Fluance RT81 Elite High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable Record Player with Audio Technica AT95E Cartridge, Belt Drive, Built-in Preamp, Adjustable Counterweight, High Mass MDF Wood Plinth - Piano Black

Firstly the plinth is solid and very heavy. The walnut finish is good and you can see each one will be individual. The platter is very nearly perfectly flat. I have never seen one totally flat but this is as good as I have seen. My eyes miss nothing unfortunately for me. The tone arm is quite light but that's no bad thing. Overall it is well put together and for the reasonable price, well finished. Sound wise it is just fine. There is a slight hum noise if you turn the volume up full with nothing playing but I was expecting that. It is presumably the built in pre amp and might not do it if you by pass the pre amp and use an external one. Otherwise I am delighted with the sound it produces with the built in pre amp. Tracking seems faultless. It was very easy to put together. It shows every speck of dust on the walnut surface but what could be done about that? Perhaps the white one would show less but probably wouldn't look as good. To clarify a couple of points. Some reviews say it has a plastic tonearm. It does not. The arm is aluminium painted black to match the aluminium platter. Likewise the speed knob is solid feeling metal. The whole thing is very solid and well made. The cartridge sounds excellent. Some reviewers have mentioned speed variations but I have detected none. It was between this and the Rega Planar 1 for me. The Rega has no pre amp so you would likely need to buy one and has, I believe a much lighter plastic plinth. It is also £50 more. It is doubtless an excellent machine but I am glad I chose the Fluance RT81. I heartily recommend it.

First of all very well packaged. I’m dusting off my old vinyl collection and diving back in. I looked at a lot of turntables before pulling the trigger on the RT81. I am by no means an expert, but I did a lot of research before buying. I like the look of the piano black so I actually opted to buy the ‘used’ option from Fluance as the black was back ordered and $50 more than the Walnut finish when I ordered. Looks brand new and was packaged like it was brand new. Thought I would throw that in for anyone considering going that route. Saved me $70. No regrets from me going that route. I chose the RT81 because of the built in preamp and the option to override that if I ever expand my set up in the future. I plan on hooking up a pair of Sonos Five, but those are back ordered so right now rolling with some old speakers I had laying around. Still sounds outstanding. I’m heavily invested in a Sonos setup so I felt it was natural to hook this up to Sonos speakers. I also chose this as I am using in my bar area at home. I don’t have a ton of space so the ability to hook up directly to speakers with out a receiver, external preamp, etc was appealing. Set up was a breeze. Will likely upgrade the stylus at some point, but very impressed twitch the standard stylus. Tested the speed and it was about perfect, so didn’t even mess with it. I have no complaints. I would like if this was fully automatic, but the auto stop works as expected. I would like it if it returned the arm, but that’s not big deal. Had a few questions when purchasing and Fluance was outstanding in responding. 5/5 for me considering the price is very reasonable.

Tout est ok, platine parfaite pour mon usage. La notice est en anglais et le réglage du contrepoids un peu délicat, mais pour le reste, c'est un excellent produit.

This turntable far exceeded my expectations. Punches far beyond it's weight! Solid construction with perfect fit and finish. Set up was easy and it sounds fantastic. I was going to get the RT80 but decided on the RT81 as it has a better cartridge and stylus. I'm glad I did. Looks fantastic, plays flawlessly. It has a built in phono pre-amp that is quite good so no need for a outboard pre-amp. My Yamaha receiver although awesome, sadly does not have a phono pre-amp. For the price you are getting a really nice turntable. No regrets at all !! If you are using a cheap or outdated turntable, it is well worth getting this.

After a long hiatus from the hobby, I decided to start collecting vinyl again. I used to have a big collection of vinyl but sold it all to help pay for my late wife's cancer treatments. Since then, I have been listening to streamed music. After discovering a treasure trove of vinyl at a local yard sale, and buying them all, I ordered a retrolife turntable here on amazon. It was pretty and had good sound, but there were a couple features on it I did not like. So I returned it and ordered this one. I feel like I made the right choice. The Fluance RT81 is a great budget priced turntable. The sound is nice and bassy, and the system is elegantly designed, solid and perfect in its simplicity. There is no bluetooth, which is fine with me. I don't see the point of listening to vinyl on bluetooth speakers. Bluetooth does not have the bandwidth to transmit lossless high fidelity audio. You might as well listen to streaming mp3's if you're going to use bluetooth. But this unit does come with gold rca wires to hook the system up to your speakers. It has one single button to turn on the system and select your speed, and the turntable starts spinning as soon as you move the tonearm into position. What else do you need? Sometimes the simpler something is the better. I love it when a product just does what it's supposed to do, without a bunch of hassle and annoyance. I'm not knowledgeable enough to review the sound quality, but if you want to know my layman's opinion here it is. I think it sounds good. I think it is a little too bassy, and the separation could be a little better, and the pops when the needle hits a speck of dust is a little loud, but it is good enough for me for the moment. I may upgrade to a better needle at some point in the future, but it is good. I just turned the bass down a little on my speakers and make sure my discs are as dust-free as possible before playing an album. Strangely, the much cheaper retrolife turntable sounded better to me, but for build quality and simplicity I would still pick the Fluance. I am happy with my purchase, and I think that says it all. This is a beautiful, beautiful turntable, with a smoky gray lid and artful design and simplicity. Just turn the bass down a little and make sure your records are clean!