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Replacing a tonearm on a Dual 1219?

Urchinn

Urchinn

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Okay, I've had this Dual 1219 sitting in my basement for over a year. Since its crappy weather in Boston today I finally plugged the 1219 in and cued it up. Holy smokes...what a quiet turntable! I'm no expert on idler wheels, but I'm really impressed with this machine. Okay, I've read hundreds of posts about Lenco mods...but does anyone slice off the edge of these Duals and replace the tonearm. Actually, I don't know anything about the stock Dual arms, but they look kinda plastic & crappy. How 'bout it folks? Anyone modding this table? Building insane plynths? Grafting on new arms?
 
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The only tonearm these turntables easily accept is another Dual tonearm. When in good order, these arms are of good quality. Automatics tend to have fewer options on tonearms. Most idlers with easy tonearm upgrade options are professional broadcast type turntables or their relatives.
 
You can also say "the only tonearms Lencos easily accept is another Lenco tonearm" which is why many people cut off the upper right corner of the deck and then install another tonearm. I'm just wondering why nobody does that to the 1219. Actually, I'm really starting to wonder alot about the 1219. The new Lenco (as far as mods go)?
 
That arm is considered one of the best supplied on an automatic, if not the best. There is only one other arm that would fit, and that is the 1229Q arm. Only diff is a lower-mass design. Your present arm, in my opinion, is the better-sounding of the two.
Installing anything else would spoil the auto-function, the cueing, and the beautiful looks of a great turntable.

Seth
 
My 1219 has not a trace of plastic in the arm itself. Apart from the arm tune, it's all die-cast zinc or aluminium alloy.

The arm height adjustment (single/multi) is a bit plasticky, but its not part of the arm per se.

A heavy duty plinth, and removal of those silly suspension springs does it a world of good.
 
The Lenco is manual. You have less to deal with to get a tonearm adapted. With the Dual, you would need some kind of motor switch installed to get around the Dual motor switch for one. Automatics are much more difficult to install another make arm on. If this Dual were a fully manual turntable they would be as easy as a Lenco to modify. That's my point. Some upper end Lenco models were sold armless. All but a few Thorens turntables can easily have another tonearm installed on them for one. Their motor switches are independent of the tonearm. They have their tonearms mounted on a board for the arm which can easily be switched out. The stock tonearm on a 1219 is much better than most people give it credit for. The 1229Q would be the only real upgrade. Their only drawback is pricey cartridge mounts.
 
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Find a nice Ortofon ULM Cartridge for it and be happy. To me fiddling with the arm on this deck would not be worth the time and expense vs benefits-which could be easily found with the proper current arm/cart match.
In my experience Ortofons work the best with Duals.
 
Urchinn said:
Okay, I've read hundreds of posts about Lenco mods...but does anyone slice off the edge of these Duals and replace the tonearm. Actually, I don't know anything about the stock Dual arms, but they look kinda plastic & crappy. How 'bout it folks? Anyone modding this table? Building insane plynths? Grafting on new arms?
Click to expand...



Tone arms are of very high quality on the top models from 1970's Dual, but they were designed to accept cartridges with higher compliances; those were the standard at the time. My favorite is Dual's own DM103-ME cartridge, which snaps in the arm directly. The DM103 is a variant of the Shure M91 ED, originally with a little improved specs.

So if some good old MM cartridges are chosen, the arm will just be perfect. Just remember to fit a good nude diamond stylus, if original level of performance is to be expected.

:)
 
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"The arm height adjustment (single/multi) is a bit plasticky, but its not part of the arm per se."

Oh, it absolutely is. There are two plastic tabs on the bottom out the outer gimbal ring (not visable without disassembly). They key into the height adjustment cam. Also prone to breaking if the table hasn't been properly serviced. If that happens, the arm is toast. The only fix which maintains the original design intent is to replace the outer gimbal ring. Tearing apart the tonearm is real fussy.
 
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