Geigartt
Active Member
Now that I'm retired I think I must "retire" all my equipment which is barely qualifies for the needs of people here, but it is what I have used, minimally, over the years. So I'm asking for suggestions for rebuilding with a budget say of $2500 for TT + receiver. TT: is a refurbished (new RCA leads and lubrication) Dual 1219. It has a Shure M97 E, which was installed as new 2017. Signal goes to a generic Sony (no model numbers visible) A/V receiver that switches to multiple outputs comprised of Tuner, CD, phono. It might be generous to call it an integrated amp, but it has served me as adequate, it was a handmedown. So the sound I'm getting leaves a lot to be desired. For starters with speaker muted I can hear a lot of "scraping" that seems to come directly from the stylus dragging through the groove. I have aligned the stylus properly with a mirrored protractor that I believe is more accurate b/c of the parallax properties that dictate a better alignment than a paper protractor, and set VTF at 1.98 grams with a scale. I have cleaned the stylus multiple times. I could live with the scraping as one of course doesn't hear it with speakers. The speakers are from a Bose 5 bookshelf system which due to space limitations I must keep (I know, big compromise here). Worst aspect is the drop out or distortion of high frequencies. The highs are pretty pathetic now. Competing for "worst" aspect is the appearance recently of "sticking" of stylus in a groove so that it repeats; have heard it on multiple albums, but never consistent phrase or groove; use now is limited to troubleshooting as I don't know if any damage is being done to vinyl. This is intermittent so I don't think it is a scratch on an album that has been ultrasonically cleaned. I take good to excellent care of my vinyl. I do note that the anti-skate doesn't seem to have a great affect on tracking, if that is the cause of this problem. Going from + 5 (in the red) to + 5 in the black scale has little noticable effect, but I have yet to see a tool or method to measure horiz anti-skate. Tonearm is set to "single" disc, If I set anti-skate at 5 on red scale, and lift using the queing feature, the arm moves very slightly toward the outer grooves, movement is only noticable after 4-5 lifts. I have not been able to find a video re refurbing the anti-skate other than setting it to match the VTF, so if anti-skate is ineffective, and sticking continues that would be a death knell to the Dual.
Conclusion: I'm prepared to replace the cart with an Ortofon 2M Blue (or better?) and add a preamp betw TT and receiver. I would part reluctantly with the Dual, but it has followed me all over NYC in the last 40 years with minimal use so IF it can be saved I would invest in a cart/stylus and preamp to get a decent sound. Reception here is spotty so re tuner, my needs are min. In a year I could swing another $1K for a better amp. That ups my investment to $3.5K total for new TT, preamp, + integrated amp. Here is a pic of the Sony.
What do you guys think?
Conclusion: I'm prepared to replace the cart with an Ortofon 2M Blue (or better?) and add a preamp betw TT and receiver. I would part reluctantly with the Dual, but it has followed me all over NYC in the last 40 years with minimal use so IF it can be saved I would invest in a cart/stylus and preamp to get a decent sound. Reception here is spotty so re tuner, my needs are min. In a year I could swing another $1K for a better amp. That ups my investment to $3.5K total for new TT, preamp, + integrated amp. Here is a pic of the Sony.
Last edited:
