Fluance RT85 Review

We have not heard this turntable, and this review does not pretend to. What follows is what Fluance publishes, what it means, and what the price tag is quietly leaving out.

Start with the honest framing: a substantial share of the RT85’s price is the Ortofon 2M Blue on the end of the arm. That is not a criticism. It is the correct place for the money to go, because the cartridge is the transducer and the transducer is where the information enters the system. But it does mean this deck should be judged as a cartridge with a turntable attached, rather than the other way round.

The 2M Blue, and why it is the story

Ortofon publishes the 2M Blue at 5.5 mV output, 25 dB channel separation at 1 kHz, a frequency response of 20–20,000 Hz at +2/−1 dB, and 80 µm tracking ability at 315 Hz. The stylus is a nude elliptical — the whole tip is diamond rather than a chip bonded to a metal carrier.

Compare that to the 2M Red, which Fluance’s cheaper decks and the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon EVO ship: same body, same 5.5 mV, same 20 µm/mN compliance, but 22 dB separation, +3/−1 dB response, 70 µm tracking ability and a bonded stylus. The Blue is the same generator with a better diamond and tighter tolerances, and Ortofon publishes every one of those differences.

This has a consequence worth planning around: the 2M Blue’s stylus is the expensive consumable in this system. When it wears, replacing it costs a meaningful fraction of the deck. That is normal for a cartridge at this level, and it is a running cost that the decks in the under-$500 bracket largely do not have.

The acrylic platter

Fluance fits an acrylic platter, and it does two things a steel platter does not.

It damps rather than rings — acrylic has a much less resonant character than a thin steel disc, which is why steel platters are almost always sold with a felt or rubber mat on top. And its acoustic impedance is closer to vinyl’s, which is the usual argument for running a record directly on acrylic with no mat at all.

We can report that Fluance fits one and that Fluance publishes a measured 0.07% wow and flutter and a 69 dB weighted signal-to-noise ratio for this deck. We cannot tell you how much of that figure the platter is responsible for, and neither can anyone else without a controlled comparison.

The number that is missing from the price

Fluance states it plainly on their own spec sheet: “Separate Phono Preamp Required”. There is no built-in stage.

So the real cost of owning an RT85 is the deck plus a phono stage, unless your amplifier has a PHONO input — and if you are unsure, the 30-second check is here. In practice that is another $50 to $250 depending on how far you want to go; our phono stage roundup covers the range.

We think the omission is the right call at this price. A built-in stage on a deck of this caliber would be a compromise circuit sitting next to a $250 cartridge, and the buyer for this deck is very likely to bypass it. But it does mean a straight sticker-price comparison against a deck with a stage built in is not comparing the same purchase.

The tonearm mass figure, and our caution about it

Fluance publishes “0.97 oz (27.5 g)” under tonearm effective mass, and they deserve credit for publishing anything at all — Audio-Technica publishes nothing under that heading on any deck.

But we do not trust the number, and we would rather say so than quietly compute a resonance figure on it. Effective mass figures for arms of this type normally land between 8 and 14 g. 27.5 g is roughly double the top of that range, which suggests Fluance may be publishing total arm mass rather than effective mass — a different quantity that happens to share a label. Pro-Ject, for comparison, publishes 6.0 g for the Debut Carbon EVO’s arm.

If the figure is total mass, the resonance arithmetic on our matching page cannot be run on this deck either. We are not accusing Fluance of anything; we are telling you the number does not behave like the number it is labeled as, and that you should not build a cartridge decision on it.

Who should skip it

Anyone whose total budget is the deck price. Add the phono stage and, if you do not own them, speakers and an amplifier, and the RT85 is the smallest line item in a much larger bill.

Anyone who wants USB or automatic operation. This deck has neither. It is manual — you cue the arm and lift it at the end of the side.

And anyone who changes cartridges frequently for the fun of it. The 2M Blue that comes fitted is good enough that swapping it out is a step sideways, and the money is already spent.

The verdict

The RT85 spends its budget in the right order: cartridge first, platter second, features last. If you already own an amplifier with a phono input, or you have budgeted for a separate stage, it is the deck in its bracket we would choose on published specifications.

If you have not budgeted for the phono stage, budget for it now — and note that the money you would spend adding one to an RT85 is roughly the difference between this deck and a cheaper one with a stage inside.