FluanceRT81+ Elite High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable Record Player, Audio Technica VM95E Cartridge, Anti-Resonant Platter, Acrylic Mat, Phono Preamp, Wood Plinth, Adjustable Isolation Feet - Piano White

It basically has everything that both the $500 Fluance does and the RT81 does (the built in phono preamp), just not the fancy cartridge. You can buy that later if you really want it, and it features a removable headshell so it's painless, but I'm just telling you now that this AT cartridge also plays records just fine.

Got it for my boyfriend’s birthday and he loves it! It’s worth the investment.

Great turntable for a reasonable price. I bought this when I was producing a special 70 year commemorative vinyl for a dear friend. I use this when I can find time to enjoy (just a few) of my favorite vinyls. It is too expensive to reproduce what I had, and I foolishly gave away all my precious vinyls when I went CDs crazy!

This is my first adult purchased turntable. Spent several hours researching and comparing models with Fluance in particular since a friend had just purchased one. All of my research led me to this and I couldn’t be more pleased with the look, feel and quality for the money. Going to be upgrading my speakers to pair with the turn table. Looking at the Fluance Ai 81 speakers to use in tandem with my tv.

The media could not be loaded. I am extremely pleased! I did a lot of research. It has everything I want. Acrylic mat, hifi turn table, quality headshell, counterweight, anti skating, adapter to change speeds, auto stop, dust cover, leveling feet, etc… Did I mention, she is piano white?! Glossy finish! Beautiful to look at!My external speaker is a Harman Kardon. I used a different RCA cable set to connect it-2 to 1, not the one that came with the Fluance. Perfection!

Like the title says, this is a first class turntable that is affordable to nearly everyone. A record player for the music masses.Easy to setup, there’s a red ribbon to make it so easy to line up and install the drive belt and loading the headshell with the AT cartridge went just as smooth. This turntable features a 3lbs dense deck and three adjustable vibration isolating feet for a pure analog experience. Even without an isolation platform you don’t have to sacrifice volume for clarity.But that’s not the only draw, I purchased the walnut grain finish RT81+ elite and it looks stunning on the shelf.Now to get to the needle in the groove, crisp, clean highs, throaty bass, with mids hitting right where they should be. The included Audio Technica VM95E cartridge is a perfect match.Coming off my Technics SL-V200, I’m listening to the soundtrack of my youth through new ears, my vinyl never sounded so good.

Easy set up and the built in preamp sounds great. I’m running this with a passive pre amp an old NAD 2400 and a set of JBL 4312 speakers. It’s a nice sounding turntable.

This is the RT81 +(PLUS) $299, which the PLUS (vs base RT81 $249) brings an Upgraded Audio Technica VM95E cartridge (that also has further upgrade stylus's available), and acrylic platter vs rubber, 3 point isolation feet with a level. The RT82 $299 is the same price, but with a Ortofon OM10 cartridge, an advanced belt drive, but without a built in preamp. All come with 3 ft connecting cables, but the RT82 has nicer cables. I picked the RT81 PLUS because I had to have approximately 5ft cables, and you could use the internal pre-amp, OR use the Phono input given your receiver has a pre-amp built in. Fluance felt that 3ft cables were optimum, but that wasn't practical for my application. Not knowing what theextra 2ft was going to do, I went with the 81plus that gave me alternatives. Therefore I purchased some Primeda Audiophile cables 4.9ft $30, and Lcylfh Phono ground wire 5ft $8. I connected the 81Plus to recent Denon 3800 receiver (approx. $1700) that had phono inputs; using the 5 ft cables and the Denon phono inputs seemed to work fine (banking on the more expensive Denon preamp would be better than the internal Fluance, although didn't try it both ways.) Plus, relative to the RT82, reportedly the OM10 cartridge was going to be discontinued, but the replacement hasn't been worked out by Fluance at this time. Audio Technica on the RT81 has good reviews, and the stylus is upgradable at reasonable price. I added to the package with a Femeli record weight stabilizer $20, a GrooveWasher Big G record cleaning mat. Setup was pretty simple, although I purchased a Neoteck Digital Turntable Stylus Force Scale $13, orange backlight, that seemed to be better than approximating with the counter weight directions. Note that Fluance suggests a "burn in" run to start with (and there are special instructions where you can not have the auto-off function on.) Playing on my Definitive Technology BP 8060's towers (bipolar with built in powered bass), the system sounded great on my mostly 50year old vinyl, originally played on a Dual 1219, with Shure V15, a true icon. I contacted Fluance a number of times, and they were very personable and helpful.