Review Details

RT85B Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable - Main

Average Customer Rating:

Rating:
97 % of 100

RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable

Product Rating:

Product Rating
Overall Performance
100%

Product Review (submitted on January 18, 2022):

TL;DR: The RT85 is a fantastic turntable, the absolute best overall package for the money! BUY IT!Detailed review:Assembly and setup:In my opinion, assembling the turntable is very basic and simple, however, if you've never done this before, I HIGHLY recommend you watch some videos on balancing the tone-arm and understanding the anti-skating weight. Doing this wrong WILL absolutely damage or DESTROY your beautiful 2M Blue cartridge's stylus.I highly recommend buying a digital scale to measure the tracking force of your 2M Blue cartridge (1.8g) I did it manually as described by the manual and even though I was VERY careful with how much I turned the weight dial, it measured 1.85g on my digital scale when I verified it, so I ended up using the digital scale to fine-tune the manual effort! Probably not a big deal, but something to keep in mind.Also, get yourself a protractor and measure the alignment of your cartridge! Mine was spot on from the factory, but you should never assume this to be true! Wrong alignment can degrade sound quality and damage your stylus.Leveling the turntable takes time, so be patient! I recommend you fully assemble the turntable and hook it up to your HiFi before you level it in its final resting location.What I LOVE:The sound quality of the 2M Blue cartridge is fantastic! Its really bright and flat, no extra bass and no weird sound curves. Its a beautiful listening experience with a well distributed sound-stage.The bamboo plinth (my specific model) is fantastic - its NOT glossy, its matte! I really didn't want a glossy model since they are fingerprint magnets! My turntable isn't a show-queen, I intend to use it daily! A glossy one will just look terrible after handling it all day AND its easier to scratch up (especially micro-scratches).Acrylic platter is awesome! No mat required. It sounds good, feels good, and looks really good too! It offers plenty of potential for custom LED lighting and what not.The dust cover hinges are really nice! They are actually spring-loaded - its very easy to operate and feels solid (unlike other turntables I've used in the past).What I don't really like:Semi-auto mode is kind of weird, I like the fact that it will stop a record from spinning if you forget to turn it off. However, just make sure you understand this! Always lift the stylus using the cue lever BEFORE handling the tone-arm! If you fail to do this, you will scratch your records and or possibly destroy your stylus. I noticed that with semi-auto mode, the platter will spin again momentarily while you move the tone-arm back to its resting position after it has automatically stopped. It will also NOT start spinning until the tone-arm is positioned over the record (even if you have already selected a playback speed). All these layers of logic add complexity to the usability and the steps required to operate the table. If you're used to fully manual turntables, you could find yourself doing something out of order and damaging your stylus by mistake, so just try to understand the operational flow of the RT85 in semi-auto mode. OR, you can turn this whole feature off completely.I'm not a huge fan of the cue-lever on the RT85. It feels kind of cheap and its weirdly positioned. I wish they would have made it more pronounced and distanced it a little bit from the rest of the tone-arm assembly.I'm also not a huge fan of the tone-arm locking mechanism, it works ... but just doesn't feel as premium as the rest of the turntable.Lastly, and this may be nit-picking ... the 2M Blue stylus cover is a little difficult to put back once removed. Its easy to remove it off of the cartridge, but a bit hard to put back on. Be careful here, one wrong move and you'll end up jamming the stylus cover into the stylus and ruining it!Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase! Highly recommended table for the money - you will not find a better deal IMHO than the RT85 at this price-point.NOTE: the record weight pictured in my review is purchased separately.

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