I have a Dual 1019 that is in pretty good shape overall. I have read through the various tonearm adjustment procedures for this TT and feel I have adjusted and cleaned it as best I can.
I have 3 or 4 different cartridge and stylus that I have accumulated from Thrift Stores over the years. I have noticed that I get very different sound quality from each.
For example, I keep an eye on the "left" and "right" channel power meters on my receiver and notice that they are never equal. One is always more than the other no matter which stylus or cartridge I use. I know it is not the receiver because when using the other componenets the meters are fine.

Just wondering if it needs more adjustment to get the channels equal or should I be trying something different?
Thanks.

I have 3 or 4 different cartridge and stylus that I have accumulated from Thrift Stores over the years.Thanks.
Please tell me you're not using the stylii that was in the Thrift Store carts when you bought them. As my mom used to say (referring to an entierly different subject) "You don't know where it's been".

There's a couple of ways to isolate the problem. When you say "they are never equal" is it consistently the left or right channel that's out of wack, or does it change from cart to cart? If it's consitent, change the leads on the back of the cart and make sure the levels swap. If it does, it may be the cart(s). If not I'd suspect the contacts on the arm where the pins in the shell make contact. This was problematic with my Dual and had to clean them frequently. Use an ink eraser or deoxit.

Please at least change the stylus of the favorite cart you picked up. You may also want to look at springing for a cart. Grado Blacks are good and not too expensive (Blues and Reds are even better).

Doug

Unless you are playing a mono record, or a mono section of a test record, the meters will almost always read different amounts of power, since you have different and constantly changing signals in each channel.
If you are saying that depending on cartridges, one side or the other is always higher, than you may have a problem -- bad signal, bad ground, wrong antiskate or something else.

Thanks for your reply guys!

I will try to give more detail.....
One stylus I have is a Shure. It gives very good sound but I notice that the left chanell meter is always a bit lower than the right. If I try the other stylus I have (the name escapes me right now) it's the right channel that is lower and the overall sound quality is down, but still reasonable.

The headshell on this TT is the kind where the contacts are located in the back and are just "pressed" in to make contact with the tonearm. I have cleaned them and the contacts that they touch.

I have another "new" stylus from another TT. I will need to modify the cartridge slightly to mount it. Maybe it will give me better sound?
I was thinking it was more adjustment that would even up the left and right channels. Maybe not!!!

It's possible that its an antiskate or alignment issue. If the alignment is off, the needle won't be square in the groove, and might skew the cantilever so there might be more pressure on one side than the other, or if the antiskate is too great, or not enough, it might also skew the cartridge.
One other possibilty is that the grounding strap that many cartridges have (the little metal piece that is attached to one of the connecting pins on the cartridge and crimped into or onto the metal casing) might be doing something that boosts or lowers the signal on that side.
If the Shure sounds good, why not simply not look at the meters -- I suspect that what you are seeing is not all that important soundwise -- once you've ruled out misalignment or whatever, it may just be that you have a slight interchannel imbalance -- not uncommon, and if small can be ignored or the balance control can be used to correct it.

Those contacts on the cartridge clip and the matching ones in the arm need to be polished with Noxon. They are silver plated and tarnish will lower the volume. If you use an eraser to polish them, as many do, it just ain't the same. You need to use an ohmmeter.

Seth
Forever Analog