United Audio Dual 1019 Turntable

[thekid]

I'm not your best mentor when it comes to vinyl playback, but since I'm your first responder, I'll venture a few more remarks. You should probably also post in the Analog forum.

I probably would have choosen a later mode than the Dual. Either a belt drive or a direct drive from, say, Techinics, but that's no matter since your Dual is working fine.

Pickering is/was a well-know brand, but I can't find any info on the XV-16. Age is important since the stylus suspensions tend to harden over time, and of course, stylii wear out with use. Probably you should replace the cartridge. Do you have both MM and MC capability? I would avoid very high compliance cartridges since the older Dual might have relatively high-mass tonearm that won't be a good match. Moderately price models today come from the likes of Goldring and Grado, but I can't give specific recommendations.

A good Internet source for analog equipment is the Needle Doctor ... http://www.needledoctor.com/

Feanor

Sorry if I am being dense here but what do you mean when you ask if it is MM or MC?

[Feanor]

Feanor

Sorry if I am being dense here but what do you mean when you ask if it is MM or MC?

These are alternate cartridge technologies:

MM = moving magnet
MC = moving coil

I can't explain the technical differences but they require different phono preamps, or a least the MC need an additional "step-up transformer" to boost MC's very low output voltages to the higher levels that MM phono preamps can handle.

By the way, here's some more info on the Dual 1019 ...
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/dual/1019.shtml