Dual question

Knotty

Member
This may be the wrong place for this question but I'm hoping a Dual enthusiast might have the answer. I ran across a 1975 Dual catalog that listed all types of components with a Dual label. Did Dual outsource these or build their own. I've never run across them in the US so I'm not sure if they made it across the pond. Thanks in advance for your input.
 
This may be the wrong place for this question but I'm hoping a Dual enthusiast might have the answer. I ran across a 1975 Dual catalog that listed all types of components with a Dual label. Did Dual outsource these or build their own. I've never run across them in the US so I'm not sure if they made it across the pond. Thanks in advance for your input.

From good 'ol Wiki:

History[edit]
In 1907, brothers Christian and Joseph Steidinger began manufacturing clockwork and gramophone parts in the Black Forest town of St. Georgen. In 1927, Gebrüder Steidinger (Steidinger Bros.) adopted the name Dual in reference to the dual-mode power supplies it pioneered. The power supplies allowed gramophones to be powered from mains electricity or with a wind-up mechanism. Soon thereafter, Dual began producing turntables of its own.[1]

After World War II, Dual became the biggest manufacturer of turntables in Europe, with more than 3,000 employees working in several factories. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Dual introduced audio cassette players, VCRs, CD players, and other consumer electronics.

But when Japanese consumer electronics started entering European markets in the 1970s on a large scale, Dual as most other traditional German manufacturers underwent a big crisis: Japanese products usually offered more features at a cheaper price in a much more modern package. Dual went bankrupt in 1982, and was sold to French electronic manufacturer Thomson SA. In 1988, Thomson sold Dual to German manufacturer Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG.[2]

In 1993/4, Dual was finally split off into

  • Dual Phono GmbH, i.e. the Dual line of turntables, which were acquired by the German company Alfred Fehrenbacher GmbH, which has continued to produce them in the Black Forest town of St. Georgen.[3] Dual turntables Made in Germany are manufactured on the same traditional product line. They are easy to identify with the manufacturing code beginning with CS xxx.[4]
  • Dual DGC GmbH (Germany) sells mostly rebranded consumer electronics made in Far East, including turntables (production code DT xxx). DGC products are exclusively sold in Europe.[5]
  • For the American market, after the insolvency of Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG in 2001, TCL Holdings, a Chinese company, purchased the Dual assets and brand, and it began marketing its own products under the name. In 2002, Namsung Electronics, a Korean company, bought the rights to use the name in the Americas and began selling lower-priced (but generally well-reviewed) consumer electronics under the Dual marque. The main product lines are home audio, mobile audio, marine audio and GPS receivers.[6]
 
Dual did have a bunch of systems with amps and turntables in one unit, for example. They were not that common in North America but not unheard of. In Europe where homes were generally smaller all-in-ones were more common.

Dual might have outsourced the electronics. They also sold turntables to companies like Sony who had their own systems built around them.
 
Knotty: If you'd like to know details, you'd best buy Noko's book about Dual (afaik only available in German, though...) - but just like most of the Japanese hifi companies, the German companies also usually didn't produce all their products themselves. Two of the most well-known contract manufacturers over here, that also made stuff for Dual, were Südfunk near Stuttgart and Eben Elekronik near Munich, with the latter still being in business.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
Dual made an open-reel tape deck. At least it carried the Dual logo. I saw it at an audio show in L.A. in 1967. A few months later I asked an audio retailer in San Diego about it, and he said they wouldn't be carrying the tape deck, because he thought it was substandard in some way. I remember him telling me, almost verbatim, "Dual came up with the answer in turntables, but they sure didn't with tape decks." I remember the tape deck having a lot of plastic, and maybe the cheap-looking construction turned off potential retailers.
 
Boy, if they had designed tape decks the way they did turntables I suspect they'd be huge, with more grease points than you would ever want to keep track of.
But if serviced properly they'd last a life time.
 
Boy, if they had designed tape decks the way they did turntables I suspect they'd be huge, with more grease points than you would ever want to keep track of.
But if serviced properly they'd last a life time.

The Dual tape deck I saw in L.A. in 1967 was not particularly large. It took 7-inch reels, not 10-inch. It layed horizontally, like the Tandberg I bought when I was in VN, instead of vertically like a Revox or Teac. When the guy in the San Diego audio store told me they wouldn't be carrying the Dual tape deck (nor would anybody else in the S.D. area, I gathered), I understood why. I owned a Dual 1019 turntable (now with Fred Longworth for rebuild), and the tape deck didn't seem to be of the same build quality. But I didn't get to play with it, nor did I see it operate. Dual's advertising in High Fidelity and/or Stereo Review had the headline, "Dual's precision has gone to its head(s)!"
 
As always a wealth of knowledge flows on this forum. You guys are great. I was hoping Dual components might have been a well kept secret and now it sound more like a failed attempt to diversify. They sure look cool in the old pics. Lends to the adage about looks being recieving. Thanks again everyone!
 
My brother had a Dual cassette deck in the mid '70s.

Here's a neat little portable that I saw in Munich antique shop:

B31n522.jpg
 
(...) I was hoping Dual components might have been a well kept secret and now it sound more like a failed attempt to diversify. (...)

Actually that would be an exaggeration - 'cause quite a few of Dual's other hifi components were pretty good.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
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