Average Customer Rating:

Rating:
98 % of 100

RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Rating
Overall Performance
80%

Product Review (submitted on October 15, 2020):

It's virtually impossible these days to go to an actual brick-and-morter audio store and compare turntables side by side. Even the few dealers who sell them don't have them set up that way. So we're left with what information we can find online. In quick comparisons of this table and others in it's price range (Pro-Ject, Rega) one thing jumps out at you right off - the Ortofon Blue cartridge that comes with this table. As you can see in a lot of the reviews here, it does get your attention.Putting a $250 cartridge on a $500 turntable is either impressive or silly. Impressive if the turntable as a whole is up to the quality of the cartridge; silly if it's putting high-end racing tires on a Hyundai. Turns out, it's justifiably impressive.I can't make one of those, "this is the best turntable for the money" claims because I haven't heard all the other tables out there. But I can say that I'm both impressed and surprised to find this level of quality at this price.ProsThe fit and finish are excellent. Nothing (except maybe the slightly flimsy cueing lever) feels cheap or plastic.Set-up is a 15 minute breeze, and the included instruction manual is far better than most.The "auto-stop" feature works (and doesn't seem to be available on most tables of this price.) It's a godsend for those of us who can't jump up out of a chair as quickly as we once could.Finally and most importantly, the sound is great. Tight, detailed, and it creates a soundstage that only vinyl can - the sense that the musicians are right there in front of you. I've always held that a well-made LP played on a well-made turntable beats digital sound every time. That's a statement that starts lots of arguments, but this turntable is certainly up to the task of proving the point.ConsIf you tap the plinth while the table is running it creates a pretty hefty boom through your speakers, meaning the plinth is fairly resonant. This probably won't cause most people any real-world problems (you're not going to be tapping the thing while it's playing), but it could cause some loss of resolution if your music is both very loud and very bass heavy. It may also be the reason that the Fluance, even more than most turntables, benefits by having the dust cover removed while playing. (Which is actually quite easy - Fluance has designed the thing to lift straight out without having to flex the hinges.)There is no way to adjust either the vertical tracking angle (VTA) on the tonearm or the azimuth on the cartridge. I'm sure that won't be a big deal to most people buying a turntable at this price, but it may frustrate those who like to tweak things a lot.The lack of VTA adjustment and the fairly high mass of the tonearm will limit the choices you have of cartridges you may want to use if you feel like changing things around. The Fluance website offers some guidance in terms of what cartridges will work...but a lot won't. Again, probably not a deal-breaker, given that the Ortofon cartridge it comes with is excellent.

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