stereo turntables in DD use.

[whirlcool]

I remember the Dual 701 demo stations when they first came out. They would start playing a record (which was lightly glued to the platter) in a normal position, then the turntable would be tilted slowly until it was playing upside down, and all through the demo continued playing without missing a beat.

The purpose was to demonstrate that the arm of the 701 tracks so accurately that it is not affected by any other force of gravity and it will maintain the tracking force in the center of the groove in any position. That demo alone sold a lot of Dual 701's.

 

[whirlcool]

Since that photo of my 701 was taken, I have replaced the base with a taller one made of solid walnut. It damps the vibration feedback to the turntable even more.

 

[electron1100]

Dual Mods

Hello whirlcool that sounds like a very good idea and I bet it looks better aswell, i wonder if it be worth damping the pressed steel chassis (a bit of a job i know) but any deck i have had that uses a pressed steel chassis PL-12Ds Dual 505's etc has always benefited sonically from bitumen damping being applied, it stops them ringing.
I always do a recording of before and after when i alter things to see.

Gary

 

[whirlcool]

I have the Dual 701 in an enclosed case in our entertainment center. It plays with the glass door closed so that pretty much keeps the bass off the turntable. Maybe one of these days I'll consider damping it more. But getting under that top on a Dual can be a job!

 

[whirlcool]

I have the Dual 701 in an enclosed case in our entertainment center. It plays with the glass door closed so that pretty much keeps the bass off the turntable. Maybe one of these days I'll consider damping it more. But getting under that top on a Dual can be a job!

 

[cornutt]

My first and only turntable is a Technics SL-230, purchased new in 1979. My original setup, which I used for many years, consisted of that, a Kenwood KR4070 receiver/amp, a Phillips N2535 cassette deck, and a pair of Lyric 3-way bass reflex speakers. (Lyric was a Circuit City house brand, made by Fisher.) The N2535 was interesting because it had settings for recording and playing back ferrichrome tape, which didn't stay on the market for very long. I still have it, although I don't use it anymore. The turntable has an interesting feature too: a "repeat play" control that can be set to play a record from 1-6 times, or indefinitely. If you set the control to one of the 1-6 settings, the lever moves over a notch every time the tonearm returns.

I mainly use the turntable these days to transfer stuff to my computer. Over the years I've replaced the neon strobe and the belt; the automatic mechanism no longer engages reliably, and the speed control is a bit flaky. I was still using the Kenwood amp up until two years ago, when one of the output channels died. At that point I bought a JVC amp which is what I use now. (I also have a St. Louis Music stereo monitor amp, but I don't use it much.) I let the Lyric speakers go in a yard sale some years go; my current listening pair is a pair of Cerwin-Vega which I purchased in 1992, but have spent most of their lifetimes in storage (long story). They've only got about three years of actual use on them.

 

[whirlcool]

For 112561 & Yogi:

Here is something I came across, in Early American!

 

[112561]

Whirlcool, I love them!

If you didn't buy those, I don't want to hear about it! LOL There was a man in the Stuart flea market that had the identical set, he may still have them, they weren't for sale unfortunately. I found ONE main unit in Early American with the little trapezoidal speaker set attached. Idiot that I am, I didn't grab it. It ended up in an antique mall for more, then I think it disappeared before the entire mall left. I guess I didn't grab it because I've got the Contemporary version, and I wanted its companion matching storage/speaker unit.

 

[norgeway]

1964

Singer by KLH, also use a 62 Phonola consolette with reverb.

 

[sudsmaster]

Denon DP-30L direct drive turntable from the late 1970's. Still works great. A/T cartridge with a variety of different styluses.

I picked up a "free" turntable last year, a belt drive TransAudio 1800 minus a belt and a cartridge.

Also have an ION USB turntable. POS, IMHO, I could just have easily used the Denon and a pre-amp with the freeware Audacity software instead.

Built-in turntables: Garrard in old late 1960's KLH Model 11-FM. Pretty good but the spherical stylus doesn't have the definition of the more modern elliptical ones.

Also the Imperial Micronic turntable in the Motorola console stereo... same lack of high def the Garrard has. But that in part is because I couldn't find an exact replacement for the cartridge. The original has a broken stylus support. Lots of bass response, though ;-)

 

[whirlcool]

Actually, we have four turntables.

The Dual 701
The Kyocera PL-601
Dual CS-528 (mediocre at best)
The original AR turntable

The AR turntable was given to me about 10 years ago. Someone put it in storage in the attic of their home here in Houston. It was up there for about 15 years. Need I say what 15 years of a hot Houston attic did to the turntable? The plinth is warped and is falling apart. The base itself isn't too bad. All the pieces are still there.
I imagine if I restored the base finish, made a new plinth and put a new motor in it I would probably be ok. But that tonearm is sooo primitive.
Just another project for one of those days when I have nothing to do (Ha! I ALWAYS have projects to do! Lots and lots of "Honey-do's).

 

[firedome]

for 35 years...

We've had a Thorens TD-145, for which an Empire 595 was traded, for which my first TT a Dual 1009 was traded... but just last week sold the old Thorens, we're going to go new. One of the country's best stereo stores, Audio Classics' is about 5 mi away. And of course McIntosh is stil made here in Binghamton. We've had a few of those, over-rated imho.

The TTs are played through tube theater amps: Altec 128B pair, Scott 130 preamp, to feed a pair of Altec Valencia speakers. Better 1/2 thinks they're too big, so to my son they will go, to be replaced by something more living roon friendly, what I don't know yet.

 

[whirlcool]

What brand of turntable are you looking at for a replacement? That Thorens is goint to be tough to beat. They sure do have a following.
It sounds like you are in the Rega or ClearAudio area. What do you think of Klipsch speakers?

 

[yogitunes]

Allan

thanks for posting these.......SWEET!.......

now I'm gonna be on the look out for them at sales.......endtables and speakers combined.....does it get any better than that.....

 

[rp2813]

Scott

I saw a Scott turntable at a thrift store recently.  Any advice on that make?  Chances are it's still there (it's all there too, as in including the cartridge), and I've been regretting having let a turntable go when I moved a few years ago.

 

[whirlcool]

I don't think Scott made their own turntables, but sourced them from someone else.
Sometimes you can end up with a great turntable this way. SAE had a turntable for awhile under their own name, but it was really a Micro Seike under the cover. A really nice unit.

 

[jasonl]

Magnavox Micro Mini changer

Here's a video of one of those micro changers in action

 

[rp2813]

I went back today to get a better look at the Scott and it was gone.   I was surprised.  Nothing moves out of that store very quickly.  I think that thing was ready to plug & play.

 

 

 

[firedome]

too bad it was gone!

Scott turntables were made by Fairchild, super well made for that vintage (late '50s).
I'm not sure what we're going to get. The Thorens was very good but after 35 years it was time to change. And the big Altec VOTTs had to go, the spousal approval factor just wasn't there... now to try to get approval for Magneplanars, that should be fun!

 

[tolivac]

Fairchild is another TT that sometimes was used in radio stations.I would love to have some VOTT's-I don't care if they are fridge sized-perfect for the large home theater.