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Slovenia, Ljubljana
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Review on 🎢 Fluance RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable with Ortofon 2M Blue Cartridge - Piano White by Jeff Jones

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Maybe I got a lemon, maybe the RT85 got too popular. UPDATE January 24th

January 24th update. It must have been a bad batch due to a Marantz TT replacement in an identical setup (cable/amplifier/ground/speakers/separator table/place sounds GREAT. Sorry RT85 don't let everyone else experience what we went through almost 2 Months .dirty, and sounds pretty bad for this price range SO once again we eliminated ALL external factors and environmental issues - even took it home with quality equipment and next to its P1, RT85 it sounds like a toy - New : cables, preamp, amplifier , mass, albums, isolating pads, headphones and even speakers - I rebuilt almost my entire audio system around this TT and it still sounds awful In December my experience with the Lube was more disappointed than I see here I really wanted to love the RT85 , but unfortunately I think I got a Lemon - maybe a bad motor or ball bearings that wobble and wobble 2 00% below specs - or possibly a bad carriage or stylus (support not sure) The music is dirty, horribly distorted and after over a week of frustrating attempts to reconcile all variables (cables, preamps, amps, ground, new records). remove , old records, freshly cleaned, balanced, aligned, isolated, etc.) it must be restored! Unfortunately, Fluance seems overwhelmed with sales and support issues, so most of the time they don't respond, although they do apologize when they finally do (often a few days later). Even my 12 year old ION turntable sounds better! the experience of love for vinyl. I have a feeling that this product (the top of the range) became too popular after a period of backorders earlier this year, so it's possible the rushed production demands for Taiwan resulted in units that shipped in a hurry and weren't well tested. Hopefully others who just bought have better luck and hopefully it was just a fluke. Pros: 1. beautiful to look at, 2. auto power off (stops, no cue lift) 3. easy setup. 4. Includes white gloves to keep stains off the table. 5. well tested cartridge. 6. solid base and acrylic panel. 5. Good quality cable. Cons: 1. horrible distortion 2. no quad adjustment 3. cheap cue lever and stroke feel. 4. Slow response from manufacturer. Will be updated after one more try.

Pros
  • Don't waste too much time
Cons
  • 0