I bought this along with the Dual 701 and have tested it and it seems to perform like its supposed to but I'm wondering if upgrading the cartridge would be worthwhile or not? It has an AT el cheapo cartridge right now that I believe is a P-mount. Is this TT worth upgrading or should I just use it in my garage ?

well first off what cartridge is on it now as there is no way to help with out knowing what you have now.

As Stanton681EEES said, we need to know what is on there. For instance, if it is a Shure V15V-P, then there is not much made that will be an upgrade! Marantz had some excellent turntables, many of them made by Japanese OEM turntable companies such as CEC or Hitachi, which are excellent. Whether modern turntables will be an upgrade is debatable, and sometimes depends on whether you are selling turntables, or advertising for those who are!

-Don

the cartridge on it is an AT3482P I'm not interested in selling it I just want to know if its worth upgrading the cartridge or not.

I've sold several of those over the years for $80-$100 so some folks must like them. I used one myself for several months and had no problems at all with it.
They seem as solid as many other Japanese belt drives, so I would say yes, go ahead and get a new cart for it. I'd say it's too nice for a garage rig in general, but not in the 701s class either.

BTW, does it have the anti skate weight on the string?

yup shure does. what cart would you recommend?

I also purchased one of these recently and was wondering where I can find the anti-skate weight as mine is missing. Also how do you set the anti-skate? I looked on Vinylengine, but I couldn't find the manual.

yup shure does. what cart would you recommend?

The cartridge that you have can be upgraded quite a long way by replacing the stylus with one of a range of stylii from the AT-3472 series. The 3482P had a conical stylus but there are a range of elliptical, hyper-elliptical and Shibata stylii available at LPGear – see http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LG&Product_Code=ATSAT3482P . As well as the Shibata stylus, they also have an even pricier microline stylus which will fit – see http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LG&Product_Code=ATN3472ML . That is about the best stylus shape available for any cartridge made to date – the micro line, or micro ridge, as Grace and Shure called it, is a very thin line or ridge around the edge of the stylus where it contacts the record groove. Making it very thin enables it to play complex high frequency notes much better than most stylus shapes. It is certainly worth upgrading the stylus – the microline stylus shapes like the hyper-elliptical, Shibata, or microline stylus that LPGear sells for it last longer, and cause less record wear, than conventional conical or elliptical shaped stylii, as well as sounding better. In general, as they go up in price, each stylus should give better sound. There are unlikely to be too many other cartridges with much better sound in a P-mount than the best line contact stylii will give you with your current cartridge. Just be thankful that you’ve got a cartridge that can be upgraded like that, with just a new stylus.:thmbsp:

By the way, my earlier remark about selling turntables didn't mean I was asking you whether you wanted to sell - it was just my tongue-in-cheek way of saying that often hi-fi salesmen or reviewers can't always be believed when they say that something like a brand new turntable they are selling, or advertising, is a major advance in sound - it can often be because they want you to buy what they are selling, or advertising, in order to make them rich!

-Don

I concure with others here as to the AT3482P as far as the TT itself the Dual is in another league. That being said I have a 6100 and my wife is the original owner and I just did a complete cleaning and belt replacement on it and it still works fine. Yes there are better TT`s out there but this ones still moving after 25+ Years.

yup shure does. what cart would you recommend?

Grado Blacks are well spoken of, as are the slightly more expensive Shure M97xe and the AT 440s.