Dual 1229 idler

[McMaly]

I recently acquired this one:



A Dual 1229 idler wheel turntable (fully automatic).

The cosmetic condition was top but nothing did work.

Compared to our Lencos this is high-tech (mechanicaly) inside.

It took me 2 whole days to get everything to work.

Since the turntable is sitting in some kind of plastic baby bathtub with a wooden fence attached to it, I am up to build a decent plinth right now.


Even with the plastic „plinth“ it sounds quite decent.

This is far from what I have expected. 

You do not get the pure speed of the Lencos but to me this is more fun than my late Sondek. 

I will be back with more pics and comments after I finished the plinth and put in a decent cart.

Cheers,
Matthias

[McMaly]

I am getting ahead slowly building the new plinth, now made of wood not plastic.



Only a set of feet will have to be attached now.



A set of different DUAL badges has alredy been ordered at Vladimirs......

I will move the Deck from the original „plinth“ to my new one this weekend.

Lets see where us gets this sonically……

Cheers,
Matthias

[wer]

There is a multitude of opinions on what the bottom of a turntable should look like, however a lot of them advise against a closed bottom 

[McMaly]

......You might have noticed......it is not really CLOSED.......



Cheers,
Matthias

[McMaly]

These are the parts of the original „plinth“......









This is how the deck looks with the new plinth now.

The new DUAL Badge is still missing.



Soundwise everything is now faster, more colourfull, better resolving and the whole presentation is more relaxed.

I hope the performance will be increased further by the feet setteling on the acrylic panel within the next weeks.

Next task is to put a decent cart in the arm. 

Cheers,
Matthias

[bush baby]

I always found Duals sounded great in their cheap and flimsy plastic surrounds - probably my ageing ears !
It is nice to have a good looking wood plinth like yours though.

[GP49]

Direct-coupling my old Dual 1218, by eliminating its spring suspensions, proved to be beneficial even in the USA United Audio base.  

Unfortunately, recharging the cueing in a Dual 1218, which drains its damping fluid, is a royal pain.  The 1209 had a much easier-to-do design, actually identical to that in the 1019 but Dual wanted full-time damped arm lowering in auto mode because Garrard incorporated it in their competing model.

[Kvaal]

I have the 1216, which is the same, except for the arm. It is fully renovated. No drain of silikon grease. It stays under the lift handle where it shall be, and not in the tubeholder in the arm-lift. I know some make a mistanke on this.

[McMaly]

I have chosen the Sonus Silver E from 1979 for the Dual.



I have been able to buy quite a few of these carts NOS.

Always the same problem: Because of the long storage the rubber damper around the cantilever has hardened and the cart will not track @the recommended VTF (0,75 – 1,25 gr.). 

I am always starting with 2,2 grams then go down by 0,2 gr. step by step and usually after some 30 hours it settles and tracks nicely @ between 1,8 and 1,5 gr.

Right now I am down to 1,8 gr. and the sound is very pleasing already.

Cheers,
Matthias

[McMaly]

With the Sonus installed and the feet having settled, this is really a deck I could live with.




Cheers,
Matthias

[GP49]

I have the 1216, which is the same, except for the arm. It is fully renovated. No drain of silikon grease. It stays under the lift handle where it shall be, and not in the tubeholder in the arm-lift. I know some make a mistanke on this.

No...Dual 1216 has the old cue damping system, a rotating disc inside a round housing under the chassis beneath the cueing lever, its rotation damped by silicone fluid.  It was introduced in the Dual 1019, an add-on to the cueingless Dual 1009, in reaction to the introduction of cueing on the Garrard Lab 80.  The old system was used on all Dual 10 series with cueing, and on the 12 series to the 1216.  It retained its damping fluid quite well, and was easy to service if needed.

Dual 1218 was the first with integrated cueing where the damping fluid was in a cylinder surrounding the tonearm lifting rod, and it did leak on most. The (unauthorized) cure was to use a heavier grade of silicone fluid, 500,000 cs instead of 300,000 cs.  Or, use a really old vial of Dual damping fluid, which got thicker as it aged on the shelf!

Replenishing silicone fluid in 1218 requires removal of the tonearm, steuerpimpel, a tiny E-ring, and the plastic tonearm lift restrictor knob which also had a bad habit of splitting in two....which these days is a potential disaster if it happens and you can't scrounge one, as it is impossible to glue back together, the plastic being impregnated with silicone fluid.  I had to bodge one with a strip of tape and a tiny tie-wrap.

What were they thinking???  It was probably a rushed Engineering job in the ultra-competitive automatic turntable market of the day.  With the old system the arm lowering in auto setdown could be slowed by cue damping only if the cueing lever were stroked during the auto cycle, before the arm lowering began.  This was easy enough when playing a single record automatically but obviously was impractical in multiple record play, hence the redesign in Dual 1218 which damped the arm lowering in every auto cycle.  The competition had damping in auto arm lowering in the works so it had to be ready in the 1218 for the busy Fall selling season in the USA.

But the leaky cueing in 1218 was why I preferred the 1209 to the 1218 when I was using Duals as my auto player.  Then there was the 1219 that departed my system when the rubber band in the detent for the VTA adjuster rotted out and broke, causing the detent ball to roll off into Neverland.  The 1209 went back in after that one  too.

[Kvaal]

Ok, so i learnt
something today too.

[McMaly]

....just in case somebody is interested, I am willing to give away the complete original plinth just for the shipping fee, I will have to pay for it. 

As You could see on the pictures, the condition is excellent.

Cheers,
Matthias

[McMaly]

This is a Shure M55 I was lucky enough to buy from Malcom (Willbewill)



So far it is the best sounding cart in my 1229 tracking nicely @ 3 gr.

Cheers,
Matthias

[jotarama]

Good day!
A great turntable. I own the 1219 and usually use the Shure M44E phono cartridge.

One question: are you sure that your M55 mounts the correct needle? It appears to be an N75EJ. It goes into the cartridge body, yes, but is the angle exactly right?

Enjoy your 1229.