Features:

  • Premium components allow this high fidelity belt driven turntable to a produce a pure analog listening experience that recreates the performance the way the artist intended
  • High performance AT95E Audio Technica cartridge produces outstanding clarity. The diamond elliptical tipped stylus is designed to track your record grooves with greater precision & accuracy for high definition audio
  • Perfect playback using the balanced aluminum S-Type tonearm ensures the stylus is rested deep in your record’s groove, producing every audio detail indistinguishable from the original recording
  • The beautiful walnut finished cabinet is crafted from solid engineered (MDF) wood, incorporates isolation feet, an aluminum platter, & a rubber slip mat which results in superior isolation from unwanted vibrations
  • Captivating signal clarity is produced with a high quality Texas Instruments preamp, ground terminal and gold plated RCA line outputs that ensures warm, true sound
Beautiful Craftsmanship

Love it. Beautiful craftsmanship. It's amazing how fantastic it looks in person. If you told me it was solid walnut and not mdf, I'd believe you. Setup was easy and thankfully it sounds as great as it looks. The tone arm and counterweight are solidly manufactured. The cueing lever is a bit floaty for my taste, but that's a minor gripe. The built in pre-amp is serviceable and should satisfy 90% of buyers, however if you like your music with a lot of oomph I'd recommend a separate preamp or receiver/Amp with phono. Along the same lines, the stylus/cartridge will work for most listeners as it does a fine job of covering the aural spectrum, however those with a more discerning ear will probably want to upgrade sooner rather than later. Even without the 24hr burn-in, I have not experienced any speed issues previous users have commented on. Overall I am extremely satisfied with this product, especially when you factor in that it's priced significantly lower than other turntables with comparable build and features. I will look for Fluance products first from now on.

Helpful info to share

I purchased this as a second player to use in my living room connected to a fairly good system. My main system is in the basement which is about worth $10,000 which has a Thorens TD 160 that I bought new in 1976. I ordered a Ortofon 2m Red cartridge at the same time as the Fluance due to comments about the not so good sound with the Audio Technics 95E. I printed one of those paper RPM scales and the table was running a little fast. Put it on my Thorens and that was running a little slow which shocked me but you can't notice it. The 95E sounds fantastic when I hooked up in the basement. The Ortofon cartridge pushes the limit up over the total cartridge/headshell limit so I also bought a Ortofon headshell which is lighter than the headshell on the Fluance. Plus it has a much bigger finger lift. I tried setting the VTF, (weight on the stylus) 3 times according to the instructions. All 3 times I was up to a half gram heavy, verified with an electronic scale. I highly recommend buying one. They are about $30.00 on Amazon. So I put the Ortofon on and played my first LP, it started skipping right away with and old LP. I put on a brand new Led Zeppelin remastered LP and it skipped. I pushed the VTF to 3.5 and it didn't fix the problem. Plus you wouldn't want to play with that much force as it will ruin your records and stylus. I went over all the adjustments and couldn't fix the problem. After searching the Internet I found the solution. With higher end turntables you can adjust the VTA, tone arm being parallel with the record you can't with the Fluance. As the height of the 95E and the Ortofon is different the solution was adding a cork platter mat that I had laying around and the skipping problem is gone. Unbelievable that the extra thickness on the platter would adjust the VTA to make such a difference. Also, it is one beautiful looking turntable but, sitting on top of my classic Thorens right now it doesn't look so good. Also, balance the resting spot of where your TT sits as best as possible, then adjust the table as the last step. Feel free to ask any questions.

Gorgeous/great unit, and sounds better than the Audio-Technica LP120-USB

If you're trying to decide between this turntable and the (apparently super popular) Audio-Technica LP120-USB, and you're not a DJ, I recommend this one. The RT81 is the third record player I've tried out in my attempts to re-boot my record collecting interests, in the price point that works for me, and it's the winner. I tried one of the Audio-Technica LP60s, but found it too cheap-feeling, so then I went with the AT LP120-USB. But I could swear that it sounded too muddy/mid-rangey, given the hype it's received. So before I returned it, I got the RT81, and played the same record on both units. The RT81 was better-sounding than the 120-USB to my ears; brighter/clearer, less 'mid-rangey'. What's interesting to note is that both units ship with the SAME cartridge, the AT95E, so my conclusion is that the on-board preamp of the RT81 is better than the 120-USB. I read another review of the 120-USB by a fellow who sounds like an expert, and how there's a sacrifice of sound quality to get the USB function to operate, so I can only agree with him. I was also looking for an automatic turntable that wasn't crap, and although the RT81 isn't fully automatic, it delivers the very simple function I wanted: it stops turning the record when a side is done, rather than going on and on as I get distracted with other things, or forget it's on, etc. Granted, it's kind of funny in what it delivers: the tone arm doesn't lift and return to its cradle. The platter simply stops turning. It just stops, with the tone arm/cartridge resting on the record. At first it bugged me, but then I realized: so what? So, it wins by being a great sounding record player, with a touch of automatic functionality. I do wish Fluance had done one tiny thing: provide a slot for the 45 rpm adaptor, and make the adaptor more than what it is: a super-cheap piece of plastic. There's nowhere to store it, whereas there is on the 120-USB. But whatever. I'll be playing 33 1/3 records 99% of the time. Finally, the RT81 is gorgeous; the pictures don't do it justice. It's a truly handsome piece of equipment. I don't need my record player to play backwards, or have crystal sync, or play variable speed; if you do, go with the 120-USB, obviously. Now, I haven't given it the test of time, I only just bought it, but for now, I'm super pleased with the RT81.

Great turntable!

Definately one of the best entry level turn tables out there. Very easy to set up and the instructions are very clear (stylus comes pre aligned and is on point). There is no height adjustment on the tone arm so stylus choices are more limited but I have no intention of ever buying a stylus that costs more than the turntable so no issue there. So far I have been very impressed with the sound quality and the built in preamp. The bass is much better than I would have ever expected from and entry level turntable. I can honestly say that the pictures do not do this turntable justice on how good it looks. I really enjoy the finish on it and the construction is solid (this is no light weight unit). The RT81 has very simple controls and the auto stop feature is a very nice to have to prevent wear on the stylus if I am doing something and forget to shut it off when at the end of an album. This is not an automatic meaning that tone arm placement is done by hand. The lever to raise and lower the tone arm prevents dropping it too hard and damaging the record or stylus. I made a great choice when I picked the Fluance RT81 to get into vinyl.

Great turntable. This table replaced my LP60 and it ...

Great turntable. This table replaced my LP60 and it makes me wish I had never gotten the AT.The wood finish looks fantastic, while I know its not real wood it's really high quality faux material. Much heavier than my LP60 which helps with vibration and the feet articulate and are cushioned so no problems with vibrations. Some reviews complained about speed issues but I see these for every belt driven table. I followed the instructions to burn it in for 24 hours (turn off auto stop and turn on and leave it overnight). I'm thinking some of the reviews that complained about speed issues probably didn't bother to burn in the belt. The included needle sounds great, I'm going to stick with it until it needs to be replaced and then upgrade it to something higher end. The built in pre-amp sounds great no real problems there. The only issue I could think of is that the dust cover creaks and you can hear it through the tone arm when you close it. I'm going to grease it with something and see if that helps.

My search is over.

First off, let me start by saying that I am not new to the vinyl spinning community. I have been collecting vinyl since the early 60s. Of course one also needed something to spin the vinyl on, so over the years I have owned several turntables. Direct drive, belt drive and rim drive. Pioneer, Dual, Technics, Garrard and even a Marantz thrown in for good measure. I still have a few of these, but they are getting old. I will restore them as time and funds allow, but I recently set up a new system using a vintage Pioneer receiver driving a pair of vintage Advent speakers I recently rebuilt. My Dual 1229 worked well, but I wanted to treat myself to a new turntable. So the search began. I reviewed a number of new offerings and came awfully close to ordering one of the new Audio Technica units. Their cartridges always served me well, so maybe I'll try one of their turntables. Then I discovered the Fluance RT81. It struck me as a beautiful, clean looking turntable. The specs were excellent, and after reading many of the reviews and questions, I ordered one. The box came two days later. The unit was extremely well packaged. Everything was there. I would have expected nothing less. After unpacking the unit, I set it up following the instructions in the user's guide. I could have set the unit up on my own having set up many turntables in the past. Mounting, balancing, calibrating you name it. All turntable set up basically the same way. That having been said, I recommend following the step by step instruction if you are new to vinyl spinning and turntables. One element I found curious was the recommendation to perform a 24 hour burn in. Never in my past have I ever had to perform this function. But, I'm not a Fluance engineer, so I performed this step as recommended. Simply plugged it into power and allowed the turntable to spin for the recommended period. The following day I was finally able to set the turntable up next to the host receiver. Checked the tone arm balance once I leveled the turntable, adjusted the tracking force using my digital tracking scale. I found that the tracking force obtained by turning the balance weight was at 2.25g, but that could be because I might not have zeroed everything right on the money. This is why I like using a digital tracking scale. This is a good one if you're interested: Neoteck Digital Turntable Stylus Force Scale Gauge 0.01g Blue LCD Backlight for Tonearm Phono Cartridge $12.99. After setting the anti-skating and giving the turntable one last check over, I dropped my first piece of vinyl onto the platter. Led Zeppelin 1. Once I made sure my volume was low and the receiver was set to phono,I released the tonearm and lowered the stylus into the record groove. Slowly brought up the volume. This turntable sounds great! Clear and precise. I'm not a sound engineer so I don't know the appropriate terms to use in describing the overall sound quality of this unit and the accompanying cartridge. It simply sounds great. I was especially impressed with the guitar licks on Dazed & Confused. I listened to both sides of this album and it sounded as though I was hearing them for the first time. I then decided on some Lynyrd Skynyrd. One More From The Road. Sure the Advents sound great, but they can only produce the sound sent to them from whatever source you happen to be using. Bottom line? I highly recommend this turntable! I gave all ratings a five star rating except durability. Ask me for that rating a year or more from now, but I have no doubt it will perform well for years to come. Note: It is always highly recommended that you check the cartridge alignment. I did this using my cartridge alignment protractor and found the alignment to be dead on. Also, I read some reviews that stated some folks were having issues with platter speed variations or the inability to actually bring the platter to the correct speed. Not sure if this is something that will show itself farther down the road. But, my platter speed is right on the money. I use a strobe disk for 60Hz to check this. Now to sit back and enjoy my new turntable.

I love it so much I've named her!

After having a crappy suitcase style turntable for a little over a year, I decided to upgrade and I am extremely pleased with my decision to purchase this turntable. I realized that I needed to upgrade after I realized how much money I was actually spending on records! Setup was extremely easy and I did everything myself. I'm a 23 year old college student and this was so easy to set up that I didn't have to ask my dad for help, and he's the electronically savvy one. After setting everything up and playing a record on it for the first time, I punched myself in the face for not upgrading earlier! I've now had this turntable for a little over a month, and I love her so much I've named her. I did a lot of research and looked at a lot of turntables, and in the end the thing that sold me on this one was the auto stop feature. I was surprised to find that a lot of turntables even more expensive than this one don't have this feature. I need the auto stop feature because, as a graphic designer, I'm working at my desk on my computer while listening and sometimes I get so into my work that I zone out and come to with the record already finished. I read some reviews about the auto stop not working, I have never experienced this issue. I also thoroughly read reviews of speed fluctuation on this turntable which did worry me. However, I heard that Fluance's customer service is top notch, so I knew it would get solved if I had an issue. I am pleased to say that the turntable I received has had no speed problems AT ALL, even after not being used for days. There's not a single thing I can say negatively about this turntable. The slightly more expensive model is absolutely gorgeous and definitely worth the extra bucks. I am using this turntable with the Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers (Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers - 2.0 Active Near Field Monitors - Studio Monitor Speaker - Wooden Enclosure - 42 Watts RMS) and they work excellently together. The speakers come with a little remote so I can adjust the volume from my desk. It's the perfect setup for me and just what I was looking for!

Gorgeous Turntable, Gorgeous Analog Sound

I pulled the trigger and ordered the rt81 after also considering the uturn Orbit and the AT LP120. Based on aesthetics alone, I made the right decision. This table is gorgeous. Some customers say the setup is difficult,but it's not any harder than any other turntable. Just be patient, read the well-written instructions carefully, check out the Fluance setup videos on youtube. You can do it! It's not hard; took me about five minutes. After a week of listening, the sound from the rt81 is as beautiful as its appearance. I don't notice any speed issues, just warm analog sound. Compared to my other table, a Pro-Ject Debut III with acrylic platter and Ortofon OM10 stylus, the sound quality equals, if not surpasses, that more costly setup. The auto-stop feature is another nice feature; just be ready for the platter to turn for a bit before it finally shuts off. For an entry-level turntable, the rt81 is in a class by itself. If you're not planning on DJ'ing and just want a quality, attractive home turntable, this thing will not disappoint.

Beautiful, Simple, Great Sound

I'll break this up into a few areas. Looks: I know it's made of MDF board with a veneer, but this turntable is gorgeous. They style is minimal, and straightforward. The dust cover is solid, and allows you to keep all the components protected from dust. You can leave the dust cover on while playing records as well. Features: One knob powers on/off the player (just select 33 or 45 RPM, and it will start spinning automatically when the tonearm is lifted off of the rest. I bypassed the preamp via a switch on the back, ran the turntable into my Go Groove preamp, and into my Onkyo receiver. The preamp is grounded to the back of the turntable. The rubber mat is a nice feature, as well as the aluminum plate. I toggled auto-stop to ON, which is great for when I put on a record to have in the background while I'm in a different room. The table stops spinning shortly after the last song finishes. Just return the tonearm to the rest yourself. The hook keeps the tonearm secure until you disengage it to play. The "cueing lever" is a fantastic feature. It slowly, gently lowers the cartridge onto the vinyl, and can be used as a "Pause" if needed- the album will pick up right where you left off when you lower it back down. Additionally, this is a heavy, substantial unit. The rubber feet are nice, and give the player a nice, sturdy base. Setup: I followed the guide for balancing the tonearm, and anti-skating. The tonearm took a little tweaking, but it wasn't a burden. If you want to open a box and have everything ready to go, you might want to look elsewhere. It really isn't difficult to set this up, as the instructions are clear and concise. The belt is incredibly easy to set up as well. I previewed a few songs once set up was complete, and the sound was clear and even. However, I still followed the instructions for a 24 hour burn-in for the belt. Sound: Incredible dynamics. The audio is clear, and the sound is remarkably full. You can hear the littlest details if you listen for them. I keep hearing/noticing new things in songs that I've listened to hundreds of times before. This player makes my favorite artists shine (and I listen to everything: folk, classic rock, electronic, indie, progressive death metal, etc). Listening to Origin's furious blast beats and bass/guitar shredding is an absolute treat with this turntable (the bass is mixed wonderfully, and you can actually hear the ridiculous things the bassist is doing). Bottom Line: I upgraded to this player after spending countless hours reading reviews of similar turntables. I wanted to get more serious about collecting and enjoying music on vinyl, and investing a few hundred in this turntable has absolutely been worth every penny. I am by no means a pro or snob about vinyl, merely a long-time music enthusiast in pursuit of what I find interesting/enjoy hearing. This turntable has been an excellent investment for that pursuit.

Great finish and build, full and rich sound!

Don’t let some of the reviews turn you away from this gem. I was looking for something practical yet reasonably priced. I originally thought about going for the Audio Technica LP-120, but I decided on this one instead, as I like the more classic wood finish, compared to the LP-120, which has has a more modern silver look to it. This turntable is fantastic. I’ve had it for about 3 weeks now and it’s been preforming beautifully. Set up is a breeze with the included instruction manual, and once you get it set up, just cue the tone arm, and bam! You’re taken back to the 1950’s and 60’s with full, clear, deep and rich audio that this produces. Even at the higher spectrum of volume with a pair of bookshelf speakers I also bought off Amazon, the highs and lows are crystal clear, and vocals are as smooth as butter. Great buy for the price, looks fantastic too if you’re looking for that classic nostalgia.

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