This $800 record player might be the best turntable under $1000

The world of high-end turntables is a tough nut to crack. There are exotic materials to consider, from metal coverings to interiors lined with special resins. Some float to get rid of vibrations; some are made out of the same stuff as hypercars.

All of them, though, cost thousands of dollars. High-end sound has always been the territory of the ultra-wealthy — until now. The Fluance RT87 brings excellent sound to the masses, with snazzy construction and some premium features for a price that undercuts just about everyone else.

But is it one of the best record players? Should you spend your hard-earned $800 on a turntable that needs extra stuff to make it work? Find out in my Fluance RT87 review.

Fluance RT87 review: Price and availability

On first impression, the RT87 seems like an expensive turntable. There’s no built-in pre-amp, so you’ll need to buy one separately. It’s entirely manual, apart from electronic speed control. The anti-skate weight is just that — a weight. For some, this could make the turntable’s $799 price tag seem steep.

But then you start to add up what comes in the box: The electronic speed control and silent motor start to become a boon, and the manual nature makes sense when you see the carbon tone arm. There’s a premium cartridge from either Ortofon or Audio-Technica to read those all-important record grooves. The dual plinth reduces vibrations.

Comparison to other, similarly specced turntables starts to make the price of the RT87 sting a whole lot less. My favorite turntable, the Rega Planar 3 RS, costs thousands of dollars. The Goldring GR3, the last TT I tested, costs about the same with fewer premium features.

For a reference turntable, the RT87 makes a great case for its loftier price — and then you pull it from its cardboard prison, assemble it, plug it in, and drop the needle. Suddenly, $799 starts to feel like something of a bargain.

Fluance RT87 review: Design

I love the way that the RT87 looks. The dual plinth design makes it look unlike any other sub-$1000 turntable and lends a commanding presence to the deck. The carbon tonearm is a nice visual touch, and the hefty acrylic platter really brings everything together. This is a turntable that looks like it means business from foot to dustcover.

Then you start to notice the little details. The screw holes are filled with rubber stoppers so that you can’t see them through the frosted platter. The metal spindle and metallic surround in the center reduce vibration and motor judder. There are as few controls as possible for a clean look; the only thing on show is the speed control, which doubles as a power switch.

Then it's all wrapped in that lovely gloss finish. I reviewed the natural walnut option, and it looks lovely. It makes the whole thing feel very polished and premium — and like it costs a whole lot more than its price would suggest.

There are some slight hiccups in places, however. The counterweight sits on a hollow tube that feels a little cheap, although at least it's metal. The anti-skate weight has a habit of falling off while you move the tonearm around, but never enough to be too annoying. The dust cover hinges are slightly looser than some I’ve used, but I’ve never had the cover drop during play.

Overall, this is a well-designed, premium-looking turntable that’ll look great atop your HiFi rack. Just be wary that it's pretty heavy at 21lbs.

Fluance RT87 review: Setting up

There’s some work you’ll need to do when you pull the turntable from the cellophane and polystyrene in which it comes delivered. The tonearm needs balancing. This is easy enough if you’ve balanced a tonearm before, but you might need to watch a YouTube tutorial if this is your first time.

First and perhaps most important is to remove the transport screws — they’re long and designed to hold the dual plinth in place during delivery. Keep hold of them should you need to move the turntable again in the future. Then you can fill the holes with the little rubber stoppers.

Pop the platter onto the spindle, and then run the drive belt around the edge of the platter and the motor pulley. It’s a pain, but it doesn’t come off during use, so it’s a “one and done” kind of job.

You’ll also be fitting the cartridge to the end of the tone arm — easy enough. Finally, you’ll fit the dust cover. I found fitting the hinges into the dust cover first, then onto the plinth worked well.

If you’re looking for something with minimal setup, this might not be the turntable for you, but it’s rare to find a record player of this caliber with a less-involved setup process. This is about standard in turntable land.

Fluance RT87 review: Features

If you’re looking for fancy tech and super-futuristic features, there are other decks out there that might be more your style. All the extra features here are to make the turntable sound as good as possible without touching a circuit board, from structure and construction to clever design touches.

First and foremost is that dual plinth design. It looks cool, with two plinth layers that almost hover apart. But what does it do? It’s all about reducing vibration as much as possible. To do that, the vibration-dampening feet absorb as much vibration as possible. Any that make it through are dampened by the first plinth, which is isolated from the second. That means that the second plinth shouldn’t suffer from any unwanted vibrations.

Does it work? It does, actually. Rather well. I could dance and headbang to my favorite tunes with nary a twitch from the stylus. It stays rock solid in the groove, every jump and air guitar solo absorbed by the plinth design. Very clever and very impressive.

The carbon tonearm is all about negating vibration while remaining as stiff as possible while reducing the overall weight. I would have liked a more impressive anti-skate than the typical weight on some fishing line we’ve got here, but it's more anti-skate than we get on some very premium models.

Other than that, this is a very simple turntable. On the back there’s a pair of RCA connectors, a grounding post, the power port, and a switch to turn the auto-stop on and off. That’s about as high tech as we get here, folks — it stops the record when the stylus reaches the run-out groove.

But a little expert advice here — leave it turned off. It’s not that it doesn’t work, but because no mechanism lifts the tonearm, your stylus will end up stuck in the run-out groove, unmoving. Don’t do that. Just watch the record as it's coming to the end of play, and move the stylus once the record is over.

Oh, one last thing — 78RPM fans, rejoice! You can play your 78s here. Just remember that you’ll need to change out the cartridge to something compatible. Those wider grooves will chew up your standard stylus.

Fluance RT87 review: Sound quality

If you’re after the warmest-sounding turntable around, you should probably look elsewhere, or make sure you pair this one with a suitable amp or pre-amp. This is a lively-sounding deck despite all that extra wood, and detail retrieval shines no matter the genre of vinyl that spins on the platter.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some nice low-end to enjoy here — but it's not in your face or particularly dominating. Instead, the RT87 goes for a much bigger, wider sound. This turntable sounds massive no matter the system you play it through.

I played my records through an iFi pre-amp going into a Cambridge Audio EXA100. That goes into a pair of Focal Vestia No. 3 floorstanders — a system that needs powerful sound and reveals bad audio. The RT87 had no problem.

The sawblade guitars of Bloodbath’s “Survival of the Sickest” cut through like a jagged knife, filling my office room with suitable menace and violence. Dua Lipa’s vocals were a highlight during my testing, revealing some wonderful clarity.

More expensive models to the tune of thousands will sound better, with more robust low-end and perhaps a little more sonic bite. But you’d be hard-pressed to find something that sounds better within $300-$500 of the RT-87’s price. And that’s mighty impressive.

Verdict

While the RT87 is expensive, it offers excellent value. Some more costly models envy the price-to-quality ratio here, and it’s mostly down to that very snazzy dual platter design.

Are there better-sounding turntables? Absolutely — but you’ll be paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars more to get the increase in performance from the likes of the Planar 3 RS, or even the Technics SL13000G. Great turntables that come for a hefty premium

This is a five-star deck through and through. My few nitpicks are few and far between, and don’t dull the luster of what is otherwise a spectacular buy for $800 or so. Just remember that you’ll need to factor in a phono pre-amp (and maybe some powered speakers if you don’t own some already), and you’re home free.