For me it keeps raining Dual Turntables. Why do these Dual's come to me so cheap? Then I have to take them in like lost puppies. This time it was a Dual 1019.
I was at the local old style electronics parts store and they have a room where they resell vintage equipment. I pass through once in a while. Occasionally, they have something interesting. I happened to notice the addition of the Dual 1019, but I was going to pass it by because I have so many Duals of other models already. On the way past the counter toward the door the owner said, "You didn't see anything you wanted to buy today?" I asked him, "How much for the Dual 1019?" He replied, "$59 and the Shure cartridge is worth that much." I asked back, "Does it work?" He responded, "Yes." I couldn't open my wallet fast enough.
Anyway, it has the German plinth and the original dust cover in great condition and the original Shure M80E-D19 cartridge. It came with a new stylus (and the old stylus). It is missing the 33 changer spindle.
I've got it home now and I hooked it up and put in the new stylus. It sounds pretty good. Here are some comments...
- I had to balance the arm. It didn't appear to be zeroed at all. I would have thought the shop would have set that. Currently I have it set at 1.5g.
- I can hear the platter spinning (or the idler - I'm not sure). This seems to be mechanical sound and doesn't come through the pickup as far as I can tell.
- The queuing level drops it without any delay. Is that right for one of these? Isn't there any hydraulic fluid in the queuing for this model? It was kind of harsh when I tried to manually drop it.
- The auto function starts fine, but it seems to drop it a little deep into the run-in track. It wasn't quite into the song, but didn't look quite right. I'm hoping there is an adjustment for that.
- I need to open it up and check whether the lube has been refreshed. If not I'll take care of it.
- Needs a general cleaning, but it's not all that dirty. Just not up to my standards.
- I let it run through one side of an LP and it stopped on its' own with no problems. Three or four minutes later I went over to put on another record and it was still coasting down!
- Need to check the speed. I don't have a strobe so I'll have to see if I have any light bulbs that will work with the strobe disk I have stored away.
- The headshell is a bit pitted. If I take a picture with the flash turned on it looks horrible. That's not how it really looks, but it does show it could use some help. I'll see if there is any other cosmetic issues when I clean it.
Anyway, I'm reading about this cartridge. It's a funky spring loaded gizmo which was supposed to help tracking for dance floors or on boats or what have you. I've read some comments that say it might be like an M44 or M55 or M75. It would be nice to find out which one. It will factor into whether I'll want to get a better cart.
Here are some pics. I'll be tuning it up in the coming days and weeks.
I was at the local old style electronics parts store and they have a room where they resell vintage equipment. I pass through once in a while. Occasionally, they have something interesting. I happened to notice the addition of the Dual 1019, but I was going to pass it by because I have so many Duals of other models already. On the way past the counter toward the door the owner said, "You didn't see anything you wanted to buy today?" I asked him, "How much for the Dual 1019?" He replied, "$59 and the Shure cartridge is worth that much." I asked back, "Does it work?" He responded, "Yes." I couldn't open my wallet fast enough.
Anyway, it has the German plinth and the original dust cover in great condition and the original Shure M80E-D19 cartridge. It came with a new stylus (and the old stylus). It is missing the 33 changer spindle.
I've got it home now and I hooked it up and put in the new stylus. It sounds pretty good. Here are some comments...
- I had to balance the arm. It didn't appear to be zeroed at all. I would have thought the shop would have set that. Currently I have it set at 1.5g.
- I can hear the platter spinning (or the idler - I'm not sure). This seems to be mechanical sound and doesn't come through the pickup as far as I can tell.
- The queuing level drops it without any delay. Is that right for one of these? Isn't there any hydraulic fluid in the queuing for this model? It was kind of harsh when I tried to manually drop it.
- The auto function starts fine, but it seems to drop it a little deep into the run-in track. It wasn't quite into the song, but didn't look quite right. I'm hoping there is an adjustment for that.
- I need to open it up and check whether the lube has been refreshed. If not I'll take care of it.
- Needs a general cleaning, but it's not all that dirty. Just not up to my standards.
- I let it run through one side of an LP and it stopped on its' own with no problems. Three or four minutes later I went over to put on another record and it was still coasting down!
- Need to check the speed. I don't have a strobe so I'll have to see if I have any light bulbs that will work with the strobe disk I have stored away.
- The headshell is a bit pitted. If I take a picture with the flash turned on it looks horrible. That's not how it really looks, but it does show it could use some help. I'll see if there is any other cosmetic issues when I clean it.
Anyway, I'm reading about this cartridge. It's a funky spring loaded gizmo which was supposed to help tracking for dance floors or on boats or what have you. I've read some comments that say it might be like an M44 or M55 or M75. It would be nice to find out which one. It will factor into whether I'll want to get a better cart.
Here are some pics. I'll be tuning it up in the coming days and weeks.
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