DUAL motor in TAP

[gregbogantz]

Looking thru the latest issue of The Antique Phonograph magazine (March 2015) I see that Anthony Sinclair mentions in his article from Australia the DUAL phonograph motor and rather wonders about it - it seems to be a complete mystery to him. This motor is the origin of the German company that henceforth was known as DUAL and who was famous for its high quality turntables and other audio equipment of the 1960s thru the 1980s. For those wondering how the company got its name, this is it. One of their first products was this combination spring and electric - hence, "dual" - phonograph motor. DUAL became widely repected worldwide for their complete line of audio equipement including amplifiers and tape machines. The company was represented by several different logos thru their history, some of which can be seen in the following photos.

[gramophone78]

I love my Dual model 1007A 1964-66 retail price $100. I use it a lot. You can see the nice metal Dual scroll on the corner of the box.

Dual 1007A turntable (2).JPG (391.36 KiB) Viewed 1558 times

[alang]

I still have my 1978 Dual CS5000 that i purchased new when i was a teenager. Cost me a full summer's job to pay for it, but it still runs like new and i love it. It was one of the few quality players at that time that still offered 78rpm. Glad I also bought a 78 cartridge with it. They are great reliable players.

Andreas

[barnettrp21122]

I really like the spherical chrome pickup and needle cup! Any chance for a full picture? Thanks for the post!
Bob

[gregbogantz]

DUAL made several variations on their single-play 78rpm turntables featuring different tonearms. The ball head used on the model 55E was one, another used a cubic head, and probably the latest one was the tapered head from about 1948 on the model 260 which is also pictured in the above advertisement. All these pickups were magnetic types.

DUAL began to offer early piezoelectric (PZT) cartridges in their models around 1950 or so. The model 1001 changer which is shown below has an early PZT cartridge in its very narrow tonearm head. It is a variation on the model 1000 which used a magnetic pickup. The 1001 also added the pause feature that was popular in euro changers of the 1950s but never caught on with changers made in the USA. This feature inserted a pause between records, the duration of which could be adjusted by the user. I'm not sure what the point of this was, but I'm guessing that it allowed dancers to change partners between record selections.

For those of you who are DUAL enthusiasts, their changer line started with the model 1000 in about 1948 as pictured above and continued in the 1000 series with most numbers used up to the model 1019 which was DUAL's triumph that exploded the brand onto the component stereo market in the USA in 1965. The 1019 was revolutionary - it caught the hifi world fully unprepared. It was a huge advance over earlier record changers and it performed as well as any single-play purist-grade manual turntable of its day while also operating as a changer. It really started the entire market of component-grade automatic turntables. After the 1019, the stacking spindle design was changed and the changer numbering was restarted as the 1200 series.

The only serious competition for the functionality and quality of the 1019 in 1965 was the Thorens TD-224 which was TRULY an automatic turntable that came out in about 1962. It literally was a single-play design that was fitted with automation that took a record from one stack, placed it on the platter, played it, then removed that record and placed it on another stack, then repeated this cycle until all records were played. But the 224 was very expensive and a delicate design and a mechanical nightmare to set up and keep operating. Today, you seldom find a 224 that is in full operating condition (and they are EXTREMELY pricey if you do find an operating one) but you can easily find DUAL 1019s that are still fully functional. I have fully operating examples of both models and enjoy using them both.

[barnettrp21122]

Thanks, Greg, for all the added pictures and information! Time to stack a few on my 1219!
Bob

[JerryVan]

If I were going to have a Platten Spieler, it would be a Dual!

[fran604g]

Very interesting, Gregbogantz, thank you for adding your knowledge to a wonderful post!

I still use one of my Dual 1229's frequently, and also have a 1218 in one of my secondary stereo systems. I also put together a system for my son several years ago utilizing the 1257 I bought new in 1978. Love me some DUALs.

Best,
Fran