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Dual 1257 Stylus

The Shocker

The Shocker

Super Member
I need to get a new DN 150 E stylus for my new (to me) Dual 1257. They do not make them any more. There are oaftermarket ones I am finding. What aftermarket brands are good and which ones should I avoid?

Amazon has a brand called TacParts.

LPGEAR wants me to buy an Ortofon DN152 E to use instead

MyNeedleStore sells one made by Tonar.

What's my best bet here?
 
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The Shocker said:
I need to get a new DN 150 E stylus for my new (to me) Dual 1257. They do not make them any more. There are oaftermarket ones I am finding. What aftermarket brands are good and which ones should I avoid?

Amazon has a brand called TacParts.

LPGEAR wants me to buy an Ortofon DN152 E to use instead

MyNeedleStore sells one made by Tonar.

What's my best bet here?
Click to expand...


LPGear and Tonar are excellent. I am not familiar with TacParts.
 
I ended up doing some more research last night and changed my Google search term to "Dual 1257 Stylus Upgrade" and a lot more options came up. Found out the ON10/ON20/ON30 stylus will fit this cartridge. The ON20 stylus was recommended as nice upgrade to the stock stylus, but was a little more than I was willing to spend rigth now. I ended finding an eBay seller with a bunch of NOS ON10 styluses for $35.00 that was not too far from my house and ordered one of those. If I like the ON10, I may upgrade to the ON20, if I find it at a reasonable price.
 
The Shocker said:
I ended up doing some more research last night and changed my Google search term to "Dual 1257 Stylus Upgrade" and a lot more options came up. Found out the ON10/ON20/ON30 stylus will fit this cartridge. The ON20 stylus was recommended as nice upgrade to the stock stylus, but was a little more than I was willing to spend rigth now. I ended finding an eBay seller with a bunch of NOS ON10 styluses for $35.00 that was not too far from my house and ordered one of those. If I like the ON10, I may upgrade to the ON20, if I find it at a reasonable price.
Click to expand...

Good for you !! eBay is a good source.
 
Didn't know Dual was using a P mount in 1979, interesting. Vinyl engine made no mention of the mounting system, I would have assumed standard 1/2".
 
Grenadeslio said:
Didn't know Dual was using a P mount in 1979, interesting. Vinyl engine made no mention of the mounting system, I would have assumed standard 1/2".
Click to expand...

From what little research I did, it seems the 1257 has some kind of ultra lightweight tone arm, and that limits my cartridge choices. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
 
The Shocker said:
From what little research I did, it seems the 1257 has some kind of ultra lightweight tone arm, and that limits my cartridge choices. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
Click to expand...
I wasn't referring to the arms mass, just your comment about needing a 1/2" adapter to allow the use of standard cartridges. Many tables back in the day were sporting very light arms like the Infinity Black Widow, or the Grace G707, but allowed standard 1/2" cartridges.

Yes the cartridges need to be high compliance, but that doesn't affect the mounting design. Just surprised the Dual doesn't accept standard 1/2" cartridges is all.
 
The Shocker said:
From what little research I did, it seems the 1257 has some kind of ultra lightweight tone arm, and that limits my cartridge choices. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
Click to expand...

It is a low mass tonearm. Light tracking high compliance needles will work best.
 
T_S: Theoretically yes, practically it would be a suboptimal choice.

And mind you that the original DN150E was a more heavily tracking alternative to the other original needles for the Ortofon-made Dual cartridges for the 1st gen. ULM mount, primarily intended for actual stacker use - so you'd be better off with a DN152E or DN155E, if you don't intend to use the stacking feature.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
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